Coastal Dreaming
I wasn’t sure how to kick this article off so I have decided to introduce myself and talk a bit about
my interests and history of who I am. My name is Werrima Yeppa aka Stuart McMinn, I work in
the social welfare sector and I am heavily involved with my Aboriginal community. I am the proud
father of three beautiful and of course, highly intelligent children, My eldest child Rheese is 13,
my middle child is 9 year old Rhiley and my baby girl Talieya is 3. I am a man from the Dharug and
Waka Waka Nations. Dharug country is most of western Sydney through the Blue Mountains and
down to parts of the Hawksberry River. My Great Grandmothers country is Waka Waka which
is near a place called Gimpy in QLD. On my mother’s side I am of the first fleet decent with my
Stuart McMinn
ancestors having been sent to Australia as convicts.
So, I am in a very unique position of having the oldest connection to this country on both sides of
Stuart McMinn - Minning Minni my heritage; through Aboriginal Australians that have been here for at least 60,000 years (and since
the beginning of time if you go by many Aboriginal Australians beliefs) and the first English who
colonised this country. Although I predominately identify as an Aboriginal man I feel it is important to
acknowledge all parts of who I am.
I have lived on the Coast since I was two and I have a large connection to this country that we
traditionally acknowledge as the land of the Darkinjung and Gu-ring-gai country. I have walked this
country most of my life and feel that the Central Coast is a very special place made up of many
diverse cultures and amazing people. The cultural heritage that is here on the coast is phenomenal.
The Central Coast is home to over 5000 recorded Aboriginal sites which is one of the largest amounts
of Aboriginal sites in a condensed area within Australia. I often visit these sites and ensure that our
traditional practices are still kept alive and are passed onto our children.
If you haven’t worked it out yet a lot of my future articles will be focussed on Aboriginal issues,
both traditional and contemporary; raising awareness of the beauties of Aboriginal culture and the
complexities of our cultural practices. The 20th of March 2014 was the official “Close the Gap Day”; a
day set aside to look at the social, educational, employment and health disadvantages that Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Australians face in today’s society.
There is a lot of work being done to close the gap on the poor outcomes for
Stuart with members of
his dance group Minning
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people. However people from this group
Minni Kaiwarrine (night
are still dying many years earlier than most non-Aboriginal Australians. These
no more)
rates are contributed to by poor educational outcomes, poor health outcomes
and very poor levels of employment which also translates into high levels of
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples being incarcerated. As a result of
the known outcomes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still have the
highest number of deaths in custody than any other racial group within Australia.
If we as Australians are going to assist in this process we must get serious
about working with and alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
in order to ensure the survival of the world’s oldest peoples and culture. The
2014 “Close the Gap” report shows nowhere near enough progress on this
issue. As a nation, we can not stand by and watch these issues continue, and
Indigenous Australians can only succeed in this area when working in partnership with all Australians.
There is no easy fix to these issues and I want to point out that the solution comes in part from the little things we as Australians
do within our professional practice when working with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples. This for m