Moving Forward Together in Aboriginal Women's Health: - Theses ...

Moving Forward TogetherJanet KellyThe only way for Aboriginal people to (legally) leave missions was to receivepermission or to gain an exemption stating that they were no longer Aboriginal(Aboriginal Women's Reference Group 2005). Auntie Veronica explains;A lot of Aboriginal people lived in Adelaide when I was young. They wereusually the Aboriginal people who had gained citizen ship rights, eitherAboriginal women who had married white men or because they had appliedfor citizenship. They were classified as white people by the government andhad more freedom (Brodie & Gale 2002).If these options were not possible, Aboriginal women were at risk of being forcedto remain in unsafe situations. Once again I refer to Auntie Veronica Brodie whodiscusses how Christian morals, Western values and mission rules forced hermother to return and stay in a violent relationship;I had many silent thoughts about my Mothers’ marital problems. I think at onestage my mother and father separated. Later it became apparent to me that mymother had fallen in love with another chap, Proctor Wilson, my dad’s cousin.She left my dad and took myself and my brother and sister to live with him.Years later I received a letter from Mrs Marjorie Angas, previously a welfareofficer of the Aborigines Protection Board, telling me about this great loveaffair between my mother and Proctor Wilson. The letter said that mum wasordered back to Rauukan by the Protection Board and told to go back to herhusband. You see they had a hold on her, because if she didn’t go back, thenthey would have taken us children away.There was always this constant threat over people with children. Thehappiness of the children didn’t count. The Protection Board just laid this onus, and that was it. We had to jump when told, or else. That was their way ofdealing with you (Brodie & Gale 2002, pp. 45-6).Auntie Veronica goes on to say that her mother spent many years in a violentrelationship, separated from the man she loved. To protect her daughter from theabuse, she sent her to Adelaide to live with her aunties. Often Aboriginal women,their partners and families experienced the trauma of having their childrenremoved. This has become known as the stolen generations (Human Rights andEqual Opportunities Commission (HROEC) 2005).45