Page 37 - 10th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference and Festival Magazine

Charles Town Maroon International Conference Magazine June 2018

Aunty Rhonda Collard-Spra talks about

Connection to Country in Aboriginal Australia

An interview with Jacki Ferro

Aboriginal elder Rhonda Collard-Spratt has collab- one with nature up high in the tree. But, about six years
orated with Jacki Ferro to record her memoir, Alice’s ago, I found out about my Country when I went to
Daughter: Lost mission child (AIATSIS, 2017): It tells Kalbarri on holidays. I got the biggest lump under my
of Rhonda’s search for culture and family as she faced arm and it wouldn’t heal, forcing me to stay there for
violence, racism, foster families, and her father’s death three months. My Country didn’t want me to leave. I
in custody. This interview was recorded in March 2018. eventually went to the doctor who told me it was lucky
I saw him because I could
Tell me about your Connection to have died from septicaemia.
Country. What does it mean to One morning, I sat bolt
you? upright in bed, waking with a
Well, I didn’t have a connection for question in my mind: I
a long time, because I was removed wonder if anyone alive knows
from my family at age three through my grandmother, great-grand-
Australia’s Stolen Generation mother, and my father? I put
policy. Growing up in Carnarvon, these thoughts on hold
Western Australia, that’s where my because I thought nobody
heart is because it carries a lot of my would know these answers.
childhood memories. But, when I After breakfast, my daughter
became an adult, I realised that asked me to go to the official
Carnarvon wasn’t my native land. I opening of our land as
found out recently that my Country protected National Park.
on my father’s side is Nhanda Many Aboriginal people were
Country, based around Kalbarri, there. I saw this old fella.
further south in WA. Even before I Maybe he would know, I
knew this, I always felt that I thought. I told him my name
belonged there. I walked barefoot on and, before I could finish, he
the riverbank and I just felt deeply grabbed me and hugged me.
spiritual there and that this was home. But I had no He said, “This is your family and this is your Country,
knowledge that this was my ancestral land while lying and that’s your ocean. I know your father, and I knew
on that riverbank. We are both saltwater and his mother.” So, I got those answers that day.
freshwater people because the Murchison River meets
the Indian Ocean and the red earth meets the sand What’s your first memory of your Connection to
there. At night, lying in bed, I listened to the waves Country?
crashing, and it gave me a sense of deep inner peace. Growing up in the mission, we were given no love.
They only wanted to save our souls, and I was just one
When did you first become aware of the power of of hundreds of children. As a child, laying in the wild-
Country in your life? flowers in the bush, I felt safe because they surrounded
As a kid up in the gum tree I felt the power of Mother you like a hug. They smelt so beautiful. I lay in silence
Earth – with the birds, the smell of the land, just being with the smell of the flowers and the bees, watching

36