My Dad lost his parents when he was 10 years old. He was jailed for loving my jamuny (grandmother/father’s mother). Later, my Anglo grandfather was imprisoned for breaching the Native Administration Act of Western Australia, in that he was cohabiting with my grandmother. Meaning she had not given up her language, culture and traditions and assimilated into a ‘white’ way of living. Part of his reason was that she had not adopted the manner and habits of civilised life. In the late 1940s, a magistrate in the court of Broome refused my great-grandmother's application for a certificate of citizenship (in her own country) under the Native Citizen Rights Act of Western Australia. It read: "Send cask arsenic exterminate aborigines letter will follow." This gives a glimpse into the thinking of the time which of course played out in traumatic and dehumanising ways.īoth my family and community have experienced premature deaths from suicide, preventable health issues, grief and inextricable trauma that has been inflicted on them. In 1907, a telegram from Broome station was sent to Henry Prinsep, the 'Chief Protector of Aborigines for Western Australia’ in Perth. And, two of those aunties spent a considerable time in an orphanage in Broome, despite the fact they were not orphans. As a result, my grandmother and aunties all finished up in the same mission. My great-grandmother was taken from her father when she was very young and placed in a mission in Western Australia. Our culture was desecrated and we were used for slave labour. My mob, the Yawuru people from Rubibi (Broome), were often brutally dislocated from our lands, and stripped of our livelihood. We need to face up to the fact that this nation has been built on racism it has been built around Indigenous people being seen as inferior. I get an insight into the real thought processes that underpin this country.īut I grew up feeling the shame other people made me feel for being Aboriginal and hating myself, because people constantly convinced me that I should. At times, non-Indigenous people have felt the freedom and comfort to be openly racist because they think I’ll be a comrade in their hate. I have not experienced the type of racism my darker-skinned family members have. Purely because of the colour of my fair skin, I have lived a much more privileged life than my Dad and my extended family. It’s about our culture, our traditions, our connection to Country and community, our ancestors and the long history that creates collective but diverse identities.īut, I have to speak the reality. I am a Yawuru woman.īeing Aboriginal is more than the colour of your skin or the blood that runs through your veins. Hello, how are you all? My name is Shannan Dodson. ![]() Students with accessibility requirements. ![]() ![]() Short course and microcredential participants.International Studies and Social Sciences.
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