Review: Wandihnu and the Old Dugong

2007 Magabala Books $18.95

According to the Black Words: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers research community, there are around 170 published Torres Strait Islander writers. That’s quite a few I hear you say. But how many have you read? I myself have Terri Janke, Marcus Pedro, Selena Solomon, Ellie Gaffney and others on my shelves. But clearly I have many more to buy!

Right now, I’m embarrassed to admit this it has taken me this long to read and review this wonderful title by Elizabeth Wymarra and her daughter Wandihnu. Elizabeth was born on Thursday Island and is a talented (and VERY funny) performance artist, comedian and playwright. Her skills were passed on to her daughter who managed to write her first play the age of seven years old.

Wandihnu and the Old Dugong  which they penned together was part of a ‘bonding exercise’ and resulted in a culturally rich story and beautiful looking book illustrated by Benjamin Hodges.

Wandihnu and the Old Dugong is a valuable resources as it’s a positive story about Aboriginal and Torres Strait identity in the 21^st century. We follow young city-born Wandihnu on a journey back to her roots on the island of Badu in the western part of the Torres Strait. Wandihnu learns language – or so she should – and there in lies the lesson of this tale.

Similar to other titles from Magabala Books like Nana’s Land, this book is a morality story about respecting your elders and listening to what they say.

This is not only an upbeat book to read at bedtime, it would also be of great value in the classroom encouraging kids of all ages to research their own background and heritage.

Review: FAIR SKIN BLACK FELLA

FAIR SKIN BLACK FELLA

Renee Fogarty

Magabala Books 2010 $16.95

It was the title of Renee Fogarty’s Fair Skin Black Fella that first caught my attention, as I was preparing to put together some resources on teaching Aboriginal identity without stereotyping for educators in Canberra. I know only too well from working with Aboriginal kids of all colours, shapes and sizes around the country, as well as being born into a bicultural family myself, that skin colour does not define one’s identity.

Fogarty’s colourful children’s book speaks of her own life experiences as a ‘fair skinned’ Koori in Sydney, although she is from the Wiradjuri people of the Lachlan River in New South Wales, and her young character Mary lives on a dusty red cattle station. I assume this cattle station is in NSW also, as there is a peppering of Wiradjuri language words throughout, but while the images are intriguing they don’t necessarily reflect a contemporary lifestyle – even on the land.

Regardless of location, the experience of racism – white on black, black on black, and black on white – is sadly, universal. In this story young Mary is suffering from simply looking different to the other Aboriginal kids. And I have no doubt many will relate to this very short tale. Thankfully though, there is a positive, helpful ending, because just as kids can learn the nasty aspects of life from adults - kids aren't born racist they learn racism from adults - so too, can they learn from the wisdom of their elders, and that when they are taught that identity comes from family, community, country, culture and spirituality, then pigment becomes irrelevant.

What began as a project while in Year 12 has turned into an important resource for the home and classroom as it uncovers the racism that is painful and common amongst children, and even amongst our own at times. Terms like ‘half-caste’ from the past – designed by Governments to water down and disconnect Aboriginal people from their identities, communities and culture – have in some cases been picked up by blackfellas also.

The general concept and message of Fair Skin Black Fella however remains, and that is Aboriginal identity is not about the colour of your skin. As Old Ned says: ‘We all brothers and sisters in this life, now matter what colour we are.’

Still Walking… by Jeff McMullen

45 years after the Wave Hill Walkoff  the story of 

Vincent Lingiari proves again that 

From Little Things Big Things Grow…

  

Sometimes it seems that only artists know how to help people paint their dreams.  As the song by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody goes, “gather round people, I’ll tell you a story.” This is a story of Vinent Lingiari and the fight by his people for Land Rights. It is also the story of how a remarkable band of artists, activists, writers, publishers, musicians and dreamers, worked with an Aboriginal community to create a book and an Art and Culture Centre to honour one of the finest Australians and one of the most courageous struggles in our history.

On the 23^rd August 1966, at Wave Hill Station, about 800 kilometres southwest of Darwin, in the Northern Territory, the Gurindji/Malgnin leader, Vincent Lingiari, a stoic and most dignified man and surely one of Australia’s greatest true leaders, led about 200 stockmen and 400 of their family members in the strike against British Lord Vestey’s family which had run cattle on this Aboriginal land since 1914.

Recently hundreds of Australians travelled from far and wide to gather at Kalkarindji to honour the 45^th anniversary of the Wave Hill Walkoff, a milestone along the long road to freedom and equality. They joined the Aboriginal survivors of that original protest march and wandered cheerfully along part of the 20 kilometre route to the banks of the Victoria River and then later on to Wattie Creek near today’s settlement of Daguragu, population about 400.

Among the visitors was Peter Hudson, the renowned Queensland artist who has been painting the people and the place for many years. Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody were there to play for the Gurindji. Under the stars one night, surrounded by the children on stage, they sang like angels their great battle hymn, From Little Things, Big Things Grow.Now it’s not only one of our country’s most stirring anthems, it is a powerful children’s history book and a boost to the fierce expression of Cultural pride which distinguishes the Gurindji.

A merry band of people have supported the Gurindji struggle to keep their language and Culture strong in the face of unsympathetic Government policies that again are trying to push people away from their homelands.  Some years ago a simple plan was drawn in the dust.Tell the story with heart and build the dream.

The lyrics of the song became the text of the book. The Gurindji children, supervised by teachers Yvonne Werner and Leah Leaman, illustrated the story. Peter Hudson painted the famous portraits and the stunning landscape of this red dirt country with its rounded hillsand brilliant green gullies still breathing the stories of the Ancestors.. The  Gurindji elders added their language version of the story in the back of the book and author, Martin Flanagan wrote a moving preface about what he called “an Australian anthem of hope.”

Lots of other s joined in.  Frank Hardy, the legendary Australian author had been with the Gurindji from the start of their struggle and now his daughter, Shirley Hardy-Rix and son, Alan and their families were determined to see the story captured as an art project and a children’s history book. Tom Uren, the first person to raise his voice in Parliament after the Walkoff began, became patron of the project. Brian Manning, the union man who helped feed the strikers, contributed  the historic photograph of Vincent Lingiari as well as years of support for the struggle for Gurindji rights. The Publishers, One Day Hill and Affirm Press combined in a rare collaboration to bring the story to tens of thousands more Australians.

Bernadette Waters of One Day Hill made this book a true labour of love. She travelled around the country arranging performances by the musicians to push the story deeper into our national consciousness. Schools, public libraries and literary festivals celebrated the little book as one of the most outstanding children’s histories in a very long time. It also grew into a longer term project to add other iconic Australian songs that carry the stories of the heartland. Shane Howard’s Uluru song, Solid Rock, Sacred Ground, Neil Murray’s My Island Home and Archie Roach’s They Took the Children, have all been published by Bernadette Waters. The musicians often travel together in a wonderful spirit to share their stories.

The Calvert Jones Foundation and the Music Outback Foundation also contributed to the original  book and the linguists and translators at the Katherine Regional Aboriginal Language Centre helped a group of dedicated people complete a Gurindji version of the song.

At Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for Youth we decided to put up the funds to publish this series of great Australian stories in song because we knew stories would be a tremendous support for all children, an essential slice of history told in authentic fashion. It is a powerful expression of Culture and literacy. In every case the books demonstrate that people can take action, work together in the struggle for justice and live the respect for one another we have in our hearts.

As Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody played together on stage at Kalkarindji with a big crowd up on their feet, singing and dancing, I smiled at the thought of how these gifted and generous troubadours had made this happen. From Little Things, Big Things Grow has sold brilliantly and our group issteering all of the profits into ongoing support of the Gurindji children and their community.

At the school at Kalkarindji there’s a growing enthusiasm to read, write and paint their stories.  Authors Jared Thomas, Anita Heiss and others, were among a passionate group of Aboriginal writers to work with the children on their own stories of what Gunrindji Freedom Day means to them. The effort may produce some other stories in print. The  school came up with a new freedom song and Dan Sultan performed the piece on stage during the 45^th anniversary celebrations.

From Little Things, Big Things Grow, quite remarkably, has also helped fund the creation of Kalkarindji’s first Art and Culture Centre.

Using an old abandoned power station, the Gurindji and their supporters have built a place to gather and share all of their stories, to paint and craft their work and to connect with visitors who roll down the narrow, single-lane highway.

Crucial in this work was the contribution of another Queensland artistic talent, Penny Smith. For the past five months Penny has worked as a volunteer to steer the art centre towards an official opening.  It wasn’t only the painting and improvements she handled, but the long distance paperwork to register a brand new Aboriginal corporation and get things running in such an isolated place.  The local artists, especially the older women, simply loved her eternal good cheer and this is how you get things done. She has lived rough at Kalkarindji. Most of the people are often hungry, frequently ill and putting up with overcrowded houses. The longer you walk with the Gurindji, the more you deeply appreciate their struggle.

 Pic by Jeff McMullen

 

Many years have flown since Jimmy Wavehill and Gus George were part of the Wave Hill Walkoff but every time we wander the ruins of the old Vestey’s cattle station, past, present and future are hard to separate.

Jimmy, now 74, was a strong young stockman then and Gus was the boy he carried on his back as the mob walked off the station and camped first on the banks of the Victoria River near what is now Kalkarindji. Later they settled near the serene Wattie Creek, creating the community of Daguragu.

There is silence, a hushed reverence for those who walked before us, as we stand under a midday sun, amid the ghostly timbers and tin shed ruins of the old station.

At Jimmy’s feet lies a rusted drum. He stares at it and his eyes fill with tears as he describes how his wife, Bidy Wavehill Nangala, when just a slender young girl, worked as a domestic servant inside that homestead. She bowed and scraped at the table spread with white linen and later was made to carry buckets of the white man’s shit on a yoke across her shoulders, stumbling across the red dirt for over half a mile.  Jimmy loved that young woman and felt her shame.

“They treated us like slaves,” Jimmy says. “That’s why we had a meetin’ and told Tom Vestey you mob bin using us like a slave. We had enuff.”

A Vestey’s station man carried a .303 rifle and barked that if they didn’t do what they were told he would shoot them. It was brutal for the Aboriginal people. From around 1882 when the Gurindji land was taken by the pastoralists until well into the 1920’s, Aboriginal people here claim that there were reprisal killings led first by Mounted Constable W.H. Wilshire, as well as unrecorded slaughter of people in camps.

At nearby Blackfeller Creek we walk among two circular areas of strangely scattered stones. Jimmy glares with his hands on his hips and Gus George at this point is trembling. “A lot of people killed here,” Gus whispers. “Old people, women and babies.”

Author of Blood on the Wattle, Bruce Elder, has investigated hundreds of such oral history accounts of the brutality on the frontier and tells me that he still stands by his conclusion that  virtually “every hectare of land in Australia has seen some kind of atrocity.”

Now along the road from Kalkarindji, a few hundred Aboriginal people and their supporters are marching with banners that say, OUR LAND IS OUR LIFE, LAND RIGHTS – NOT LEASES, STOP THE INTERVENTION and GURINDJI DEMAND COMMUNITY CONTROL. 45 years have passed but what has really changed?

After almost 9 year s of campaigning in the Sixties for equal pay and land rights, part of their land, 3236 square kilometres of Wave Hill Station was excised and with great ceremony handed to the Gurindji with a lease.  Yet today the Government has its hands on their throats and their community land. The NT Intervention imposed a mandatory 5 year lease. Unless they fight most of these remote communities will be subjected to a 40 year Government lease.

Maurie Japarta Ryan, one of Vincent Lingiari’s grandsons and leader of the FIRST NATION’S POLITICAL PARTY, says the communities have very little say on anything. Control is with Government and the Shire Council. The community of Daguragu is struggling as government money is directed to the 20 so-called growth towns. People on the homelands are on a slow drip, as government hopes that they will give up and move to the hubs for the promise of better schools, health care and shelter.  Such promises are likely to go the way of the rest.

Whatever happened to Gough Whitlam’s famous promise as he poured the red dirt into Vincent Lingiari’s hands on 16^th August 1975?

“I put into your hands part of the earth itself as a sign that this land will be the possession of you and your children forever.”

Forever ?  How can this be when the very ground where the Prime Minister stood in Daguragu all those years ago is now, along with 71 other ‘prescribed communities’, under the boot-heel of the Intervention?  Aboriginal people have again lost real control of their community lands.  The blue Intervention signs mark another milestone in oppression.

 “The wheel has turned full circle,” says Brian Manning. The old union man and his mates, Jack Phillips and Kerry Gibbs, have made the 10 hour journey from Darwin, just as they once did in a 1960’s J-Series Bedford truck to carry food supplies to the Gurindji.  They helped the Aboriginal people outlast Vestey’s attempts to bribe the stockmen back to work with “something better than fifty quid a month and a humpy so rough you had to crawl into it on your knees.” Manning is old, leaning on a cane, but he is here like Gaby Hollows and Frank Hardy’s son, Allen, and many Aboriginal people from around the country, to give support to the on-going struggle for Land Rights. “The Gurindji are no longer at the mercy of Lord Vestey but at the government and its withdrawal of funding for the homelands in favour of hub towns. But remember this,” says Manning. “The Wave Hill Walkoff succeeded because many people and their leaders stuck together.”

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, the much respected elder from Utopia who has travelled the land and to the United Nations to oppose the Intervention, comes to Kalkarindji to honour a man of extraordinary courage and vision.  “Once more,” she says, they are “trying to yard us and put us in a paddock. We are fighting for our right to housing, health and education… We don’t have to be whitewashed to solve these problems.”

The Cape York leader, David Leader, Traditional Owner of the Kuuku I’yu Northern Kaanju people, says the government everywhere is still trying to turn Aboriginal people into white people. There is “no real recognition that this land belongs to someone else” and that being on the homelands is the only way many will escape the disadvantage and dependency inflicted on them in the central townships. He points to his remote homelands as a way forward to self-sufficiency.

“We have survived, “ says Gurindji spokesman, John Leemans, “ because we have Law, language and governance.” He stands in the old hall at Daguragu pleading with eminent visitors such as Fred Chaney and Ian Viner, former Ministers in Malcolm Fraser’s Government, to intercede in Canberra.  “We can see what mankind is doing to the earth…to our land. We have a great contribution to make here because of our knowledge. So we ask you to recognise our human rights and our Cultural rights.”

There is an opportunity at Kalkarindji for Australian Governments to open a new and improved relationship with Aboriginal people. This is more important than any words on policy because right through the 19^th, 20^th and start of the 21^st Century, most Australian Government policies have been relentlessly pursuing the assimilation of Aboriginal people and bringing them under Government control.  Flashes of hope for respect, reconciliation and Land Rights have been betrayed so often by Government treachery and sheer incompetence.

Government has failed Aboriginal people.

Does the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jennie Macklin take advantage of Freedom Day at Kalkarindji?  No! She arrives the day before the 45^th anniversary commemoration, quietly meets members of the Central Land Council and Northern land Council on the outskirts of the community and then leaves without most ever realising that she has been there.

The NT Chief Minister, Paul Henderson and some other MP’s, walk with the cheerful crowd to the commemoration. Unflinching, he listens to speaker after speaker flailing the ‘growth towns’ policy and abandonment of the homelands when federal money is due to end next year.  Attempting to win sympathy he explains how only the night before he had told his teenage sons about the greatness of Vincent Lingiari. But does he avail himself of this historic chance to offer the Gurindji some new words of hope?

“ We do not have the tax base to fix all of these places,” the Chief Minister says. “We will work with you through these issues….I have said to the federal government no more Intervention. I will not support any program with that word in it.”

The truth is that changing a few words is not changing a deeply discriminatory and damaging policy. The leases forced on communities, the use of the Basics Card to impose ration-style spending of meagre welfare handouts, the shameful stigmatization and social engineering, the lack of genuine protection against racial discrimination and the imposition of control over almost every aspect of remote community life - this is the Australian Government’s 21^st Century agenda for Aboriginal people in these homelands.

At present there is a dangerous and quite deluded consensus between Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Government and Tony Abbott’s Opposition that the homelands are “unviable” and part of the “failed state” portrayed by a long line of assimilationists. Ignoring the solid evidence that supporting Aboriginal people on their lands brings improved wellbeing, the ‘white blind-fold’ neo-cons wage endless war on Aboriginal Culture and the right to language in the community and the classroom. Central control always prevails over de-centralization and local community control.

If Vincent Lingiari could walk with us today he would answer that Aboriginal Culture is  stronger than all such attempts to move the Gurindji and others off the land that nourishes their body and spirit. If we recognize and respect this, we can work together on a better relationship.

Under that big desert sky, Kev Carmody, Paul Kelly and Dan Sultan are being mobbed by the kids. You know the words they are singing.  Someday we will all know the words of FROM LITTLE THINGS, BIG THINGS GROW. Someday our nation will have a national holiday for Vincent Lingiari.

Next morning outside the old power station, Jimmy Wavehill stands with the artist, Peter Hudson, Freedom Day organisers, Brenda Croft and Hettie Perkins, and with Penny Smith glowing with pride, they open the refurbished Art & Culture Centre. For many months, Brenda Croft and Hettie Perkins have laboured long and hard to make this huge gathering of Aboriginal people focus in a positive way on a respectful way ahead. Gus George and Maurie Japeta Ryan are beaming as they watch their work come together and see the visitors sitting to listen to Aboriginal people explain the past, the present and the future. The old women painters are happy and among them is Bidy Wavehill, a  grandmother with a granddaughter who carries her name and her love of Gunrindji country.

 

Around our campfire on our last night together, Shane Howard is yarning with Steve Pigram, Shellie Morris  and other members of the Black Arm Band. There is a warmth and human bond in Kalkarindji that comes with being part of a community. When the sun rises Paul Kelly will have to leave Kalkarindji to fly to London. Peter Hudson and I will start the 10 hour drive towards Darwin. Penny Smith will keep on working with the Gurindji. Everyone who gives their all on Gurindji Freedom Day will long remember what it means to be together on this long road to equality.

Jeff McMullen, journalist and author, is the honorary CEO of Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for Youth which has spent ten years working to improve Aboriginal health and education. He joined hundreds of Australians from far and wide on Gurindji Freedom Day, August 26^th 2011.

45th Anniversary of the Gurindji Wave Hill Walk-Off

Pic by Bryan Andy

Last week I flew from Sydney to Darwin and then drove 800km in a convoy via Katherine to Kalkarindji and Dagaragu, the home of the Gurindji nation (and supported by the associated  nations of the Malgnin, Mudpurra, Bilinara, Nyarinman and Warlpiri peoples). It was there that I felt the strength and dignity of those who walked off Wave Hill Station (then ‘officially’ owned by British Lord Vestey) some 45 years previously. The protest was a demand for rights to their traditional country, and to be treated equally with other Australians employed on the land.

Like most others, I went to Wave Hill to pay respect and to show gratitude to those who paved the way for the land rights movement nationally, and to acknowledge the great strength those involved demonstrated in the face of absolute racism and adversity.

On Friday, August 26 to mark what is now known as ‘Freedom Day’[1] I marched also, along with local community members, friends and writerly peers, and those who had travelled the country over to be part of the celebration.

Pic by Bryan Andy

We were there also to pay homage to the memory of Gurindji/Malgnin leader Vincent Lingiari  and to remember the significant and symbolic gesture of the then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pouring red earth through the local leader’s hands back in 1975. It was a moment that marked the return of the ancestral lands to the Gurindji mob and yet, it was a moment declared null and void with the introduction of the 2007 NT intervention which shifted the power of Aboriginal lives and land away from individuals and communities, back to the Commonwealth Government.

So the celebration was also tainted with the reality of life for the local Gurindji mob today, and their new fight for old rights and to somehow maintain the freedoms they fought for in the ‘60s. But we remembered the past with a sense of hope for the future as we sat in the Territorian heat with red dust on our skin, listening with passion to the stories of elders who were part of the Walk Off back in 1966.

 Photo by Jared Thomas

With the event coordinated by Gurindji/Malgnin/Mudpurra woman Brenda L Croft (also an artist, curator and academic) and MC’d by Vincent Lingiari’s grandson Maurie Japarta Ryan (who I actually went to uni with back in the early 1990s and both pictured above), we heard from staunch non-Indigenous unionists who played a key role in activating union members nationally to fund raise to support the Wave Hill mob. Aboriginal rights campaigner and one of the first to step-up to assist the Gurindji cause, Brian Manning spoke with passion about his role supporting Vincent Lingiari, and stated in his address  that ‘The Walk-off succeeded in 1966 because of the unity of the people to stay solidly together in the face of all sorts of inducements .  To decide on a course of action and remain united to achieve what you decided. That is the job ahead. You can do it!’

Another speaker, Jack Phillips of the Waterside Workers Union who was involved in the Aboriginal rights campaign 1966 ­– urged the politicians on the day – including the NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson – to go back to their parties and "make them pull their socks up".

Photo of Rosalie Kunoth-Monks by Jared Thomas

The highlight for me was not only hearing the role the unions played in supporting the protest, but also hearing from local Elders including Speedy McGuinness, Tim Vincent, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks (pictured above) and Michael George. I have to admit that there was much said in local language that I didn’t understand, but emotion wasn’t lost in delivery, especially when humour encouraged laughter from locals in the audience.

A message delivered by the Central Land Council via Ngarla Kunoth-Monks demanded a formal government apology for the "shame, hurt and trauma" the intervention caused Indigenous Territorians, stating:

'Throw the word ‘Intervention’ away.  We demand an apology from out governments for the terrible 

recent policies that encourage assimilation and ‘normalisation’ – this amounts to cultural genocide.'

Following formalities, we were treated with dancing by the local women before the crowds made their way down to Wattie Creek for a community BBQ. My head was spinning, my heart a mix of confusion – celebrating the past, concerned for the present and half-hopeful for the future – and so I headed back to the campsite to reflect on a most extraordinarily emotional morning.

There I sat below gum trees at a picnic table surrounded by three huge campervans; the tent for the urban camper like me. To my left sat my playwright friend Cathy Craigie yarning with Steve McCann and David Claudie who had travelled from Cairns. To my right in the distance I saw Dan Sultan with his entourage resting under a canopy. Nearby was Josie Crawshaw working on the Vincent Lingiari address which she would deliver with passion the next day.

I sat there wanting to write but it was near impossible, even for someone who can knock up a draft 90,000 word novel in eight weeks. You see, I am a Wiradjuri woman. I come from central NSW and have lived most of my life on the land of the Dharawal in Sydney. I am the beneficiary of the sacrifices of the old people I went to Wave Hill to honour. We in the state of NSW enjoy the land rights that were born out of the protests made by the Gurindji people, lead by Vincent Lingiari.

With this in mind, I kept asking myself: how many of my extended family, my friends, my fellow Australians (black and white) know the true story of the Wave Hill Walk Off? And more importantly, how many understand these very same people, this very same community, have also been stripped of their self-determination, their sovereignty, their human rights, because of the racist NT Intervention.

I couldn’t write then, because in many ways I couldn’t breathe. My heart was filled with pride and yet heavy with sadness simultaneously. Does that make sense?

Photo by Jared Thomas

I put my spiral-bound notebook away and just yarned with those around me. That night I watched Kev Carmody, Paul Kelly (pictured above with local kids on stage and Dan Sultan sing the theme song of the Lingiari / Gurindji protest: From Little Things Big Things Grow. It was a moment that still makes me weak when thinking about it. It is a song that I believe should be our national anthem. It is a song that I have used to teach my nephews about land rights, about how the mob in the NT have lead the way for all of us. I’m not sure if they understand just yet (they are 11 and 13 years old). But for the 50^th anniversary I hope to take them back there with me.

The next day, Saturday, 27 August, I visited the Wave Hill monument and as I strolled up to the space I met a woman named Marie Djaban who said she was there the day it was unveiled. She came back with us to the hall where staunch advocate for Aboriginal rights Jeff McMullen set the scene for us to hear Sue Stanton and Josie Crawshaw, both with familial connections to Gurindji country, give their heartfelt addresses as the inaugural Gurindji Walk Off from Wave Hill Memorial Lecture. Sue reminded the audience that the Gurindji walked away from harsh and cruel conditions and to protect the women in their tribe. 

 Pic by Ivelle Lay

Photo supplied by Florivelle Lay

In a heart-wrenching speech, Josie not only honoured Vincent Lingiari and her mother, but also her beautiful uncle who died an undignified death in 2006. His story served to demonstrate the ongoing mistreatment of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.

Josie also talked about what she called the ‘Least and Most Peoples’, highlighting that Aboriginal people have the Least (housing, education, health) and the Most (deaths in custody, unemployment) and that communities in the NT had been reduced to working for rations again with the introduction of the Basic Card. 

I was inspired by an oration by Monica Morgan, Yorta Yorta woman working for Amnesty International, who like all of us, stood in solidarity with the Gurindji and reminded the audience that ‘Their fight is my fight. Their fight is our fight.’

On a lighter, more celebratory note we all gathered at the new art centre in Kalkarindji for its opening, inaugural exhibition and an art award presentation (see pic below). It was a stark reminder to me at least, that while government policy can remove the rights to land and economies, they can NEVER stop our people documenting our histories and our stories through art. I was thrilled to see so many paintings being snapped up and am sure that the cultural economy (while no other) is allowed to grow there.

 Pic by Karyn Cameron

That night, under a blanket of stars, we visitors to Gurindji country – sat with locals and enjoyed the MCing-style of Mary G who flirted shamelessly with performers and audience members. To see out the day we listened to the sounds of Joey Geia, the Black Arm Band, Shane Howard, Warren H Williams and Dale Huddleston and the Riverbank Band.

On our third and final day there, guests were witness to the passion of the next wave of activists as a group of young Aboriginal people took to the stage to discuss their concerns about constitutional reform and future inclusion of us in the foundation documents of the nation.

Before we hit the highway back to Darwin, my writerly friends took to the stage to discuss why we write and how we use our words for social change. Chaired by Cathy Craigie, we were challenged and informed by poetry penned by Ali Cobber Eckermann (pictured with me above), Lionel Fogarty and Sue Stanton, a letter by Bruce Pascoe to his two-year old grandson, and readings from our new kids novels by Jared Thomas and myself.

Then with new inspiration, an inflamed fire in our bellies and a greater sense of our fight for social justice in our minds we left Dagaragu and Kalkarindji behind with the aim of doing what we could back in our own countries, and those where we call home.

 

The Girly Gang at the Glamping-site! Pic supplied by Florivelle Lay

For my experience in Gurindji country I am grateful for the following: 

* The strength and integrity of the Gurindji and for the inspiration they have given me to continue the fight for rights for our people.

* The passion of Brenda L Croft who worked tirelessly to organise the event that came complete with lessons in history but also included local and national arts and culture.

* The coordination and enthusiasm of Jared Thomas in bringing writers together for public and private conversations about our work.

* The welcome we all received into the community and the hospitality of the locals.

* To have been able to see the extraordinary landscape during the drive to and from Kalkarindji.

* Importantly, I am grateful for the invitation to attend and the Freedom Day celebrations and thank the Fred Hollows Foundation  for making my attendance possible.

---

[1] The actual anniversary is 23 August, but the 2011 Walk Off was held on the nearest Friday, being 26 August.

Noongar Radio Perth auctions books for Indigenous Literacy Day

NOONGAR RADIO 100.9FM 

is proud to support

Indigenous Literacy Day 2011

with a silent auction of fabulous Australian books – many autographed!

For your chance to be part of the process of helping improve literacy in remote Indigenous communities, tune into ‘ Drive’ with Karla Hart and guest Anita Heiss on Tuesday September 6 from 3pm and BID, BID, BID generously!!!

To make your bid: SMS title of book pack and bid to:  0487759393 or phone 08 92282688

BID  FOR YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR COMMUNITY, OR YOUR SCHOOL LIBRARY!! SHARE THE LOVE OF BOOKS!

ANITA HEISS KIDS PACK: Anita will dedicate personally to highest bidder 
Who Am I? the diary of Mary Talence, Sydney 1937
Yirra and her deadly dog, Demon (written with the students from La Perouse Public School)
Demon Guards the School Yard (written with the students from La Perouse Public School)


ANITA HEISS ADULT PACK: Anita will dedicate personally to highest bidder
Sacred Cows
I’m not racist, but…
Not Meeting Mr Right
Avoiding Mr Right
Manhattan Dreaming
Paris Dreaming

FREMANTLE PRESS PACK– signed copies (kids pack)
My Country by Sally Morgan and Ezekiel Kwaymullina
Crow and the Waterhole, by Ambelin Kwaymullina
Caterpillar and Butterfly by Ambelin Kwaymullina

MIXED BOOK PACK ADULTS 
Business of Nature – Rosyln Russell (National Library of Australia)
My Place – Sally Morgan – Fremantle Press
Carpentaria – Alexis Wright – Giramondo
Ten Hail Marys, Kate Howarth (UQP)
Nyungah Land  Records of Invasion and Theft of Aboriginal Land on the Swan River 1829-1850, By Bevan Carter
Beneath the Shadows – Sara Foster
Brother Boys – Sean Gorman
AFL Legends – Sean Gorman
Just like that -Charmaine Papertalk-Green

MIXED BOOK PACK KIDS
Naked Boy & Crocodiles - Indigenous Literacy Foundation

Outback Adventure – Frané Lessac
Magic Boomerang - Frané Lessac
Our Big Island – Frané Lessac
Shaun Tan – The Arrival (Lothian)

HARPER COLLINS book pack
Servo by Jim Sonter
Yates Garden Guide
Diary of a Wimpy Vampire by Tim Collins
Act of Faith by Kelly Gardiner

PENGUIN book pack for kids 
My Buggy Book of Animals by Pamela Allen
Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Farm 123 by Rod Campbell
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Nana’s Colours by Pamela Allen
Our Daft Dog Danny by Pamela Allen
Little Rascal to the Rescue by Paul Jennings

PENGUIN book pack for older kids 
Young Samurai – The Ring of Water by Chris Bradford
The Red Pyramid – Rick Riordan
Behemoth – Scott Westerfeld

NATIONAL LIBRARY – Little Treasures book pack:
Little Treasures – Australian Birds
Little Treasures – Australian Animals
Little Treasures – Bookplates
Little Treasures – Maps
Little Treasures – Australian Flowers
Little Treasures –  Book of Hours


NATIONAL LIBRARY – Little Books book pack:
Little Book of Trees
Little Book of Dogs
Little Book of Cats
Little Book of Horses


NATIONAL LIBRARY – non-fiction book pack
Funny English by Troy Simpson
For the Love of Nature by Christobel Mattingley
Cook’s Endeavour Journal – The Inside Story
Upside Down World by Penny Olsen
In Bligh’s Hand – by Jennifer Gall
Exiled the Port Arthur Convicts by Edwin Barnard
Frank Hurley’s Antarctica by Helen Ennis
First Fleet Artist by Linda Groom
A Brush with Birds by Penny Olsen
Women of Flowers by Leonie Norton
The Flower Hunter, Ellis Rowan by Patricia Fullerton
Australia’s Wild Weather by Roger McDonald


MAGABALA BOOKS book pack:
The Snake and the Boy- Azmen Sebastian
Ubby’s Underdogs, Brenton E McKenna.
Raparapa- Stories from the Fitzroy River Drovers. Paul Marshall (ed.)

What I’m grateful for in Noumea...

I’ve just had a whirlwind visit to Kanak Country, otherwise known as New Caledonia. It was part work, part pleasure, mostly paradise and definitely good for my body and soul. From the moment their winter sun (warm enough for us Sydney-siders to swim) hit my face, the stress that had been causing my neck and shoulder pain and headaches for a week seemed to just slip away with the tide.

I have much to be grateful for during my week-long stay, but here is just a handful of the most significant moments and people I cherish:

1) The Association of Writers of New Caledonia: I am indebted to the network of local writers of this tiny island of around 250k residents (100k less than the ACT!). From the extraordinary lunch hosted for me (coincidentally on my birthday), to supporting me during my event at Caledo Livres (here’s a lovely blog  by a local about the night), to the very generous chauffeuring service they provided to and from my hotel. I felt incredibly privileged and ‘special’. 

The highlight of my literary week was – to my utter surprise – being announced as an honorary member of the Association (me with certificate below!). What a thrill and indeed, an honour!

I’m particularly grateful to the following writers who went out of their way to ensure I had a memorable visit: Claudine Jacques,  Catherine Laurent, (both pictured below), Frederich Ohlen, Nicole Perrier, Nicholas Kurtovich,  Christine Marou and deadly Kanak writer and former Vice President of New Caledonia, Dewe Gorode.

Thank you also to Sonia Lacabanne for acting as my translator at my book event, Dominique Buzance for hosting my event and Cathie Manne from Bookin  for making sure the French edition  of Who am I? The diary of Mary Talence was available. And of course, I'm grateful to all those who came along to learn about the Stolen Generations.

2)  Aquarium des Lagons Nouvelle Caledonie: Right below my apartment was the jewel known as the aquarium. Typical of most days, the morning was grey, cloudy and rainy, so I ventured to the oasis with no real expectations and so was overwhelmed by the experienced that offered a wave of peacefulness as I took in the vibrant colours of coral and extraordinary fish / sea creatures.

3) The 'Make a Wish' church: Yes, it’s true, there is a church - Eglise de Voeu  -where you go to ‘make a wish’, and by all accounts said wishes come true. So I visited the church, made my wish, and now... I’m waiting patiently. I’m grateful simply for the sense of faith it restored in me during my brief, hopeful visit! I’ll let you know if my wish comes true!

4) Palm trees: Of course, I took some much needed time out to lie under palm trees in the Baie des citrons, the Baie de I'Anse Vata  and the Ile aux Canards. There’s something to be said for learning to appreciate blue skies from a horizontal position and to read for pleasure without looking at your watch to check where else you’re supposed to be. (highly recommend P.M. Newton’s The Old School). I’m grateful for the few hours each day that I had to just chill.

5) French food and bubbly: What can I say? I now have a baguette-butt after a week of the world’s best bread, cheese and bubbly. I had more three course-meals in one week than I’d had this year. I don’t know how the locals aren’t all fat (I somehow managed to gain 4kg in seven days. I think my body was shocked and now my scales are in shock). The hour-long coastal walks each day, didn’t seem to make a dent in the damage the crepes, gelato, local fish, pastries did. Need I say any more??? If you're looking for me... I'll be in the gym... indefinitely!