Listen To Ngarrindjeri Women Speaking

A$34.95

Diane Bell

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

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Diane Bell

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

Diane Bell

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 WinchABC 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 DunsfordAustralian 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 BartlettEureka 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