Chapter 5: Nowra feedback

Chapter 5

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Nowra feedback Berenice Carrington and Pamela Young

Regional profile

Nowra is situated in the Shoalhaven Local Government Area, which

covers 4,558 square kilometres. Nowra/Bomaderry, Ulladulla/

Milton and Berry comprise the major commercial and retail

centres. Tourism, dairy farming and processing, paper production

and fishing are the dominant industries.

At the time of the 2006 Census, the Indigenous population of the

Shoalhaven Local Government Area (LGA) was estimated to be

3,311 or 3.7% of the total LGA population of 88,405.

Background to the Aboriginal Women’s Heritage: Nowra book

Aboriginal Women’s Heritage: Nowra is the second book in the

Heritage Series. Nine Aboriginal women from the South Coast

region of New South Wales recorded their oral histories. Although

the stories centre on Nowra, their stories recollect working lives

and family histories that are linked to the South Coast landscape.

The Elders tell stories of their hard working lives picking fruit and

vegetables, farm labouring and working as domestics for non-

Indigenous families. Alongside this work they raised families and

found the time to participate in their own communities. The book

centres on Nowra, but it also describes places that some of the

women have attachments to, such as travelling in family groups

to pick the season’s vegetables at Potato Point, near Bodalla and

regular picking work at Terara, Bega and Worrigee. Other stories

describe personal connections to significant historical places,

such as the Bomaderry Children’s Home, and Roseby Park, the

Aboriginal reserve. Their stories reveal a little known history of the

contribution made by Aboriginal women to the local economy and

to non-Indigenous families in the region.

Below is Kath Schilling’s recollection of the process of

collaborating with the community to record and publish Aboriginal

Women’s Heritage: Nowra:

I was doing Nowra at the same time as Nambucca. I approached

Nowra to balance out the North Coast with the South Coast. I

approached the Nowra Aboriginal Land Council and spoke to Sonny

Simms. He introduced me to Lynette Simms as my collaborator. I gave

myself over to Lynette’s guidance, because I was on her Country. We

wrote letters to people and dropped flyers off. Jerrinja LALC wanted a

separate project. But it was a start to just have Nowra people involved.

In the beginning I attended a huge community gathering organised

by Iris White, (ATSIC). There were lots of Aboriginal

women there – they were horrified [that we were

proposing to do an oral history]. They made

their objections very clear; ‘another government

department coming to take photos, knowledge, and

words and making their own careers out of our lives

and then we’d never hear anything as has happened

in the past’. They were quite vocal.

They did know me from my days at AIATSIS, because

I’d completed a project with the NSW Land Council

about genealogies from La Perouse to Jerrinja.

I reminded them of that; they had received their

information back from the genealogies, but also from

eight years of interaction from the AIATSIS Family

History Unit as well. But they were still concerned.

To them, I was working for a proper government

department now and, therefore, I was tarred with the

same (Government) brush.

And please note that it is correct that a lot of academics did make

their careers from collecting information from Aboriginal people.

Nowra’s objection was real. After that meeting with Iris White’s group,

some of the women approached me and said that they were not

having a go at me personally, just at the government. For those who

did participate, I returned their books to them and put all their photos

on CD, with the originals, so that they would not have to give their

original photos out to anyone in future, they received far more back

than I had taken for the publication.

Above: From left to right is: Diedre Martin, Graham Moore, Pamela Young, Maude Moore, Barbara MacKenzie (Maude’s daughter) and Berenice Carrington in a photo taken in the grounds of the old Bomaderry children’s home during a visit to Nowra in May 2008. Photo courtesy of Rod Wellington.

Berenice and Pamela’s visit to Nowra

Our visit to Nowra took place from the 14th to the 16th of May

2008. We contacted Sonny Simms and arranged to use the

old Bomaderry Children’s home as a meeting place to talk to

the women who had participated in the Heritage book. Rod

Wellington, the Aboriginal Heritage Conservation Officer based

at Nowra, let the Elders know that we were coming to visit. We

also involved Graham Moore, an Aboriginal Heritage Conservation

Officer from the Southern Region, because his mother, Maude

Moore, is one of the Elders who told her story in the book. Deidre

Martin, the local Aboriginal Discovery Coordinator helped us out

with transport and following up with some of the Elders.

Summary of the feedback

There is a sense in the feedback from the Elders that they are

showing the world their history for the first time. Stepping

forward to tell their stories after so much silence must have taken

a great deal of courage. Maude Moore talks about the disrespect

for Aboriginal culture and symbols that persists in some sections

of the broader Nowra community. In particular, she describes how

the local Mayor burnt an Aboriginal flag that she’d sat up sewing

all night. These Elders, through their stories, appear to be helping

their community to assert the significance of their shared history.

This support has also extended to distributing their copies of the

Nowra book to schools, to family and to friends.

The women who we spoke to described the process of recording

and publishing their oral histories as something that they enjoyed

doing. Nellie Mooney stressed the importance of Elders advising

family members about their intentions to record and publish their

oral history, so that relatives are not taken by surprise to find their

names in print.

Feedback from the story-tellers:

Alice Adams

Sadly, Alice passed away before we had a chance to contact her.

Cheryl Carpenter

Cheryl didn’t feel like talking the day we met. However, while we

were explaining the purpose of the review, Cheryl looked through

the Nowra book and made the following comments:

To tell you the honest truth I haven’t read the book. I got one copy

and I gave it to my sister. I enjoyed it. A bit sad too. I used to sit on

the steps with my brother, we was eating the tinned meat then and

crying thinking about what was my Mum and Dad eating for dinner.

Hard times but good times.

Cheryl looking at an old photo of herself at the start of her story:

Ooh stylin’ up there! I used to be a size 8. That was the best time, I

reckon those ones [houses on the mission] are better than what

they got there now. I still go to the mish to get my oysters. We always

had a feed of sea food.

Later, Cheryl spoke to Rod Wellington and Deidre Martin and said

that she was happy with the books.

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Grace Coombes

Sadly, Grace passed away before we had a chance to contact her.

Nellie Mooney

I’m happy with it. The school’s got it at Ulladulla High, I donated my

book to them. My friend printed me out a copy from the web, because

she thought I didn’t have one! Another friend was at Fitzroy Falls and

saw the book in a display on the wall. I felt so proud that the story

was getting out. I didn’t know that the schools use it. There were

things about the stolen generation I didn’t know. The book is tracing

a history trip down memory lane. There’s a wonderful collection of

stories. It‘s a feeling within (your Aboriginal heritage). My grandson,

he’s 19 now, when he was little he saw a small dead snake – they were

telling him not to touch and to be careful – he said, “I’m Aboriginal,

I’m OK”. No matter who you talk to there is always a connection.

My advice to anyone telling their story for the first time is to speak to

your family and anyone else whose name you might mention when

you are talking so they know about it and can tell you if they are

comfortable to have their name published in your story.

Maude Moore

Maude on the experience of recording the oral history:

Very good it was. She was a nice lady to talk to, very polite. Some

people you can talk to and some you can’t.

Started the Cultural Centre [the Aboriginal Cultural Centre at

Nowra, now due for demolition] at my house when the kids were

little. It was put there for every walk of life to use. Lot of history there,

my brother and sister got buried from there. They had weddings,

funerals, deb balls. There was a few of us set it up. There was Auntie

Janie Ardler, Auntie Gracie, Auntie Effie (little Ethel); Auntie Bell

McLeod, Auntie Ettie and the Bell sisters, Auntie Beryl, Auntie Maudie

and Auntie Edna. We used to take in all the old alcoholics off the

street. I was at the culture centre fourteen and half years ago.

The land is valuable; [a supermarket chain] wants it – when they

want the land they take it off the Aborigines. To me it’s greediness

with no respect to the people, they could have built around it. No

body wanted the land when we got it for the centre. It was a big hole

there, across the road was the sales yard, it was a dirty old hole.

Right: Graham Moore, an Aboriginal Heritage Conservation Officer from the Southern Region, shares a joke with his mother, Maude Moore, one of the Elders from the Nowra Heritage book.

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I think I’ve worked in all the halls and rooms here when we were

raising funds for the cultural centre. I’ve got it all in a book at home,

a lot of water passed under the bridge. After the centre opened we

had a raising of the Aboriginal flag on the official pole in Nowra for

NAIDOC day. I sat up ‘til 3 o’clock in the morning sewing it by hand.

Eddie raised the Koori flag up and Greg Watson [Mayor of Nowra]

took it down and burnt it.

When my brother-in-law died I planted three roses, I’ll ask them

for them when they tear it down. It upsets me when I go past it. I

have a cry to myself. Someone comes along… they should have put

someone in there who was knowledgeable about bookwork. It passed

from one family to another, that’s not the way to do things.

Rose Mumbler Village23 it’s a beautiful place for old people. The ones

that put the petition up, they ended up there. They are long gone. It’s

all changed now, it’s all fenced off and gates up the front stop the old

people getting out.

I worked there for three and a half years. I took care of Auntie Celia.

She was such an old princess. She was only a tiny little thing. She’d

sit up and talk about her family. She loved my pumpkin scones and

soup. I found her… in bed; they took her in an Ambulance to Berry

hospital. I ended up leaving because I couldn’t... they end up like one

of your family.

Lynette Simms

Lynette spoke to Rod Wellington and Deidre Martin, who said that

she was happy with the books.

Glenda Carpenter Smith

Unfortunately, Glenda was unable to attend the feedback session..

Barbara Timbery

Sadly, Barbara was unable to participate in the feedback.

23 When it opened, the Rose Mumbler Village was the first retirement home for Aboriginal people to open on the south coast; there were nursing homes and retirement homes in Sydney and in Kempsey.

In the background: Roseby Park, 1959. National Archives of Australia: A 1200, L 32020

Clockwise from top: Diedre Martin, Graham Moore, Rod Wellington and Berenice Carrington during a visit to Nowra in May 2008 ; Taken during the same visit is Maude Moore, Berenice Carrington and Rod Wellington; and, examining the Nowra Heritage Book together, is Deidre Martin, the local Aboriginal Discovery Coordinator, and Glenda Carpenter Smith.