Women of a Certain Age by Jodie Moffat

Author:Jodie Moffat
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fremantle Press
Published: 2018-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

Djana ngayu — Who am I? — Pat Mamanyjun Torres

Ngayu ngarrangu jarndu. Ngayu Djugun ngany, Jabirr-Jabirr ngany, Nyul-Nyul ngany, Bard ngany, Yawuru ngany, Karajarri ngany. I am Aboriginal woman. I belong to Djugun, Jabirr-Jabirr, Nyul-Nyul, Bard, Yawuru and Karajarri. My Aboriginal name is Mamanyjun, which is a red coastal berry (Mimusops elengi) that grows in the rainforest areas of our clan estates in Jabirr-Jabirr country. I am a strong and proud woman from the First Peoples of Australia. I am connected to Djugun, the original people of the Broome region, Jabirr-Jabirr, the original people of regions north of Broome and west of Beagle Bay. I am also connected to the Nyul-Nyul and Bard, who originated from areas north of Broome, and the Yawuru and Karajarri from areas to the south. I am also Scottish, English, Irish, Filipino and Surabaya-Indonesian on my mother’s side. I am approaching mirdanya, elder-status, and am in the ‘autumn years’ of my life. My children are Emmanuelle, Ramiquez, Gabrielle, Karim and Tornina. I currently have five grandchildren, Joriah, Evander, Kazali, Jivan and Angelous, all boys.

My mother is Mary Theresa ‘Warrarr’ Barker, descended from apical ancestors Milare and Keleregodo, who gave birth to Ida Mathilde Tiolbodonger, who married Catalino Torres, a Spanish-Filipino, and gave birth to Joseph Torres, my mother’s father. My mother’s mother Irene Drummond is a descendant of Mary Minyirr aka Mary Minyarl (Djugun) and Mary Bajinka II (Yawuru-Karajarri).

My father, John McGregor, is an Australian-born Scotsman descended from Hughie McGregor who came from Glasgow, Scotland, and Stella Cook from Dandaragan, near Perth, Western Australia. The continuing effect of the colonisation of Australia has meant that I have had minimal contact with this side of my family despite my attempts to be connected. Perhaps this is one reason why I am so passionate about my Aboriginal family lines, their histories and our knowledge systems.

My life has been an extraordinary one, full of stories of our families’ social and cultural histories, and how we interconnect with Australia’s First Peoples in the Kimberley region, and the Asian and European immigrants who came to live and work in this part of Australia. Many diverse peoples married our womenfolk from the Djugun, Yawuru, Jabirr-Jabirr and other people, thereby creating my descent line of the Torres and Drummond families. I have grown up with a great thirst and hunger for knowledge and am privileged to live in a time when Australian society is more supportive of Australia’s First Peoples, in comparison to the previous generations of my mother, grandmother and great-great-grandmother.

My great-great-grandmother, known as Mary Minyarl, was a Djugun woman from Ngunu-ngurra-gun, now known as Coconut Well, situated north of Broome, Western Australia. She lived at a time when women were kidnapped off the coast, enslaved in chains and forced to free dive for pearl shell for the early master pearlers. Mary Minyarl was removed from her family clan lands in Djugun country, and taken north into Jabirr-Jabirr clan lands to dive for pearl shells. She was also taken south into Yawuru lands along the coast to collect the large pearl shells with other Aboriginal women.

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