My four sons are my legacy

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My four sons are my legacy

by Raelene Baker 13 October 2015 Editor’s note: Raelene Baker presented the following speech at the Indigenous Business Month function in Brisbane last week.

Good Morning everyone, Bee Balka to all Elders, Executives, Scholars and Guests of the Indigenous Business Month Network - Brisbane breakfast.

I am Raelene Baker of Brisbane and to commence the occasion I have been invited to address you all today with a ‘Welcome to Country’.

I welcome you to Brisbane and also acknowledge our other Countrymen and Women present from other States, Territories and Nations.

This I am told is a very special event and I am privileged to be with you at this event which marks a celebration – the inaugural launch of the National Indigenous Business Month. Thank you to

The Baker family: Michael, Kris, David, Raelene and Murray. Images supplied

David Williams.

As some of you will be aware, the Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country at such events are important markers of respect to the First Nations people of Australia. In Queensland, we are the custodial descendants of two distinct first nations – both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

I am a senior Clan woman and Elder of the Birri Gubba nation in the Far North Qld Bowen region and a clan nation representative of the Yaggera, Yuggarabul Nations – these are both my grandparents’ and mother’s lineage connections.

I would also like to acknowledge those persons of other clan nations who are attending today and represent our countrymen and women, both Elders and younger people, and in particular those who have gone before us and laid

the foundations for us to build our futures. In doing this Welcome we honour and we acknowledge the ancestors and our ancient lores which have been practised by over 250 language groups across this continent for over 60,000 years.

We stand proudly as members of the World’s Oldest continuous Living Culture.

A ‘Welcome to Country’ protocol is based on generations of tradition where you wait on the border of another’s country to state your business, to network and dialogue, as you will be doing today, and to receive approval to enter onto that custodial land to do your business, ceremony and/or settle disputes (Trade Agreement). Brisbane River, the hills and the flat lands of greater Brisbane are held inmemorial as sites of significance for ceremony, celebration, initiations and sacred lore business. In

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particular, the river and the highest points of Brisbane were sacred mens’ and womens’ Dreaming areas. Kulpurin-Jaggin Clan is now commonly known as JaggaraYuggarapul.

Through these occasions, such as the Indigenous Business Month, we are drawing our attention to an Indigenous presence in this country and to the positive stories, the successes of our people in current times. Sporting, Business, the Arts, Medicine, Academia, Government and Private Industry are but a few where we have GREATS and emerging greats. ‘Go the Cowboys’ in our recent football win. I believe we now have in excess of 50 politicians across the country and representative in various levels of Government.

Undeniably, history has dealt us an unjust card and still we witness in pockets of this country those who continue to be paralysed from the unfortunate injustices. Since I was a child of the 1950s I have seen dramatic changes in opportunities in education and health, freedom and behaviours, access to being what you want to be, the choices to own a business with the support and motivation by some of our past GREATS such as our first Senator Uncle Neville Bonner and in the face of such adversity.

I was fortunate to have been mentored by this wonderful man when I belonged as a teenager to an Indigenous organization called One People of Australia League (OPAL), in Brisbane. I was also inspired by an former boss, the great Charles Perkins when I lived in Canberra for 10 years and worked for The Dept. of Aboriginal Affairs. He was a hard task master in terms of ‘only the best will do’, ‘ be professional’, ‘no more poor buggar me’, this is the opportunity for you all to become professional career people. He had strict ‘rules and codes of conduct’ with Indigenous staff right down to what we wore to work - suits, stockinged

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legs, shoes (no thongs). He was a proud business man and Australia’s first Assistant Secretary for the DAA – the most senior Indigenous posting during the 1970s. He was a Freedom Rider for the people in so many ways.

I have had a variety of careers and was always motivated to learn and thirsted for education and learning new things in so many industries. I commenced my first job as a Ladies Hairdresser age 15years when I left school and needed to support my family and got a job in a trade which took me to places I never imagined, I did my apprenticeship in Brisbane over 4 years, completed college and graduated. I then went on to train under some now renowned Greek Salon owners. I managed 3 shops in Brisbane during the late 1960s and 1970s. The work was tough with long hours. I built “dead” salons up into booming live businesses.

Later on, I won a position in Qld Health where I worked as a Health Worker and was posted to many Aboriginal Communities across Far North Qld. I met and married a Sydney man David Baker in a place called Aurukun near Weipa in 1972, he was based in Kurumba. David was a Biologist for CSIRO, we later married and moved to Canberra in 1974. David has Wiradjuri (Koori) lineage. I later advanced my education from year 10 and did a fast track years 11 and 12 in one year. I qualified for University and commenced my degree at ANU in 1977. There were only 2 Aboriginal people studying there at that time, myself and Marcia Langton, there was little support, it was a foreign environment for me, no Indigenous Support Unit’s back then. I also completed a Diploma in a Business course from a private college in Canberra during the late 1970s. I also taught Hairdressing at the School of Hairdressing, Canberra and went on to manage 3 Salons in Canberra from the absentee owner. They were

very successful and I earned big bonuses. I could run a Salon with my eyes closed still today. I enjoy challenges and variety.

I grew up with a father who owned a truck which he purchased and worked 6 days a week to pay for. He was a very hard worker.

Dad is 89 years today and very fit, he always said to me it’s not all about what you earn, it’s how you manage your money, don’t waste it. He invested later in life into property and cattle in Maleny, Qld. Our family worked hard on the farm, dipping and rounding up cattle, Dad did this on weekends and worked on the truck doing contracts during the week, or supported one of our Murri community families move house because we had a truck my dad Ray was always in demand – he never stopped. We rented a rundown old American ex-army hut in Victoria Park, Brisbane with community showers and toilets, we later on moved into a proper government house with running water and our very own toilet and shower. Both Mum and Dad grew up in the bush and we would go back there for a spell. Dad did well by his own hands. My Mum was his great support. There was money back then - no Abstudy, no Dole. I could go on with my stories and my experiences.

Personally, I have also been in the business of buying run down old houses, working hard to fix them up and on-selling. I learned these skills from the experience I had as a Housing Loans Officer when in DAA - Aboriginal Development Commission. I spent 30 years in various departments of government where I developed other skills, often in areas where I was managing financial budgets, managing and developing new programs, a bit like running my own business. I have held senior roles with many responsibilities for government programs.

I have always worked as an

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adult, even when I had my 4 children. For me personally, by far my biggest investment has been in my 4 sons of which I am so proud.

I am a natural goal setter with short term and long term visions.

My sons have been my long-term vision and investment. We have kept them loved, fed and educated all in that order. This goal was one that was never going to fold on me, dissolve or go bust. It is a continuing life partnership with my sons who we have put through good education, which I didn’t receive until I self-schooled in my 20s. They are fortunate, but they work so hard for what they have today. I am a firm task master with a logarithm which has worked for me. My family have put their grit and their minds and determination to the wheel. I now have 3 of my 4 sons who are Doctors – one medical and two dental - with the fourth who for personal reasons left Uni. but is equally loved and happy. My youngest son Michael has a Business Degree (First Class Honours) and now just finalising his second Degree in Dentistry, finishing next month. I am so proud of my 3 Doctors - Dr Kristopher Rallah-Baker (a finalyear Ophthalmologist trainee), Dr David Baker (Dentistry), and Dr Michael Baker (Dentistry). My

Kris and Raelene.

long term vision has remained – endurable and sustainable they are now role-models to our Communities. My two dentists are investing into their own Dental Clinic. It is long hours and very hard work. One of my dentists recently ran a pro bono day at the practice to help homeless youth by fixing teeth and ‘putting smiles back on faces’. My sons are all caring and giving people. My son Michael recently co-ordinated with his university colleagues a dental clinic in Cherbourg Community Qld. Both my sons David and Michael have been instrumental in managing this clinic during their Uni. leave periods where the voluntary dental team offer free dental services in a rural region.

My son Dr Kristopher RallahBaker is the first Aboriginal person to have reached the final year of training in Ophthalmology. On completion of his final exams he will be this country’s first Aboriginal Eye Surgeon. As his mother, I am so very proud, as a very high level of commitment is needed to achieve this goal. My Kris works tirelessly in pursuit of his dream. He is so dedicated.

My children are now the living testaments to a history of ongoing

strong commitment, determination, hardship, pride of culture and getting on with life in the 21st Century. I still work full time and they watch me keep happening along at my age, which is so important for you all here, as we are the role models, mentors and the supporting human scaffolding.

Indigenous Business Month is an opportunity for you. Draw on all your strengths, to network, develop, to dream your dream, to have dialogue and conversations which will support futures, with ongoing joy and new opportunities in employment, enterprise skills, to build your own self capacity, your family capacity and your community capacity as the viable and sustainable community business models of the country’s future.

Have fun and all the very best in your chosen ventures. On behalf of the Yaggara, Yuggarapul Nation custodians past, present and future, Bee Balka Naree Ba Bing, Wanjina Beera Wa Munyal, Nga Yagga Jarra As you travel around Yugger Djarra, Beera Wanjina Bless you, protect you, And take you safely home, tall and strong as Danduru.

Welcome.

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