52
Growing our Future Successful Aboriginal people talk about their lives in Primary Industry and beyond
Grow
ing
our F
utu
re Successful Aboriginal people talk about their lives in Primary Industry and beyond
2
This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
under Australia’s Farming Future
Contributing author information:
Ange Vincent is a Research Analyst with Ninti One Limited in Alice Springs. She has authored and contributed to several works on Australian bush foods and the bush tomato value chain.
All images have been reproduced with permission
Photographic Credits:
Cover image © Marie C Fields, reproduced under Standard License from Shutterstock Images.
The Image on page 25 of Billy Goat Hill is courtesy of the State Library of South Australia SLSA: PRG 1365/1/439 - Goat yard; 1924.
The images of plants on page 31 are courtesy of Eleanor Dennis.
The images (named) on pages 34–45 are supplied courtesy of the Central Land Council, Alice Springs, Northern Territory.
The images of Canadian Architecture on pages 48 & 49 are supplied courtesy of David Thomas of PPrairie AArchitects Inc. 200-141 Bannatyne Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B OR3, Canada.
All other photographs are by the author unless otherwise credited.
First edition: October 2010
Acknowledgements:
Thank you to all participants in this project, with extra thanks & gratitude to those
individuals who freely shared their life stories.
A very special thankyou to the staff and principals of the various Aboriginal
community schools who were eager to participate in the event, only to be foiled by
torrential rain, bad weather and worse roads. This book is for you.
ISBN: 978 174158 173 7 (print)
ISBN: 978 174158 174 5 (web)
Copyright © Ninti One Limited 2010
Cultural Warning:
We would like to warn Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
viewers that this Big Book & DVD may contain the names,
images and voices of people who have passed away.
3
IIntroduction & DVD of stories.............................................................4 Education is Important ~ Tom Calma.................................................6 Wild Harvesting Bush Foods ~ The ladies from Ampilatwatja .......... 9 Horticulture (Bush Tomatoes) ~ Max & Ruth Emery ..................... 14 Passing on our Knowledge ~ Rayleen Brown................................... 19 Horticulture Apprentice ~ Chansey Paech .......................................25 Bush Medicine & Tours ~ Marilyn Cavanaugh ................................ 30 Pastoral & Mine Employment ~ Harold Howard ............................34 Community Rangers & Pastoral Horsemanship ~ Becky Mack...... 40 Aboriginal Design ~ Alison Page ......................................................46 Teacher Resources ................................................................................51
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This book is full of deadly stories told by proud Aboriginal people: stories of who they are, where they come from and what they have achieved in their lives.
Above painting: Young Women Learning by Mrs Kathleen Wallace 2010
In this book you will find the stories of some successful Aboriginal people who are mostly,
but not all, from central Australia.
Most of the stories are about people who have worked in primary industry. Some are not. They all show that no matter
where or how you begin, where you end up is up to you.
Some people know what they want to do, for others it’s not clear. These stories show that in order to succeed you
need two main things: education and determination.
5
Above painting: Young Women Learning by Mrs Kathleen Wallace 2010
Watch this DVD and listen to a longer version of the stories as told by people
in their own words ...
These stories might inspire you to consider a future working in or with the agriculture,
horticulture, wild harvest or pastoral industries.
6
Hello, my name is Tom Calma. I grew up on my mother’s country south-west of Darwin along the Adelaide River. My father is from the Iwaidja group on Coburg Peninsula in Arnhem Land. We moved to Darwin when I was three. Some of my extended family still live at Adelaide River and I always spend time on our traditional lands when I can.
I have broad experience in Indigenous education programs and developing employment and training programs for Indigenous people from both a
national policy and program perspective. I have worked with remote Aboriginal communities implementing community-based and community-
driven empowerment and participation programs for many years.
Tom Calm
a ~ Education is im
portant
7
I have been involved in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander affairs at a local, community, state, territory, national and international level and have worked in the public sector for 38 years. I really love what I do.
Growing up in Darwin brought me into contact with a lot of diverse influences. I survived my schooling and then travelled to Adelaide to undertake an Associate Diploma in social work and community development.
From 1995-2002, I worked as a senior diplomat in India. I also worked in Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam representing Australia.
Photo: Cecelia Burgman (2009)
Photo: rhef.com.au
Photo: Ninti O
ne
Tom delivering a Statement to the United Nations in 2008 Photo: ANTAR_Sea_of_Hands
Photo: Tom Calma
8
I wish you well at school. Try and turn up; it’s good for you. Education is really important; without an
education you can’t decide your own future.
And remember: don’t smoke; it’s bad for us!
I served as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2004 until 2009, to make
sure that the Government understood that we, as Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people, have rights and that they have to treat us fairly and equally.
I was appointed as the inaugural National Coordinator for Tackling Indigenous Smoking in 2010. I am on many Boards, including the Board of Reconciliation Australia, deputy chair of the CRC for Remote Economic Participation, the Charlie Perkins Trust and the University of Canberra.
Can you see where Nepal, Vietnam and Sri Lanka are on the map below?
9
Juliet Morton, Lulu Teece, Angelina Luck, Biddy Beasley, Edi and Jilly Holmes from Ampilatwatja with Rayleen Brown from Kungkas can Cook (along with others) visiting Max and Ruth Emery’s bush tomato plantation near Rainbow Valley with the DAFF-funded DKCRC Hands Across the Desert Project in 2008.
The Am
pilatwatja Ladies ~
Wild H
arvest
10
Photo: Jane Walker Photo: Jane Walker
We collect bush tomatoes and wattleseed from our country and sell them to restaurants and manufacturers. We show the kids how to do this, hopefully so that they can build a business when they grow up.
We teach the kids about bush foods, our culture and the importance of being on our traditional land – and we show them how our country teaches and sustains us.
Bush Tomatoes by J Holmes
Bush Bananas with flowers by L Teece
11
We also work with Ninti One Limited and the CRC for Remote Economic Participation to help them with their research and to help them to understand about bush foods and wild harvest.
We flew to Western Australia to meet and exchange stories with the Broome Mob who are wild-harvesting Gubinge, or Billy Goat Plum as it’s called in the Top End.
We learned a lot about making businesses for Aboriginal people from the wild-harvest of bush foods, and we pass this knowledge on to our kids.
12
We travelled to Brisbane and Melbourne for the Information=Power project to meet some people who use our bush tomatoes and wattleseed in their restaurants and factories, and we learned all about the bush tomato value chain.
13
We work hard so that our kids and grandkids might make a living from our traditional knowledge and our traditional lands.
So that they grow up to be strong and successful Aboriginal people, proud of who they are and where they came from.
Photo: Ninti One
14
Hello, my name is Max Emery. My wife, Ruth, is a Pertame lady. We were married in 1981, and I am stepfather to her seven kids. My father-in-law was a Pertame elder, and sometime after Ruth and I were married he became very ill and transferred his duties to me to maintain the family. I became an honorary warrior through Law.
I am a traditional law holder and Director of an Aboriginal Corporation. I’m very proud of that. My father-in-law was very determined that his young people be taught to read and write so that they might have a better future.
Max &
Ruth Emery ~
Horticulture
15
Hello, I’m Ruth Emery. We joined the Outstation movement and moved back to my traditional lands at Rainbow Valley. We wanted to try to support ourselves from our own land. We managed to get funding to put down a bore for water and the water was very good quality.
It was so good that we decided to try to grow our own food and maybe build a business from growing vegetables.
16
We grew vegetables for several years. The problem was that the cost of transporting
them to town made it difficult to make a profit.
Then the DKCRC asked us to take part in a trial to grow bush tomatoes. I had grown up eating Kampurarrpa and was excited to try to grow them, rather than have to collect them from the bush. During this
time we had lots of
researchers working with us to find out
the best way to grow the bush
tomatoes.
17
People came from as far away as Broome, South Australia and even New Zealand to visit and learn from what we were doing.
The trials went so well that after five years we decided to get a loan to plant many more bush tomato plants.
18
We pass on this knowledge to our kids and grandkids to create a future for them. The kids want to continue to grow the business when we are gone.
In that way our family can continue to stay on our own land and prosper from a business on community.
We still work with researchers, sharing our knowledge of how to grow different species of Solanum. We have
also built a good business that sells dried bush tomatoes to manufacturers, restaurants and caterers,
like Rayleen at Kungkas can Cook.
19
Map courtesy of Tourism NT
Hello, my name is Rayleen Brown. I suppose you could say that I’ve come a
long way. This is my story, where I came from and what I hope to do in the future.
Rayleen Brown ~
Passing on our Know
ledge
I was born in Darwin in 1964 into a very nomadic family. I was the eldest of six children. Wherever the work was in the ’70s, my dad followed. From road-works, working on the railways, plant operating and fencing at Wave Hill; the family always went with him. Because of all that travel, my education wasn’t that great.
20
I’d help to peel the potatoes, stir the pots and make the damper. I now realise that
during this time I picked up a lot of bush cooking skills and the ability to turn my hand to making a meal for
many out of nothing.
These skills have helped me a lot in my business … but I didn’t know, at the time, that I would
eventually make a living from cooking.
During this time my mum would always be the camp cook, and often us kids would help her to cook the meals for the men who worked on the road crew.
21
My family eventually moved to Alice Springs. I wanted to leave school, and my dad said that I could only if I had a job to go to. I worked as a check-out chick, a trainee library technician and a receptionist – then got itchy feet and decided to travel. Then I got married and had five kids.
That put an end to travelling.
When the kids were old enough, I went back to work as a project officer at CLC, where I met Gina Smith. One of the other project officers asked us to give him a hand one day. Would we come out bush for a week to
cook for a big meeting of bush mob? We said - OK, we’ll help.
By the end of that week we were so exhausted - we never stopped the whole time! But afterwards we began to think that maybe we could
start a business that would cook healthy food for big bush meetings.
Photo: Ninti One
Photo: Kungkas
Photo: Kungkas
22
We worked together and built the business up, then after five years Gina decided to move on.
Gina and I started our catering business. Any Aboriginal person thinking of starting a business, have a good look at it; find out what is involved, what kind of commitment it will require, what skills you will need, what the rules and laws are.
Because it is really, really hard work.
In my business I rely on wild harvesters, growers, pastoralists and farmers
to sell me their products.
23
I teach a lot of kids how to prepare and how to cook our traditional bush foods. I also pass on my business skills and regularly take on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander trainees and apprentices.
Photo: Kungkas
24
So even though I don’t work in a primary industry, my business depends on people like Max & Ruth, Chansey, pastoralists and the ladies from Ampilatwatja who grow or harvest the food that I use
in my catering business and to create my own products to sell.
I also work with researchers at CRC-REP & Ninti One on bush-foods and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander enterprise development, to encourage
more Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people to use the traditional knowledge and skills that they already have to create their own futures.
Photo: Ninti One
Photo: Ninti One
25
Chansey Paech ~ H
orticultural Apprenticeship
I decided that I had had enough of school and was sick of sitting in a classroom when I was doing year eleven. I seriously couldn’t see myself doing it for four more years in order to get a university qualification.
Hello, my name is Chansey Paech. I was born and attended school in Alice Springs. I am the great-grandson of Ada Wade and the great-grand-nephew of cameleer Walter Smith. I am also a descendant of Topsy Smith, who walked into Alice Springs from Arltunga with a herd of goats and 11 children. Topsy, the kids and goats settled on a hill, Akeyulerre, which has since been called Billy Goat Hill.
Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia SLSA: PRG 1365/1/439 - Goat yard; 1924
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I understood that even though I didn’t want to continue school, that I would need a qualification or skills of some sort in order to earn a living. So I started to look about for an apprenticeship or traineeship opportunity.
Because I liked working outside and had enjoyed propagating plants during my work experience at Alice Springs Nursery during year 10, I thought that it was natural to try to get into horticulture.
So I applied for an apprenticeship at the Alice Springs Desert Park.
27
During my apprenticeship I learned all about plants and how to propagate and grow them, about irrigation systems, about garden design, soil science, pest and weed control, chemical use and how to use computers and a lot of other equipment.
The horticultural apprenticeship with the Alice Springs Desert Park/Desert Knowledge CRC was supposed to take four years, but I completed it in three. I was offered a position at the Desert Park when I had finished my apprenticeship but decided to try something else.
I was inspired to go and look at other parts of the world to see different landscapes and meet different people because of working with people from all over the world at the Park and because a friend had taken part in a work exchange and had gone to work in the UK with the Eden project for a couple of months. She loved it so much, and had such a great time it made me think that I might like to travel too.
28
I was a bit scared at the thought of travelling, thinking about leaving home, leaving friends and family and going so far away with little knowledge of the customs or what it would be like. But still I went and lived and worked in England and in Scotland and travelled through Europe for 10 months.
www.free-images.org.uk
Travelling opens your eyes to the rest of the world, to possibilities I had never even thought of. It almost makes you decide who you are and what kind of person you want to be.
www.free-images.org.uk
I finally returned to Australia because I missed home and because I wanted to get a job, buy a house and settle down for a bit, to try something new ...
29
I wanted to see what working in an office would be like, so I applied for a job as a recovery officer for the NT Department of Housing, Local Government and Regional Services. Amazingly, I got the job – even though I was a horticulturalist. The experience, knowledge and confidence that I had gained through my apprenticeship really helped.
A few months working as a recovery officer opened the door to another position, this time as manager for government employee housing. Working in this job I found that I was interested in how to manage people and so I completed a Diploma of Human Resource Management.
One day I would like to go to university and do a degree in political science or public policy, maybe even to end up in Parliament as an elected official or as a public servant.
Right now I am selling my flat and moving to Darwin where I will look for a new job. I want to keep trying different things, living in different places and doing different jobs.
30
Marilyn Cavanaugh ~
Traditional Know
ledge & Bush M
edicine
Hello, my name is Marilyn Cavanaugh; my skin name is Mpetyane. My family is from Alice Springs and east towards Arltunga.
I was born in Port Augusta and went to school there. There weren't a lot of Aboriginal kids in my school. It was important that I played sport as it made it easier to make friends and gave me the confidence to do well at school.
31
After high school I did a three-year diploma of teaching and went to Adelaide to work as a
teacher for a while. My grandparents were worried about me so I came to Alice Springs
in 1988 and lived with them.
I got a job as a teacher at the Institute for Aboriginal Development (IAD), where I met some beautiful old ladies who became my teachers; they taught me a lot about traditional knowledge. And even though they are no longer with us, they are with me in spirit.
I thank those ladies because they guided me in how to be a strong Aboriginal woman and gave me the ability to set
up my business in Aboriginal bush medicine.
Photo: E Dennis
Photo: E Dennis
Photo: E Dennis
Photo: E Dennis
Photo: E Dennis
Photo: E Dennis
Photo: E Dennis
Photo: CRC-REP
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When you go out on country and pick the plants to make the medicine, it’s healing and the country gives you something back. If you are recognising country and doing good things for the country, the country will give you something back.
When my husband stopped being a stockman, we got the idea to set up a business to make traditional
medicine to share with everybody, and to bring back the use of Aboriginal medicine.
I work in partnership with my husband. He has a lot of traditional knowledge, speaks Arrernte as his first language and knows lots of the stories about our country. He’s grown up knowing about the plants and the medicines and how they are used.
Photo: Ninti One
33
We also have a tour that complements the medicine business. The tour is about showing people our
country, showing them the plants that make the medicine and telling the stories.
So our business gives us spiritual strength and jobs, and when we get bigger there will be
jobs for other people as well.
Photo: Libby Kartzoff
It’s healing for us because we are showing people country and telling the stories, and because you are going back to country, country is
saying, “Hello, there’s my family coming back,” and we say, “Hello, country, we are bringing some friends to introduce you.”
Photo: NTG
Photo: Ninti One
Photo: Ninti One
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Harold H
oward ~
Pastoral & M
ining Industry
Photo: Central Land Council
Photo: Alicia Boyle
My position at the CLC is something I never thought I would ever have. It was more accidental than anything, I think. Most of my working life has been doing manual labour.
I am also the acting coordinator of the Regional Enterprise Unit, which looks after
enterprise in the bush – mainly pastoral stuff.
My name is Harold Howard, but I am better known as Chongy. I am the coordinator of the Central Land Council’s Employment
Unit, which gets Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ready for jobs in mining, horticulture, parks, working on
country, the pastoral industry and road construction.
35
I left school at year 8; that’s not good. My first job was with the Alice Springs Town Council, laying footpaths and mowing lawns and all that kind of stuff with lots of other young Aboriginal men from around town.
That job gave me a lot of skills that I have today, skills that I used later in life.
Photo: Ninti One
Photo: Ninti One
Photo: garageservices.com
Photo: Ruth Offer
Then I got an apprenticeship with Centre Panel Works, being a spray painter. I was there for 7 years but never finished my apprenticeship. Maybe I should have - just never quite finished it. I did enjoy it. I love working with my hands.
After that I went to South Australia and worked on a cattle station. That was a very different life, a rural
life, working with stock and everything. I had never done that kind of work but I really enjoyed it. It
taught me a lot – when you haven’t got a lot to work with, you’ve just got to work with what you’ve got.
Photo: Carmel Cavallaro
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Photo: Central Land Council
Photo: Vol Norris
Then I came back to the Territory and worked on a road crew for 6 years. We worked all across the NT. It was a good job that, every day something new. Those jobs really help you because you are mostly on your own and you have to work things out for yourself.
Then I went to work at the Granites Mine. That was interesting … 600 other people, 4 a.m. starts. That was hard for me. But the
money was good. I didn’t like it too much though, because the life there is very regimented. I much preferred pastoral work.
Photo: Central Land Council
37
It’s really good; because I have done all of these jobs, I can tell young people what to expect and what challenges they might face in trying to work in that industry … because I know, I’m able to help them.
Photo: Central Land Council Photo: Central Land Council
In 2000 I got a job at the CLC as a project officer helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to get work on the new Alice Springs to Darwin Railway construction. I did that for three years until the line was finished. Then I started helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to get work or to be ready for work in the pastoral, parks, mining and construction industries.
Photo: Ninti One
Photo: Ninti One
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The Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association (NTCA) has developed programs to get young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into the cattle industry. My work with CLC is helping people access those programs. Aboriginal people have a long history of pastoral work, so it’s more of a reintroduction to the pastoral industry. Young Aboriginal people just love horses. They can do anything with their hands, you know. All over the NT young Aboriginal people ride horses, and that’s the way that we bring people to the industry.
Photo: Ninti One Photo: Ninti One Photo: Ninti One
Photo: Ninti One
But it’s not easy for young people;, you have to go away and work with people you don’t know. Pastoral
work is an exciting opportunity because it’s always going to be there, the land’s there ...
Photo: Central Land Council
39
Photo: Ninti One
In my work with the CLC Regional Enterprise Unit, we support and help small Aboriginal cattle enterprises to develop the skills to support a small operation in the bush. There is a lot more to running a cattle business than just getting some beef onto the grass. It’s lots of work; you’ve got husbandry, fencing, health care, water, transporting, weaning, making sure the feed’s there, all that.
We send people up to a place called Mistake Creek, which is one of the most successful cattle stations in the NT by far, to give them a look at what a successful enterprise looks like.
Photo: Ninti One
We also run courses there, such as low-stress stock handling and horse management, and we are starting to teach governance, you know – do the money story with them. It’s lots of hard work but really, really exciting!
Photo: Ninti One
Photo: Ninti One
40
Photo; Central Land Council
Becky Mack ~
Pastoral and Comm
unity Rangers
Hello, my name is Becky Mack and I’m 25 years old. I’ve lived in Alice Springs for my whole life.
When I left school I got a traineeship at the CLC as a trainee admin officer in the Anthropology section. After three years
there I needed a change so I moved across into the Native Title Unit, still as an admin officer, where I worked with the lawyers doing native title and land claims. After six years as an admin
officer I wanted to try something else.
I didn’t like school - apart from the social aspects; coming from middle school into high school was especially difficult. I found it hard to get through
years 11 & 12; it wasn’t by choice that I stayed. My parents made me stay at school, which was a
good thing - I’m lucky to have that support.
Photo: Central Land Council
41
A vacancy came up in the CLC’s Employment Unit and after applying, I got the job. I’ve been with the unit
since then and we deal with getting people jobs in local industries: mainly mining, pastoral, horticulture and as
community rangers.
We also mentor people once they have a job. Sometimes difficulties pop up so part of my job is to help people out, make them feel comfortable, talk with them and give them a hand if they have issues.
I recently did the Community Based Indigenous Trainers (CBIT) course. It was insane; I’m normally quite a shy person and the course is all about training, talking with and assessing people. I thought, “Oh my god, how am I going to deal with this?” But I
graduate this month with my Cert 4 Trainer & Assessor. My confidence has just built so much.
Helping people is very satisfying. Seeing people blossom and being able to create better lives for
themselves and their kids; it’s a good feeling.
Photo; Central Land Council
Photo: Central Land Council
Photo: Central Land Council
Photo: Ninti One
Photo: Ninti One
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The CLC has seven ranger groups set up in seven locations around central Australia. They do all sorts
of things on their own country: maintain their communities, sights of significance and townships. They do training in numeracy and literacy as well as Certificate 2 in Conservation & Land Management.
Photo: Central Land Council
Comm
unity Rangers
They’re doing jobs and getting qualifications and skills that will help them. If they want to move
into another job, they’ll have the skills, knowledge and confidence to do so.
Photo: Central Land Council
43
The Rangers do things like maintenance in National Parks, flora and fauna surveys, fire and
weed management, the protection of cultural sites and feral animal management.
Tjuwanpa Rangers are doing horsemanship training because they want to control the number of nuisance animals on their country, like bullocks
and horses. So they are learning skills to be able to manage their country. There is also the possibility that they may be able to develop a business
out of this in the future and make some money from their country.
Photo: Central Land Council Photo: Ninti One
44
Horsem
anship for the Pastoral Industry
Photo; Central Land Council
The courses we run are giving people a better understanding of how a horse’s mind works. You get people at the beginning of training going, “This isn’t right, you’ve got to do it this way.” But by the end of the course not only have they realised that you can do it differently, they have learnt a lot about themselves.
When my grandfather was growing up in the pastoral industry it was horse, horse, horse. He was one of those old stockmen who walked around with
bow legs in his riding boots and who always looked neat and tidy.
But when I was growing up it died out; there weren’t as many horses used in pastoral work. But recently a lot of stations have gone back to
using horses. So that’s why we’re running all these programs to get young Aboriginal people into working with horses.
A lot of the stations now are more into caring for their horses, and, like a lot of things, horsemanship changes. You don’t see a lot of breaking horses anymore, you see more colt starting, where they use a gentler approach. A lot of the people who ride today were taught by their grandfathers and are used to the old methods.
45
They realise that they have seen the old men do it that way and it all starts to make sense. A lot of the old stockmen come to these courses with the young fellows and they know this stuff, they have picked it up over their years working with horses but never really passed it on.
Some of the best riders I have ever seen come straight from community. They jump on a horse in shorts and thongs; you know they are just deadly. The horses just respond to them.
Even though stations still have helicopters, Toyotas and motorbikes, a lot of them are coming back to horse work now. Aboriginal people have the ability to adapt to anything.
Photo: Central Land Council
Photo: Ninti One
Photo: Ninti One
Photo: www.ozoutback Photo: www.ozoutback
46
Alison Page ~
Aboriginal D
esigner
Hi, everyone I’m Alison Page. I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land. It’s great to get to tell my story because I think it is a bit of an unusual one. I work as an Aboriginal Designer.
My story really starts in a little place called La Perouse on Botany Bay in Sydney. I am a Tharawal woman, and my traditional country is the great big
bustling metropolis of Sydney.
I decided that I wanted to go to university to study design. I wanted to study design because we lived in such a crappy house when I was growing up with my five sisters. I was the type of girl who moved the furniture around trying to make the place look pretty.
Photo: Jaunted.com
47
So to go ahead and try to make a career out of that felt very natural to me. That’s really what I do today, except that when I went to university, I learned how to do interior design, how to design houses and how to do public art.
The best way to describe it is that it is just like doing a painting, because it’s really about storytelling, except that the language you use is different. It’s not paint on canvas, it’s using the language of
steel and glass, architecture and interior design. It’s bringing storytelling into new forms such as lighting and furniture.
I really love what I do, and what I really love the most is that I learn a little bit more about my cultural identity and being Aboriginal. Every day there is
something new that I learn from the people that I work with.
But it wasn’t always like that. There’s no way that I would have thought that architecture and Aboriginality would have been able to be put in the same sentence. It wasn’t until I went to Canada in my 4th year at university, where I saw Native American architects and their work.
Kejick Bay School – Prairie Architects
48
Urban Circle Training Centre - Prairie Architects
Roseau Children’s Centre Mishkeegogamang School - Prairie Architects
I thought, ’WOW, this is amazing! It’s about taking our culture, our ancestral art of storytelling into the 21st century.’ This finally brought the two worlds that I knew together!
UWSA Day-care—Prairie Architects
Roseau Children’s Centre - Prairie Architects
To be able to create new spaces and objects that have a spiritual meaning: that’s what I’m really passionate about.
Mishkeegogamang School
Prairie Architects
Roseau Children’s Centre - Prairie Architects
49
I’m also passionate about young people being able to go into different kinds of jobs where they can learn about their cultural identity everyday.
I think you can be an Aboriginal kid growing up anywhere, remote or city and you should be able to say: my culture gives me an ADVANTAGE in life.
We hear all the time about Aboriginal disadvantage. I’ve spent the last 15 years waking up every single day and saying:
“MY CULTURE IS AN ADVANTAGE TO ME.” I can always think of new ways to express my culture in whatever I do. Photo: Ninti One
50
I use the land very much as inspiration for all of my designs. One of my designs is Kangaroo Paw wallpaper. You draw a picture, then using computer software you can see what it would look like as wallpaper or carpet or blinds.
I’d love to move into developing a range of homewares. I’m starting a design agency on the east coast of NSW so that every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artist in Australia can come and join me in designing a whole lot of products. I really think that we can take the world by storm!
Aboriginal trading routes
Photo: Alison Page
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The Central Land Council’s Employment Unit: http://www.clc.org.au/Building_the_bush/employment.html
Teacher resources and further information:
“The bombing of Darwin and the evacuation of the Aborigines”: http://www.stolengenerations.info/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=167&Itemid=137
Alice Springs during the Second World War: http://www.thewaryears.alicespringsrsl.com.au/military2.shtml
Close The Gap for Indigenous Health Equality Campaign. In the Social Justice Report 2005, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, called for Australian governments to commit to achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and life expectation equality within 25 years. From the Social Justice Report, the Close The Gap campaign was born.. http://www.closethegap.com.au
Tackling Indigenous Smoking: The Australian Government is funding the rollout of a national network of regional tobacco coordinators and tobacco action workers to work with Indigenous communities to reduce the number of people smoking. This workforce will implement a range of community-based smoking prevention and cessation support activities tailored to local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ctg/publishing.nsf/Content/national-action-to-reduce-indigenous-smoking-rate
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission. The Australian Human Rights Commission advocates for the rights of Indigenous Australians and works to promote respect and understanding of these rights among the broader community. http://www.humanrights.gov.au/
Alison Page - Architecture & Design: http://www.mondial.com.au/diamond-dreaming/overview
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/indigenous/architecture/
http://www.architecturemedia.com/aa/aaissue.php?issueid=200309&article=15&typeon=2%3C/a%3E
Australian bush foods: Australian Bush Foods Magazine: http://www.ausbushfoods.com/new/index.php
Bush tucker plants: http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/bushtucker/
Desert Knowledge CRC Australian Bush Food Information Sheets: http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/publications NT Government Department of Resources – Primary Industry:
http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Primary_Industry/
The Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry
http://www.daff.gov.au/
Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association:
http://www.ntca.org.au/ Prairie Architects Inc: http://www.prairiearchitects.ca/
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