Many local Aboriginal people have contributed to leadership and activism to protect the rights and improve the lives of Aboriginal workers and families. The following stories are included in the stories associated with the ‘Mudlangga to Yertabulti’ cultural track.
Image source: Survival in Our Own Land: ‘Aboriginal’ experiences in ‘South Australia’ since 1836. Christobel Mattingley and Ken Hampton (Eds) (1988). Wakefield Press, SA, p. 65
Pat Waria-Read
I left school to help my mum (Winnie Branson), who was a single mum with five other kids. She was the first State Secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI). The women in that time became the big speakers, movers and shakers because a lot of the men were still finding their way in looking for jobs, were in and out of prison and weren't around much as partners or husbands. The women did it themselves. The women kept a stronger culture and the men were a bit lost - it was mostly the women who were talking. Aunty Mary Williams was the first Aboriginal woman to establish a kindy. I believe this lead to the current Aboriginal childcare centre called Kalaya.
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In 1979, some women spoke out about police harassment. The Advertiser of 25 August reported:
‘Aboriginal women in the northern and western suburbs, many of them mothers of convicted offenders, say they are being harassed by some SA police. They say they are worried at the effects this has on their health and on the welfare and future attitudes of children, usually their grandchildren. One woman, Mrs Vilma Heron of Brahma Lodge, speaking with about 15 other women, alleged that: ‘Police entered houses without warrants; minors often pre-schoolers were interviewed by police about the suspected offences of older brothers; Police lacked respect for Aboriginal homes; In one case; police had removed goods from a house without the consent or knowledge of the occupant….One Aboriginal women involved said: ‘It’s very disturbing – it shatters any attempt to teach the kids that police are friends and get rid of this idea of “them and us”’.
Georgina Williams
"Our people were big picture people, we were a federation of different people, accepting different tribal people. That was what our people were doing on Point Pearce when I was growing up. Our people's ways were more inclusive, not exclusive. We had high power magic to maintain the peace law. Humans need something to maintain law and order. We were language-linked with the Kaurna and the Narrunga, we had similar ways. We bring these ways in the way we live our lives, we try to help white people to understand how to live with the land without destroying it."
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Vincent Copley
“When Don Dunstan was Premier, we had lunch with the Queen. In the early days, when we first started the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in 1972, 50 Aboriginal people were taken to Canberra as project officers from South Australia, and I was one of them. Whitlam's government wanted to please Aboriginal people so we were all buttered up with jam and cream. Anything that happened anywhere in the world that had to do with race relations, we were thrown on a plane and sent off. I can remember a big contingent from Nigeria. They didn't know there were black people in Australia so we got together and formed part of their planning committee, and went to Nigeria to help plan a big festival.
It was just ordinary people, our mums and dads and sisters. My sister, with six kids had to keep herself and her family alive. She'd be in Adelaide for a while and then something would come up and she'd move and be in Port Augusta for a while and get things going there and then come back to Adelaide and get stuck into politics here. It took a lot of the people's time and energy.
Without activism, things would have taken a lot longer to change”.
Image source: "Women speak out in 1979 about police harassment. L to R: Vilma Heron, Roma Smith, Gwen Goldsmith, Alice Artois-Moss, Shirley Sansbury, Doris Graham, Viney Weetra Source: Survival in Our Own Land: ‘Aboriginal’ experiences in ‘South Australia’ since 1836". Christobel Mattingley and Ken Hampton (Eds) (1988). Wakefield Press, SA, p. 65
More information HERE