Aboriginal children have no trust for them because they can see the injustices that their family experience.
Faktorovich: What is it like for your sister, Debbie, to live on a remote Aboriginal community, Djarindjin, in modern times?
Collard-Spratt: She loves it there; being surrounded by all Aboriginal people. They are on Country; they can live off the land and the culture is strong, the language is strong, ceremony is strong. They’ve built good houses now where before it was just tin sheds. She feels a deep sense of belonging there.
Faktorovich: Do they have easy access to utilities, including internet?
Collard-Spratt: I don’t think they have the internet. They don’t even have phone coverage. But that’s not important to them. Just walking on their own Country and feeling that connection is more important than having all of these white things.
Faktorovich: Are the houses and other structures in a good state or in need of major renovations?
Collard-Spratt: They look okay.
Faktorovich: Are there jobs?
Collard-Spratt: There are not that many jobs. Debbie works at a safe house for women and children, but I don’t think there are many jobs in these remote communities.
Faktorovich: If not, how do they get by? Do they fish, hunt, farm or otherwise utilize the land?
Collard-Spratt: They don’t farm; they live off the land and the sea by hunter-gathering; they catch turtles, crocodile, barramundi, mudcrabs.
Faktorovich: Why was Debbie’s community in danger of closing in 2015?
Collard-Spratt: Because the State government wanted their land for mining.
Faktorovich: Were there problems with depopulation, unemployment, and the like that made keeping it unsafe for the residents, or was it just a fiscal question for the government?
Collard-Spratt: The government would rather make money from the land than support people to live on it who have lived there since time began. Money is more important to the government than people.
Ferro: The WA government did make arguments that the closure of many of its remote communities was in the interests of child safety, but they had de-funded community and health services in these communities, thereby providing no support or care to these families.
Faktorovich: How did you guys go about researching Rhonda’s parents and grandparents with the help of the Freedom of Information act? Did you have to go to an archive to retrieve these files (if so, where)? Were they shipped to you?
Collard-Spratt: In 1999, I was studying Indigenous art at Griffith Uni and we were talking a lot about family. The teachers told me who to contact. First, I rang up the FOI Division of the Department of Child Protection in WA. They said that before I could get anything I had to fill in a form and get permission from all of my aunties. So, I did that, and they sent me many records of my mother, grandmother, grandfather, and great-grandmother. Aboriginal people’s lives were controlled so much that every letter and memo was documented. I also wrote away for my own records, but I was told they never had a file for me. When I started working with Jacki in 2013, we wrote an email to this same department. They posted to us a few records from my life at the mission, but many details such as the authorities’ names, and who placed me into the mission and why, were all blanked out.
Faktorovich: Rhonda, what was the most surprising thing you learned from these records about your ancestors?
Collard-Spratt: The strength of their spirit, and the determination of my mother, my grandmothers, and my grandfather who all survived oppression, dispossession, separation from family, Country and culture, and racism. Their wages, as well as their children were stolen. They had a strong will to survive. If not for them, we wouldn’t be where we are today. That determination is the gift they have passed on to me; the gift to face a new day and not to waste a moment in life.
Faktorovich: Did you guys get a grant for this research project?
Ferro: No, we have done this entire book voluntarily.
Faktorovich: Did the government release these files easily or did they resist the request?
Ferro: They provided limited records, which are scanned and in the book, but FOI have deleted a lot of key information and potentially offensive material. We did not disclose to FOI that we wanted the information for Rhonda’s life story, but just for her personal interest.