By Laura BennettMonday 10 Jul 2023Hope AfternoonsCultureReading Time: 3 minutes
Beyond NAIDOC Week, this year’s theme of ‘For Our Elders’ has a lasting significance on the way we approach generational wisdom and the care we, as elders for the next generation, steward the land we live on in preparation for their future.
Elder and Stolen Generation survivor Aunty Rhonda Collard-Spratt is a Yamatji-Noongar author and artist, and in her latest book Old Nana Quokka she joins with co-author Jacki Ferro to highlight the connection between caring for country and respecting our elders and the vulnerability of species like the Quokka.
“When you look at the world situation today, many of our native animals are endangered,” Aunty Rhonda told Hope 103.2.
“We all can make our own individual effort [to protect them] by caring for the land.”
The story, which is the third in the Spirit of the Dreaming series, follows Old Nana Quokka (written as “Kwoka” in Noongar), a small wallaby from south-west Western Australia.
Old Nana Quokka is a healer and keeper of wisdom, and she helps the other Australian bush creatures as tourist activities, like littering and riding too fast, injure the animals and make them sick.
In Aboriginal culture, Aunty Rhonda is also considered an “Old Nana”, and the book was a way to celebrate the insights of the older generations and reflect on the value of their knowledge.
“We decided to write this story and put Old Nana Quokka as the hero to honour her as an elder,” Aunty Rhonda said.
“She’s the carrier of wisdom through her life experiences, and she can pass on this knowledge to the next generation.
“The message in this story is about caring for our sacred mother earth, and all living life, because all life is sacred.
“We must care for each other as well.”
In Aboriginal culture, Aunty Rhonda is also considered an “Old Nana”, and the book was a way to celebrate the insights of the older generations and reflect on the value of their knowledge.
Having been an elder at certain schools for almost a decade now, Aunty Rhonda is inspired to pass on what she knows, just as the students teach her how to use Snapchat, Twitter and take a screenshot on her phone.
“I always tell the young people to walk strong and proud no matter what skin you’re in,” Rhonda said.
“As Aboriginal people we come in all shades of fair to dark, and also to everybody [we have] to accept each other, to embrace our differences.
“At the end of it all we’re all human beings: we all feel, we all cry, and we laugh and it’s about embracing our sameness as well.
“Also, have respect for the older generation no matter what culture you’re from.”
“I always tell the young people to walk strong and proud no matter what skin you’re in… Also, have respect for the older generation no matter what culture you’re from,” – Aunty Rhonda
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Old Nana Quokka will be donated to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, which provides books and teaches literacy to over 400 remote First Nations communities.
For author-signed books, audiobooks narrated by Aunty Rhonda, fun videos and teacher notes, and to book school readings, visit Spirit of the Dreaming.
Listen to the full interview with Aunty Rhonda in the player above.
Source: spiritofthedreaming.com