Nice Comment

Comment was by Mrs.B 23 hours ago

I think I'll see if I can read that book.

Comment was by Joan Denoo 23 hours ago

Another important book was Piri Thomas's Down These Mean Streets.

Comment was by Joan Denoo 23 hours ago

If we fail to remember or can no longer remember the stories of our ancestors, that wisdom cannot be recovered. History books, written by the winners of battles fail to gain the perspective of the losers of wars. I would love to know the stories of my Cherokee ancestry, however, my maternal grandfather was ashamed of his 1/2 Cherokee heritage. His mother was a beautiful woman and I have one photo of her. She sat for a portrait, very regal, dressed in a dress she made by hand. 

I would love to have heard her version of the treatment of her people by the dominant society. 

While working with Blacks, I immersed myself in Black literature. One of the most important books I read was Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. 

Comment was by Joan Denoo 23 hours ago

Davy, I am very sorry you were not able to sit down with your elders and hear their stories, see their arts and crafts, and eat their foods. Perhaps you can recover some of that history for your family and community. Once their stories can not be remembered, they are lost to posterity. 

Comment was by Joan Denoo 23 hours ago

I had two years of exposure to Black students in a Washington, D.C. housing project and was able to build trust with their mothers. They told stories that went back to the enslavement days and before. Their verbal history moved me deeply. 

I also had two years of exposure to Athabascan Indian students while teaching at Kenai, Alaska. Their mothers also participated in our classroom activities and they told of totems, animal spirits, and the natural phenomena of their culture; they, too, impressed me with the native wisdom of their society.

My two-year exposures occurred because I was married to an army dentist and we transferred every two years. 

These experiences offered me the opportunity to meet families of different cultures and I am so grateful for those experiences. 

Sadly, you did not have the opportunity to sit down with your grandmothers or great-grandmothers and hear their stories and share their feelings and knowledge. 

I looked up the Awabakal culture and read all that I could find. When learning about another culture, I seek information about their history, their family structure, the foods they ate, the arts including crafts and music. By immersing myself in these topics, I am better able to fit in with a group in a relatively short period of time. For example, while in Alaska, I ate muktuk, uguruk, and pickled moose nose.

I ran across this video while looking up how to spell uguruk, and my experiences with storytellers or memories of the elders were very much like this video. 

Comment was by Davy yesterday

Just a little something
Awabakal/ Awabaghal  means People of the plain.
I think that the plain they were referring to was what is now called Lake Macquarie which is in our Ngurambang (country) as the topography of the area there is scarcely any flat or even undulating surface you could describe as a plain. 
My Wiradjuri cousins their name means
People of the the three rivers
Wambuul (Macquarie River)
Galari (Lachlan River)
Marrambidya (Murrumbidgee River)

Comment was by Davy yesterday

Stephen
I do not expect you to feel ashamed of who you are for you did not carry out the events of history nor did any of your people who are alive now.
I have no bitterness against what has occurred just a sense of loss for what I should know about our Lore/law which came from the Dreamtime of my people

You and I nor anyone else can undo what has been done as that is now set in the sands of the river of time. But we can learn to  acknowledge  what was did back then for what it was and it is only when we learn to acknowledge that history no matter how bitter the taste of truth is of those past events can  you and I and everyone else move forward and build  something better than what we had together.

Comment was by Davy yesterday

I think there has been some misunderstanding to my last post about my Mother.
It was My Father's mother that was the Awabakal woman who was removed from her mother in placed in the care of a white couple. 
My mother's great,great, great Grandmother was transported to the colony of New South Wales on the lady Juliana as convict for stealing a dress of another young girl  after that her indictment to be hanged was changed to life in the penal colony. Former prime minister of Australia Kevin Rudd is also one Mary Wades descendants,
I identify with my people even though my culture and Aboriginal heritage was taken away when they denied my grandmother her culture and heritage and was forbidden to pass her knowledge of our  language and our  stories of the dreamtime.
The lies that they told my Grandmother were the same exact lies my European mother used to prevent the authorities from removing her children from her.
Yes my mother did have courage in the face of the events that unfolded in her life.

Comment was by Ian Mason yesterday

You had a very brave mother, Davy. The way Europeans have treated other humans beings around the world is shameful and I have yet to see honest, sincere efforts at national levels to improve the future. Indigenous populations have had to fight hard for every tiny gain.

Comment was by Joan Denoo yesterday

Davy, I'm sorry to learn of the many challenges your mother faced. She had to have courage and resilience to cope with the problems confronting her. Having to hide the truth about her heritage or lose her children indicates she had determination. She revealed qualities of strong character for which you can be rightly proud. Thank you for sharing her story. 

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