Australia: Differences Melt Away in Aboriginal and Filipino Women Story Sharing in Fairfield

[Harold Schiffman]

Differences Melt Away in Aboriginal and Filipino Women Story Sharing
in Fairfield


DEBORAH RUIZ WALL's latest oral history project Storytelling Around
the Dining Table: A Workshop with Aboriginal and Filipino Women was
launched at the Fairfield City Museum & Gallery on 13th October 2007
with an exhibition opening that showcased Aboriginal and Filipino
stories, their portraits, treasured photographs, Filipino traditional
costumes, relics, and Aboriginal mementoes.


The torment experienced by some of Australia's original inhabitants
and the pre- and post-immigration stories of Filipino women revealed
the Australian psyche and some of the foundation from which this
country emerged. If we are to learn from our past and from the wisdom
of our elders, we need to undertake 'deep listening' to stories such
as theirs — stories of struggle, disappointment, losses, triumphs,
achievements and vision. In the Fairfield City storytelling project,
we caught a glimpse of the storytellers' sense of 'belonging to
country'. We saw that the identity taking process is dynamic and
interactive and that it involves not only individual consciousness but
also recognition, respect and acknowledgment within the larger
community.

For immigrants, it seems that this sense of 'belonging' evolves and
does not depend on fitting into government or media stereotype of
Australian-ness or passing a citizenship test. What is involved in
adopting a new country as one's own? Some Australians who have other
backgrounds feel in their hearts that they have two homelands.
Aboriginal elder Aunty Mae Robinson uses the 'walking tracks'
metaphor: 'We might have walked different tracks but we still got
here.'

Living together and sharing the resources available in this country,
courtesy of the hospitality of the original Aboriginal inhabitants and
our Anglo-Australian compatriots literally provide us common ground.
But how far have we matured after one hundred and six years since
Federation? How broad has our outlook become since then? Have we
become inclusive, exclusive or pluralist in our orientation?
Aboriginal Australians, I feel, are much more inclusive and welcoming
of other cultures than the settlers who desired an exclusive 'White
population' in 1901. This exclusive orientation was given official
blessing by the Commonwealth Government which passed the Immigration
Act of 1901, commonly known as the 'White Australia Policy'. This
policy played a major role in shaping the lives of both our Aboriginal
and Filipino storytellers in Fairfield.

Both groups are not white, and this Aunty Yvonne Clayton found as
common ground shared between Aboriginal and Filipino women. She
remarked: 'I guess especially in Australia, anyone with a bit of a tan
or anyone that has got colour is going to be discriminated against,
because you are different. It doesn't matter where you came from or
what language you speak, you will be discriminated against because
Australians are a racist mob… rednecks, white Australians. Half of
them weren't even from Australia to begin with…'

Two of our Aboriginal storytellers were from the 'Stolen Generation'.
They were legally taken away from their families and placed in girls'
homes — a 'stolen generation' phenomenon which was a by-product of an
exclusive national orientation. Our Filipino women storytellers, on
the other hand, were able to come to Australia only after the White
Australia Policy officially ended. But their arrival here was part of
a much longer story of immigration. At the time of the promulgation of
the Immigration Act of 1901, there were 689 Filipino settlers in
Australia. The implementation of the Act greatly decreased their
numbers to 444 in 1911 and 141 in 1947.[1]

What until recently was an untold story was that at the top end of
Australia in the nineteenth century, some Filipino settlers
inter-married with Aboriginal people. So our connection with
Aboriginal Australians is much longer than people generally believe.

Gary Lee from Darwin wrote a play which he called 'Keep Him my Heart:
A Larrakia Filipino Love Story', based on the life of Antonio Cubillo,
his great-grandfather who arrived in 1895 met and married Magdalena
'Lily' McKeddie, a mixed race local Larrakia woman. They had ten
children.[2] The Pigram Brothers, a well known seven-man band from
Broome are descendants of Thomas Puertollano, a Filipino man who
married an Aboriginal woman in the 1880s.[3] The Filipino storytellers
in Fairfield arrived here mostly from the 1970s onwards. Cora Paras
was recruited as a teacher; Leonida 'Baves' Ventura was sponsored by
her brother; Agnes Nethercott, Joanna Salillas and Aurora Tan came
over to join their families.

Another snapshot: Today 53% of people living in Fairfield City
(95,343) were born overseas (2001 census).[4] Fairfield Council has,
amongst others, an interfaith committee which aims to bring together
people of diverse religions and spiritual traditions and promote
understanding and acceptance of different faiths and beliefs; 15% of
the total Filipino population in Australia (20,000) live in Blacktown
City.[5] So in fact, Australia has emerged as a pluralist society,
rich in terms of the diversity of our combined heritage. But the winds
of change come from different angles. Some commentators such as
Professor Andrew Jacobowicz of the University of Technology Sydney
wrote that our focus (I believe he is referring to the Howard
government's policy) is turning inward — a return to assimilationism
which was once aimed at both immigrants and indigenous people as well
as a watering down of our multicultural perspective.[6] 'Respect,
rights and responsibility' was a theme of one Reconciliation or 'Sorry
Day' year. By acknowledging respect for each other's cultural
heritage, irrespective of colour or race, and by sharing their
stories, the women in Fairfield entered into meaningful and enriching
dialogue about their cultures.

During the exclusivist phase of our Australian history, Aunty Yvonne
Clayton was among the six out of nine of her siblings who were taken
away by the Welfare Board. Her sister, Iris, was taken away. In the
early 70s, Iris's son, Bruce Clayton-Brown was also taken away — an
inter-generational stealing of years from one's life. Only after
leaving Cootamundra Girls' Home did Aunty Yvonne have the opportunity
to look for her mother.

Aunty Mae Robinson's mother was also taken away. Aunty Mae was also
sent to Cootamundra when she was in second year high school.
Aboriginal children particularly those of mixed heritage were taken
away, she said, because of an assumption that 'if there was white
blood in there, they would be superior.' There was a belief that the
'black' in them would eventually be bred out. And if the children were
brought up 'white', finding the connection with their own culture
would be hard for them.

'Sister-girl' Aunty Yvonne and Aunty Mae call each other. It's a way
of constructing family for they were deprived of their own. Simply
acknowledging the trauma caused by past misguided policies in order to
learn from this dark phase of our Australian history, to help heal
their wounds and to move forward does not mean embracing a sense of
'victimhood' or projecting 'guilt', as Prime Minister John Howard
would have us believe.

Our Aboriginal storytellers believe that they experienced
marginalization early in life because they were either born with the
'wrong' skin colour or because they were from a poorer group. Despite
experiencing disadvantage, they all achieved brilliantly.

How did they cope? Aunty Yvonne said she 'had to work three times as
hard through education, to be even thought of as equal to them' [White
Australians]. She actually finished the Intermediate Certificate even
though Matron at Cootamundra, unbeknown to her, wrote in a report
(which she read years later) that Yvonne had 'nil' intelligence. Later
she pursued a welfare degree course at Milperra College of Advanced
Education.

All our Aboriginal storytellers took whatever work they could get –
housemaid, laundry hand, waitress, kitchen maid, telephonist. One
worked in a milk bar, flower shop, printing place, hotel, and so on.
So out of disadvantage came enriching life experiences. Aunty Mae and
Aunty Norma eventually became teachers; Aunty Yvonne became a welfare
worker. More achievements later in life followed. Aunty Norma was
awarded an Order of Australia medal and the medal of Order of
Liverpool. Aunty Mae received the Nanga Mai Schools Award for her
outstanding service in education. Aunty Yvonne who worked for years at
a refuge for women in Liverpool is today acknowledged as a community
leader and gets called often to participate in public functions.

What challenges did the Filipino women experience? Why do people leave
their home country? Many are forced to leave their war-torn home while
some are unable to eke out a reasonable living for their families. On
the other hand, Australia even before Federation had always needed
specific labour skills to assist with nation building. A mutuality of
interests exists that satisfies both Australia's aspiration to
maintain its comfortable lifestyle and the needs of immigrants and
refugees who, for whatever reason, need to find a new homeland.
Immigrants have to make their own sacrifices and to adjust to a
different culture and language.

 Cora Paras experienced culture shock and homesickness when she first
arrived here. The Australian accent and idiom were different from the
American English which she learnt back home. Individualism and
secularism are stronger in Australia than in the Philippines where
Catholicism and a kinship system are highly valued. Filipinos miss the
strong support derived from their kinship system. In the Philippines,
the elderly and the very young generally get looked after. But in
Australia, some grandmothers who arrive here to give support to their
children find that they have to play a much bigger role with child
care and domestic chores than they anticipated. Two Filipino
grandmothers in our group found personal freedom and independence when
they moved away from their families into a Housing Commission flat.
Like many, both had previously played a huge child care support role
for their grandchildren.

The use or misuse of language is another interesting challenge. In the
Redfern storytelling project, our Aboriginal participants felt sad
when they realized that they no longer could speak their own language
whereas the Filipino women participants still could. One of them said,
'We don't have language. Language keeps the culture strong.[7] In the
Philippines, Baves recalls how proficiency in English was developed at
her school at the expense of her vernacular language through fines
imposed each time they were caught speaking their own language. I see
a parallel application in Australia where most Aboriginal languages in
the east coast of Australia have been lost as a result of assimilation
policies. In fact, I have met many second generation Filipino
Australians who could only speak a few phrases of their mother-tongue
and later in their 20s or 30s, they regret the loss of a second
language. If there is no commitment or value placed upon maintaining
community languages, the next generation, like other Aboriginal
Australians in Sydney are also likely to lose them.

Aunty Mae Robinson went deeper with her analysis. She warns against
the way the English language may be employed that could disenfranchise
people. She gave the example of how Australian history can be
distorted, for example, with the phrase, 'Captain Cook "discovered"
Australia.'

At the top end of Australia, some Yol\u people still speak four or
five Aboriginal languages but they are also at risk of being lost. I
was told during my visit last year to Nyinyikay, an out-station in
Northeast Arnhem Land, that what they would like implemented is
'two-way learning'.[8] They want to preserve their culture and
language and learn from the mainstream culture as well. For Aunty Mae,
there are two types of education: 'cultural education and education
[for people] to compete in the wider world.'


'Emotions are being triggered by events shared with each other,'
Filipino woman, Leonida 'Baves' Ventura said, reflecting on their
story sharing. Aboriginal elder, Aunty Norma Shelley said, 'We all
accepted our differences…while I have never been to the Philippines, I
feel I now understand the Filipino way of life and culture more than I
did.'
In general, all the Filipino storytellers are happy to be living in
Australia. Cora Paras found work as a teacher, Baves Ventura worked in
a bank and later in a library while Joanna Salillas, Agnes Nethercott
and Aurora Tan are all doing community work in Filipino senior citizen
centres as volunteers. Baves' focus is the care of her only son, Dion.
At Fairfield City Library where she works, she was involved in
initiating the Filipino language collection and the 'Read Philippines
Project' which became a model for other public libraries.

There is another episode in their storytelling. Cora Paras' children
married Australians from a mixed heritage. Cora's daughter-in-law's
father is Italian and her mother is English so the grandchildren call
their grandfather Nonno and their grandmother Nanna and Cora is called
Lola and her husband Ricky is Lolo. Is this confusing or enriching for
Cora's grandchildren? Cora thinks this situation enriches her
grandchildren's language.

So what of the result of reconciliation, the 10-year Parliamentary
bipartisan support given between 1991 to 2001 when black and white
Australians are meant to explore how to advance their relationship?
For Aunty Yvonne, reconciliation is 'just a word' but realistically,
'we are surrounded by different nationalities and we get on because we
have to, especially because we are neighbours'. Aunty Mae says
reconciliation means everybody respecting each other, respecting the
way people view the world. Agnes Nethercott thinks Filipinos accept
Aboriginal Australians as the original inhabitants of this country and
reconciliation is more a question of white Australians' relationship
with them that was marred by an attitude of superiority over them.

Worth a reflection from all these stories are the following questions:
What shapes prevailing community attitudes? How are stereotypes
cemented in our minds? On what basis are government policies
developed? How do we change things for the better?

Sharing stories with each other and fleshing out experiences through
face-to-face contact will certainly lift the veil of what usually is
imposed ignorance or inertia on our part.

 Endnotes:

[1] R. Pertierra & D. Wall, 'Filipinos', in James Jupp, ed., The
Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and their
Origins, Angus & Robertson, North Ryde, 1988, 467-470
[2] Antonio Cubillo was a Filipino cabin boy on a Spanish ship from
Calape, Bohol. He was said to have brought the Rondalla music
tradition to Darwin. Gary Lee's play was last performed at the Darwin
High School Tank in 1993. 'Keep Him My Heart: a Larrakia-Filipino Love
Story', interview with Gary Lee in KASAMA Vol. 20 No. 2/April-June
2006, pp. 6-8; Gary Lee, 'Bohol Dreaming', in KASAMA Vol. 21 No.
3/July-Sept 2007, pp. 10-12; see also Peta Stephenson, The Outsiders
Within, UNSW Press, 2007, pp. 95-101; Gary Lee, 'Cubillo Family
Lines', in Regina Ganter, Mixed Relations, UWA Press, 2006, pp.
140-145.
[3] Deborah Ruiz Wall, 'The Pigram Brothers: a top Aboriginal band
talk about their Filipino heritage', KASAMA Vol. 21 No. 2/April-June
2007, pp. 10-1; Stephenson, op. cit., p. 166; Ganter, op. cit., pp.
101-107.
[4] Emerging Community Data (ABS) Fairfield LGA 2002, Fairfield
Migrant Resource Centre, http://www.fmrc.net/FMRC Emerging Communities
Profile.pdf (accessed 1/10/2007)
[5] 'Filipino-Australians promote Philippine reading and cultural
programs in Sydney', 8 March 2007, Philippine Consulate General
Sydney, http://www.philippineconsulate.com.au/n08mar07.htm (accessed
1/10/2007)
[6] Andrew Jakubowicz, 'War and Peace: the government's engagement
with indigenous realities', U, August 2007, p. 11.
[7] See Around the Dining Table 2006-2007 Attitude Change Survey
Results, Filipino Women's Working Party (2007)
[8] Two-way learning incorporates Western and Yol\u systems of
knowledge. Deborah Ruiz Wall, 'Two-way Learning: Yol\u clan at
Australia's Top End shows the way', KASAMA Vol. 20 No. 4/Oct-Dec 2006,
pp. 10-14.

http://cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/2007/V21n4/StorytellingAroundTheDiningTable.htm

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