Listen To Ngarrindjeri Women Speaking
When the Ngarrindjeri women of South Australia asked Diane Bell if she would work with them in the running of some workshops to develop a booklet about culture and governance, none of them realised quite where it would take them. This book is the result. It has developed from a booklet to a book that outlines their visions for the future. A future in which their culture is respected, their stories heard, their laws carried out.
2008 | ISBN 9781876756697 | Paperback | 248 x 176 mm | 145 pp
Reviews
The Ngarrindjeri women who have generously shared their ideas and wisdoms here, have done so with the dignity exalted from the past and with an affordance to the future. They have told their stories in a way that illustrates the power of dialogue, of our women's conversation and ultimately of coming together to weave our own livelihood for our children and our children's children.
—Tara June Winch, ABC Online Indigenous
You will be deeply moved by the voices of the aunties and the powerful struggles and beautiful words of their stories. None of these stories should be reproduced here in this review. It takes the voices of the miminar themselves to tell their stories with such grace and power. Too many times their words have been stolen by others, as their children were stolen. Instead, I urge all readers to buy this book for your families, use it as a model to discuss ways that all Australians can learn and grow and discover more about the culture that defines their land. You will be enthralled, captivated and empowered by these stories and this process.
—Cathie Dunsford, Australian Women's Book Review Volume 20.2 (2008)
The book was fashioned through a painstaking series of workshops, facilitated by editor and anthropologist Diane Bell, and this process reveals an extraordinary spirit of cooperation. Conversations and negotiations took seven months, with young, old, female and male Ngarrindjeri contributing.
—John Bartlett, Eureka Street
Table of Contents
Location Map iv
Dedication v
Prologue: Miminar Thunggalun Yunti: Women Standing Together viii
Acknowledgements xi
Our Workshops – Our Book xii
Chapter One: Caring for Country 1
All we need is in our stories 1
Aunty Leila’s story 3
Aunty Ellen’s story 6
Aunty Eileen’s story 11
The Kumarangk story 16
A story of practical reconciliation 20
Future stories 23
Chapter Two: Caring for Stories 25
Stories of connection 25
The story of Ngurunderi 26
The story of the Seven Sisters 29
The story of Wururi 38
Weaving the past and the present 38
Chapter Three: Caring for Families 41
Us women are on the warpath 41
Shame and respect 43
Our children 45
Aunty Thora’s story 48
Aunty Veronica’s story 52
Our Old People 54
Across the generations 56
Email stories 62
Role models 66
Women’s well-being 67
Chapter Four: Caring for the Nation 73
The Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority 73
The Tendi 78
We have never ceded nor sold our lands 80
Looking ahead 83
Chapter Five: Economic Development 87
Working with the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority 87
A Woman’s Place 88
An Elders’ Village 90
A Research Centre 90
Starter cabins 91
A Ngarrindjeri Education and Training Centre 91
Places for children 93
Hopes for the Future 94
Asserting Ngarrindjeri Identity 97
Glossary of Ngarrindjeri Terms 98
Kungun and Yunnan: Editor’s Epilogue 99
Diane’s story 100
Women’s workshops, 2007 101
Workshop One 101
Workshop Two 102
Workshop Three 103
Workshop Four 104
Ngarrindjeri Miminar Gathering, October 2–4, 2007 105
After the workshops 106
The sources 107
Spelling Ngarrindjeri words 109
Respect terms and kinship: the Ngarrindjeri cultural way 110
Standing together 112
Endnotes 115
Bibliography 118
Name Index 126
General Index 132
About the Authors 138
Appendix One: Apology of the Alexandrina Council, 2002 140
Appendix Two: Proclamation of Ngarrindjeri Dominium, 2003 141
Apology to the Stolen Generations, 2008 inside back cover