'Mulu Maguydan': A collection of stories from our Elders

Margot Shave

Secondary English Teacher

Mulu Maguydan:

A collection of stories from our Elders

Following the success of our first publication, Gidhal, in 2020, St Margaret’s is proud to launch Mulu Maguydan, a collection of Elder stories, during NAIDOC Week 2022. The magazine is a culmination of 18 months of conversations and research by the 32 First Nations students of St Margaret’s and was coordinated by me and Assistant Head of the English Faculty Noel Peinke.

The project is the result of an Innovation Grant, awarded to both teachers in March 2021, allowing funds to organise excursions and incursions for these students to meet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, writers, journalists, elders, curators, and librarians working in and around Brisbane. As two non-Indigenous teachers, it was vitally important that the voices for this project came from First Nations people. In this, we owe a debt of gratitude to Aunty Lesley Williams, Rhianna Patrick, Ellen van Neerven, Nikita Newley and staff from the Queensland State Library for sharing their time and expertise in working with the girls through their storytelling, art workshops and writing sessions. Both Gidhal and Mulu Maguydan (moo-loo moog-eye-dun) are tangible acts of Reconciliation within our school as the goal behind both projects has been to strengthen relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians through sharing knowledge. This comes from asking questions and learning about the unique community and culture of the families of our First Nations students. The end result is a repository of stories for the entire St Margaret’s community. In the time since Gidhal was published in October 2020, the magazine has been used across the entire school with First Nations students sharing their stories with Pre-Prep and primary classes. Articles from the magazine were used in the Year 10 Religion, Values and Ethics classes. The Sociocultural Faculty also used Aunty Lesley Williams’ stories as part of their Year 10 Rights and Freedoms unit in Term 3 last year, looking at how the lives of Indigenous Australians were controlled by the government. The magazine was also awarded an Innovative Schools Award in 2020 for its contribution to Reconciliation, by The Educator magazine. For Mulu Maguydan – or Elder Stories as the project was named during the 18 months working period – the students were asked to think about an Elder from their family or wider community and spend time learning more about their childhood, work life and their hopes and dreams for the future. At publication, we have a beautiful magazine, published in-house by our marketing department, which becomes another rich vein of stories from our First Nations families. We are honoured to read of Chantay and Aaliyah Turner’s grandmother, Aka Kailang, a proud Wagadagam woman from Mabuiag (Mabuyag) Island in the Torres Strait, who worked to support women who had been victims of domestic violence until she passed away in 2007. We learn of Sharlotte Parker-Barry’s Aunt and Elder, Aunty Kerry, and her childhood spent around Mt Isa, learning to hunt and cook goanna, kangaroo and bush turkey. We imagine the life of pearl diver Ali Drummond, who worked on pearling ships in the Torres Strait and raised seven children with his wife, Carmen, on Thursday Island. The stories invite us in and allow us a moment to consider the racism and injustice experienced by these family members and the stories of grandparents and relatives who spent their lives living under the Aboriginal Protection Act, finally repealed in 1969, (National Museum of Australia 2022). They also remind us of resilience and many of the extraordinary lives of these Elders. Above all, these are stories for our collective future. Each interview has been shared willingly and students are to be applauded for their commitment and respect shown to the process. I would like to thank the staff who generously supported Elder Stories over the past few months, the students who worked tirelessly on their submissions, and above all, the families of our First Nations students who fielded phone calls and emails, sent photos, shared artworks, answered questions and placed their trust in us to share their stories in this publication.

References

Mulu Maguydan Pronounced moo-loo moog-eye-dun

Meaning Story Stone From the Jandai/Guwar/Yagara languages which is spoken by the Nunagal, Goenbal and Ngugi peoples from Quandamooka Country.

National Museum of Australia 2022, Defining Moments: Aborigines Protection Act, viewed 31 May 2022, https://www.nma.gov.au/ defining-moments/resources/aborigines-protection-act SUNATA 51