Remembered By Heart: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing (16 page)

Then, after we were sent to bed, you could hear the old people telling stories. Our beds were on the front verandah, and we listened in as much as we could. I loved being able to fall asleep in the company of adults while they related the day's events. I never heard anyone speak about racism. Ignorance is bliss, especially when you are a child. As my eyes started to close I would look at and listen to the world beyond the verandah. You could hear the frogs in the galvanised pipe bars that made the front fence, and see the stars lining the interior of the night sky … the saucepan … the three sisters. The stars always made me think about how Dad and Uncle Pat would say that these signposts in the sky were their compasses when they were out doing jobs for their dad, my grandfather. All this created a sense of home. I was enchanted with the knowledge that I was walking on the same land as my grandmother's mother and her mother. Walking the land allowed me to connect spiritually to my ancestors. As young as I was, I knew even then that this was the ultimate in personal freedom.

I am descended from Aboriginal, English, Polish and Scottish. My father always used to say, ‘You are what you are and nothing else!' and I thought this was an interesting and perceptive statement from a black man who felt that he was surrounded by inequality. I did not have a chance to meet all my great grandparents but I knew they existed as a part of me.

People always ask me why I identify as an Aboriginal person with this mixed up ancestry. It is important to note that in Australia you are either recognised as an Aboriginal person or you are not. I am descended from the best people in this country: smart, resilient and survivors. Why would I not want to recognise my own family? Also, I live in Australia, not Scotland or Poland or England, and as such I feel the heartbeat of my Old People. I feel the resonance of their lives and their times and this is what guides me, and in them I trust.

I am proud of who I am. I am proud of where I've come from. I am proud of what I've done and I'm proud of where I'm going. I am a Bundjalung woman who sees each new day as the beginning of the rest of my life. You can't change the past, but you can live a different future.

Abridged from
Speaking from the Heart
edited by Sally Morgan, Tjalaminu Mia and Blaze Kwaymullina, 2007.

BRONWYN BANCROFT
was born in 1958 and belongs to the Bundjalung people of Northern New South Wales. She is a well-known painter and is also interested in the environment and teaching other people the joy of creating art.

ALICE BILARI SMITH
was born at Rocklea Station in the Pilbara in 1928. Her mother was a Banyjima woman and her father was a white teamster. She was raised by her Aboriginal family and, although she did not know it at the time, narrowly escaped being removed to Moore River. After marriage to Bulluru Jack Smith, Alice lived in the bush and raised a large family before settling in Roebourne so that her children could attend school.

HAZEL BROWN
is the senior elder of a large, extended Noongar family. She has worked as a rural labourer, was a member of Western Australia's first Metropolitan Commission of Elders, and is a registered Native Title claimant over part of the south coast of Western Australia.

JUKUNA MONA CHUGUNA
was a young woman when she walked out of the desert with her husband. They worked on cattle stations for a number of years, then moved to the mission at Fitzroy Crossing in the early 1970s. Jukuna was among the first women to attend Walmajarri literacy classes and worked on Walmajarri projects with linguists. She has travelled widely in Australia and overseas to exhibit her paintings.

ERIC HEDLEY HAYWARD
is a Noongar Elder from south-west Western Australia. He hails from a family of leaders in sport. Eric has continued his family's contribution by promoting Aboriginal community sport, particularly football and golf, for which he has coordinated state and local events. He is currently completing a Doctor of Philosophy at Curtin University.

STEPHEN KINNANE
is a descendant through his mother's mother of the Miriwoong people of the East Kimberley and was raised in Noongar country in the south-west of Western Australia. He is the author of
Shadow Lines
(2003); collaborated with Lauren Marsh and Alice Nannup on the book
When the Pelican Laughed
(1992) and co-wrote and co-produced a documentary,
The Coolbaroo Club
(1996).

TJALAMINU MIA
is a Nyungar woman with bloodline links to the Minang and Goreng peoples of the south-west of
Western Australia. She works as a research fellow in oral history and the arts in the School of Indigenous Studies at The University of Western Australia.

SALLY MORGAN
was born in Perth in 1951. She has published books for both adults and children, including her acclaimed autobiography,
My Place.
She has a national reputation as an artist and has works in many private and public collections.

ALICE NANNUP
was born on a Pilbara station in 1911 to an Aboriginal mother and white father. She was taken from her community at the age of twelve and sent south to work as a domestic servant. After her marriage in 1932, Alice raised ten children. Known as ‘Nan', she lived in Geraldton surrounded by her friends and extensive family until she passed away in November 1995.

MAY L O'BRIEN
BEM
was born in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, and at the age of five was taken to Mount Margaret Mission where she spent the next twelve years. May is a long-standing statesperson within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. She has lived and worked within Aboriginal education systems for more than four decades and, although officially retired, continues to be an active advocate for improving the educational outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

RENE POWELL
was born in 1948 in the Warburton Ranges, in the Central Desert of Western Australia. Her people are the Ngaanyatjarra. Removed from her family at the age of four, she grew up at Mount Margaret Mission and then Kurrawang Mission where she was trained for domestic work. Most of her adult life was spent in Perth until, after the death of her husband, she went back to Warburton to live and start a garden.

KIM SCOTT
is a descendant of people living along the south coast of Western Australia prior to colonisation, and is proud to be one among those who call themselves Noongar. Kim's most recent novel,
That Deadman Dance,
won the Miles Franklin Award, along with a number of other literary awards and prizes. He is currently Professor of Writing at Curtin University in Western Australia.

DAVID SIMMONS
was born in Perth to parents from the Nyoongar language group of far-south Western Australia but has lived and worked in Roebourne for most of his adult life.

JOAN WINCH
was born in 1935 and belongs to the Nyungar and Martujarra people of Western Australia. She is a well-known fighter for Aboriginal rights and was awarded the World Health Organization's Sasakawa Award in 1987 for her work on Indigenous primary health care.

LOLA YOUNG
was born on Rocklea Station in the Pilbara in 1942 to Aboriginal parents. At an early age she went with her grandparents to learn Aboriginal bush medicine and culture. Her working life started at the age of about ten and when she turned fourteen she was given away in marriage. Lola established the Wakuthuni Community in 1990 to bring her people back home to their country. She taught Aboriginal culture, bush medicine and bush tucker to both black and white people until her death in 2010.