RAyrP Work …

Day 27: Thursday 19 April (8pm, Ayr)

Yet another fascinating day in FNQ!

Lynette picked me up at 6.45am so we could get an early start in to Townsville. We had an 8.30am meeting booked with Kelvin, one of the Gudjuda Directors, to obtain his input into the RAP. Kelvin is the artist of the group and as everything is now starting to link together, you might remember I mentioned that Uncle Bim had painted a mural on the wall of the women’s prison recently with a friend – Kelvin. (Men’s Business, Day 8)

Kelvin provided his input to the RAP and made several helpful suggestions before we changed topic and got on to his paintings over smoko*. He had one leaning against a wall, so I asked him about it. Before I knew it, he was handing the painting to me, to keep, so after a friendly argument where I gave him the little money I had left in my wallet, he told me the story.

The Gubbula Munda (the Carpet Snake) watches carefully over all women and looks after their spirit as they die. She encircles them and after a time, she releases them up to the heavens, as a shooting star. In this way, all women are shooting stars.

I’m quite sure my husband thinks of me as a shooting star in his life too! J

Next stop was Charmaine and as her house had taken some damage in the cyclone the week before I had arrived up here, she asked if we could take her to McDonalds for a coffee and cake instead (yes, more smoko*!).

Charmaine liked a lot of what we had already incorporated and had loads more to contribute as well. She has a lot to be passionate about as she is the daughter of Aunty Renata, and the story of her grandfather's life on Palm Island specifically is an amazing one, so I was keen to capture her views.



Charmaine smiling through a comment
that she hadn't been prepared for photos!



Charmaine acknowledged that everybody has a story about where they are from and the things that they have gained or lost over the years and she wants to hear the stories of migrants who came here and what they struggled through to arrive in this country. However, when it’s weighed up, she feels strongly that aboriginal people have lost far more.

She explained that the aboriginal penal settlements were often made up of a mix of Aboriginals, Torres Strait Islanders, South Sea islanders, some Maori folk and on Palm Island, they even threw a German in, because he had olive skin! These cultures didn’t have a history together and so there were lots of problems with mixing the people together. Many lost some of their language and culture and traditions, and even now, she has family members who can only retell the stories of Palm Island as they’ve lost touch with their history before that time. She wants all indigenous to really know their history but she also wants non-indigenous people to keep an open mind, hoping that we all understand and acknowledge the fight that her people have had.

With the mix of cultures we all live with in today’s society, it’s actually quite easy to empathise with Charmaine on some levels, but the obvious difference is that we have been able to consider and make choices about our own living arrangements - clearly, her family had none.

Last stop was Cathy and we met her in a huge park as she was hard to catch, spending the bulk of her day travelling around and through the Townsville suburbs (no smoko this time*). J

Cathy also had some great contributions to the RAP and one of these was about respect for the land and its history. We talked about our plans for placing 'Welcome to Country' signs up in the area, to let everyone know that they are on Juru, or Bindal or Ngaro land and how that might drive interest and understanding and respect for the Traditional Owners.

The discussion evolved and we started to talk about a similar 'welcome' sign she had seen up in the Daintree, near the Thompson River. The first time Cathy was taken there was with family and as they stopped near the river to meet people, she looked over and saw an old lady standing under a tree not too far away. She asked her Aunty about the old lady and the Aunty didn’t know who she meant as she couldn’t see anyone standing there. Cathy insisted there was an old lady there, so she described her - she was short, long haired, an old lady. Well, the Aunty, shocked, fell to the ground in a faint and when she came to, told Cathy that the old lady had been her grandmother’s mother. She went on to explain that her grandmother had been born under that very tree, so Cathy is planning to build a home there one day, believing it to be a special place (plus there is a great watering hole nearby!). The spirits are certainly strong in that family!

With the last interview for the day over, we headed back to the office and retold many of these tales and others to Michaela and John. Sure beats a day of meetings in the office at North Ryde!!

*‘Smoko’ cracks me up every time – it’s the local term for morning tea and you can guess it’s origins, but I just laugh whenever anyone asks me if I want some, as it sounds so ridiculous. Probably just me, but I find ‘pyjamas’ an amusing word too. I could go on, but naaah, I’m sure you’ve read enough for today! J