Rumbalara Elders Facility reflects on NAIDOC

This NAIDOC Week, Elders and staff reflect on the week's 2021 theme — Heal Country — and what the celebration means to them.

Elder Aunty Josephine Briggs

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Elder Aunty Josephine Briggs has lived at Rumbalara Elders Facility for the past year.

Sitting in the chapel, she gazes at a black and white photo of her extended family, taken before she was born in the early 20th century.

Dressed up in thick coats and wool hats, her grandparents, aunties and cousins stare sternly at the camera.

“I look at that photo, it means a lot to me, because I know all those old fellows, I've heard all those stories, I grew up with those people,” she says.

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Many of Aunty Josephine's family members, including her grandparents, were instrumental in fighting for the rights of their people at the Cummeragunja mission on the Murray River in the 1930s, which eventually led to the Cummeragunja walk-off.

“They fought for Cummera, they fought for the rest of the people,” she says.

Her family was also part of the Cummera Choir, a church group that travelled Victoria during World War II by horse and cart to raise money for the war effort.

“We had people that went and fought, a lot of them enlisted and some of them didn't come back including my grandmother's brother, he died in the Middle East,” she says.

For much of her childhood, Aunty Josephine lived on Cummeragunja with her parents, siblings and grandparents, before her dad built a house for the family in Mooroopna.

“Dad, with his shearing money, picked the best block of land in Mooroopna to build on — it doesn't flood, everywhere else does — in the highland by Gemmill Swamp,” she says.

“He was only a shearer, and you don't shear all year round, but he cut wood as well and that's how he kept us going . . . he built a triple-fronted house, and it's still in our family.”

In her adult life, Ms Briggs worked as a nurse in regional and remote areas, and regularly travelled internationally.

This NAIDOC Week, she is carrying the legacy of family gone by close to her heart, brave individuals who fought for the rights Aboriginal people have today.

Elder Aunty Euphemia Day

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Elder Aunty Euphemia Day's whole face lights up when she laughs with a mate at the Elders’ facility.

The well worn lines by her eyes crinkle in pleasure, her cheeky grin never far away.

“One minute we're all sitting around having a yarn and someone will say something and we'll all crack up, there's never a dull moment,” she says.

Aunty Euphemia has had her share of battles. She fought for her land at Gunditjmara in south-west Victoria, and was the last baby to be born on the Lake Condah mission before it was shut down by authorities.

“I'm the matriarch of that mission,” she says.

Aunty Euphemia came to Shepparton when she was 15 years old to join her sisters, then working at the SPC cannery.

“I found a lot of people who lived down the Flats, and was there when the flood came up and we swam across the river,” she says.

“Nobody came and helped us.”

This NAIDOC Week, Aunty Euphemia hasn't forgotten the sad times she's endured — family members taken and not seen again, loved ones lost at war — but she is also celebrating the survival of her people.

“Let's celebrate. We're here, we're going to be here for a long time, so let's have a good week and tell our stories,” she says.

“We've got to talk about those old dark days, but we rejoice — we're not going anywhere, we're always going to be here.

“I say to kids, `don't be sad, be happy, because you came with us, you know what's happened, and we're celebrating that we're still here'.”

Elder Uncle Ron Thompson

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Elder Uncle Ron Thompson hails from Noongar country in south-west Western Australia — rich, water country made up of 14 different language groups.

“We grew up on the country, on the land, mainly out in the bush, kangaroos and trapping,” he says.

“We used to take the dogs out running on the country.

“We loved it, we miss it, you can take the boy away from the bush but you can't take it from him.”

Uncle Ron's mother was a member of the Stolen Generations, which has defined much of his own life.

“She was a half-caste and they took her out, she had to go to a half-caste school,” he says.

Now living at the Rumbalara Elders Facility, Uncle Ron, once a prison chaplain, is now a painter.

“I do paintings of all Aboriginal animals, I always do animals, goannas, kangaroos, emus, rabbits, because we grew up with them, and sea turtles in the sea,” he says.

This NAIDOC Week — with the theme `Heal Country’ — Uncle Ron is thanking art for how it has helped him heal, and retain a connection to home.

It hasn't been an easy road for Uncle Ron.

He arrived at the facility from Bendigo, where he sought help after suffering from depression and attempting suicide.

“I've been here for 10 years, and I've got all the trees out here, I've got everything here, it's a beautiful place, peaceful, warm and loving, and you're looked after,” he says.

“It's healing.”

Rumbalara office manager Erin Briggs

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Rumbalara officer manager Erin Briggs says with children of her own, NAIDOC Week is all about family.

“Family coming together, and telling stories, passing down the knowledge to your kids so they have strong culture growing up,” she says.

“I go back home to Barmah with my parents, and when you go to the bush, you can feel it, the memories, it's a spiritual healing, a sense of peace.

“That's what it's about.”

Rumbalara administration and food service attendant Taniesha Moffatt Peterson

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Rumbalara administration and food service attendant Taniesha Moffatt Peterson doesn't want her five-year-old daughter to grow up without a strong sense of her identity.

“NAIDOC Week is about a sense of culture, of connection, I'm connected to my people,” she says.

“Healing Country is a way for me to be able to pass it on to my daughter, keep it going. It's about coming together with our people, gathering and healing together.”

Taniesha is determined her daughter won't have to put up with what generations before her have.

“There needs to be more inclusion of First Nations people in our education — talk about it more, involve kids,” she says.

“It's something that needs to be taught to everyone — we want to connect people.

“Kids get bullied for being different. I don't want that for our next generation, not be included because of the colour of their skin.

“NAIDOC Week is about healing as one, and coming together as one.”

Rumbalara maintenance worker Andrew Atkinson

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Rumbalara maintenance worker Andrew Atkinson believes deeply in this year's theme, `Heal Country'.

“Healing is about getting the young men and women together and hearing from our Elders, about the forest, what food is provided to everyone, learning how to make boomerangs,” he says.

“When NAIDOC Week comes around, healing is there, people come around from everywhere and we hear their stories.”

Andrew remembers NAIDOC Week before COVID-19 struck, when kids would race into the Elders Facility, rushing around everywhere.

“There'd be a tug of war, a sack race, painting, it was so great for the Elders . . . keep it going, keep it loud,” he says.

Andrew says NAIDOC Week is important for everyone in the community — no matter their heritage.

“We're a big country, we want to educate everybody, let's enjoy this country we live on together,” he says.

“NAIDOC Week is a time to reflect on the past, and it helps our community come together, people we haven't seen for a long time.

“It's the most important time of the year for us, bringing all our kids together, knowing culture, going down memory lane.

“We get our Elders and the younger generation together, and we get to hear stories. It's really good for them, that's part of the healing too, doing the bush talks and learning about our history.

“It's gathering, it's bringing people together, that's what NAIDOC Week is about.”

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