Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For International Women's Day, I'm going to talk about my great-grandmother, Nan Edna Brown, a beloved elder who gave dignity to others, a Gunditjmara elder born in Hamilton, Victoria, in 1916. Nan was raised by her parents, George Clark and Mary-Anne nee Lovett McClennan, on Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve, where they used to round us up. Our family, including Nan's four siblings, survived mainly on what the land could provide. Nan used to go and fetch water from the river and walk two miles to school. In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, 15-year-old Nan Edna and her dad jumped on the back of a truck and left Framlingham's oppressive regime run by missionaries. The government policy of the day was to assimilate our people who had mixed heritage. If you had a little bit of white blood, it was like, 'Go and assimilate 'em.' My great-grandmother was subjected to that. We still see that happening in this country today. This, of course, was also part of the colonial plan to wipe us out.

My great-grandmother's legacy and love lives within her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was a driving force in the 1960s and set up the Aboriginal Funeral Fund, our first Aboriginal funeral fund in Victoria because our people were being buried as paupers. Nan helped her daughter establish the first Aboriginal health service in Victoria. Nan also helped Aunty Iris Lovett-Gardiner establish the first Aboriginal Community Elders Service in Victoria. Nan Edna was also the 1986 NAIDOC Aboriginal person of the year. So I come from good stock. I come from a strong matriarchal line, and I'm here for a lot longer—so get used to it.