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Aunty
Agnes Shea
OAM
Born
Agnes Josephine Bulger

4 September 1931
Yass, NSW
Other namesAgnes Walker

Aunty Agnes Shea OAM is an elder of the Ngunnawal tribe whose traditional land[a] is around the Yass River, north of modern-day Canberra, the political capital of Australia. She has been prominent in performing welcome to country ceremonies in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and for official functions. A member of the United Ngunnawal Elders' Council and the ACT Heritage Council,[3] she is the subject of a 2016 video documentary, Footprints on our Land.

Early life and education

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Agnes Josephine Bulger was born 4 September 1931 at Oak Hill near Yass, New South Wales to mother Josephine Violet Bulger née Freeman (later known as Aunty Violet) and father Edward Walter Vincent Bulger.[4] She identifies as Ngunnawal through her paternal grandmother, though her brother and parents are Wiradjuri.[3]

At Oak Hill she lived in a gunje, which is a type of one-room hut with stringybark walls, galvanised iron roof and heated by an open fire. There was no running water or electricity[3][4] In 1938, the family was moved to Hollywood Aboriginal Reserve, also called Hollywood Mission, on the other side of Yass. The housing at Hollywood had wooden floors, galvanised iron walls, cement water tanks, and separate bedrooms.[3]

Agnes' father Vincent Bulger died suddenly on Christmas Eve 1939. Her mother Violet was given permission to do domestic work in town, but the family was eventually forced to leave the Reserve and came to live at "a place called Morton Avenue" about five kilometres from town. Agnes was schooled "from first class to third class" at Hollywood, walking to school when the family lived elsewhere, as Aboriginals were not permitted to use the bus service.[3]

Marriage and family

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Agnes married in 1947 to Ron (Ronald Joseph) Walker, a professional boxer and labourer who worked on the Burrinjuck Dam. In 1949 she gave birth to her first child, Mary, at Yass Hospital, one of the first three Aboriginal women to do so. The mothers were not permitted to cross a yellow line in the corridor that separated their ward from the white maternity ward and the rest of the hospital.[3]

Ron Walker died in a shearing shed fire in 1952, leaving Agnes with three children. She later married Charles Shea, a non-indigenous man with a contracting business. Though more financially secure, she continued to take domestic work. With Charles she bore four more children.[3]

Agnes' mother Aunty Violet Bulger passed away in 1993 at Red Hill, ACT, aged 92.[4] Her brother Vincent (Vince) Bulger was the first winner of the annual New South Wales Premier's Senior's Achievement Award in 1997 and a founding member of Tumut Shire Aboriginal Liaison Committee.[5] He he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2007 and died in the same year.

As of 2013, Shea had 14 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.[3] In her later life, she lives at Tuggeranong.

Community and ceremonial work

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Shea is a founding member of the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, and was a member of the Advisory Board to ACT Health. She was involved[3][6] in establishing the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm, originally funded to be a drug and alcohol treatment centre[7][8] for indigenous people, which runs culturally appropriate prevention, education, lifestyle, and recovery programs.[9][10][11]

She is a member of Journey of Healing ACT, an organisation that works toward reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous communities, and supports people who live with the effects of government policies that separated aboriginal children from their families,[3] known as the stolen generations.

She has been active in giving speeches at Welcome to Country ceremonies in Canberra and at official functions, including for the Department of Defence,[12] the University of Canberra[13] and on Australia Day[14]. In 2008, she welcomed the Olympic torch on its travel to Beijing:

I welcome the Olympic torch to Australia in the spirit of peace on behalf of my people, whose history in this place goes back to the beginning of time. May its stay here be one that symbolises good will for all mankind.

Honours and titles

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As a tribal elder, Shea is referred to with the honorific "Aunty Agnes" both within and outside her extended kinship group. She was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in January 2004, for "service to Ngunnawal people by contributing to the improvement and development of services for the Indigenous people of the Australian Capital Territory and region". In 2017, she was named "Elder of the Year" at the ACT NAIDOC Awards.[15]

Documentary video

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Shea was the subject of a 2016 video documentary Footprints on Our Land, produced by the Tuggeranong Arts Centre and made by filmmaker Pat Fiske with Nevanka McKeon.[16][17][18][19] The film debuted at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre in July 2016, was shown at the Canberra International Film Festival in October–November 2016[20], and has been broadcast on national television in Australia.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ The Ngambri also claim traditional ownership in the ACT, and some elders have identified at different times as Ngunnawal and/or Ngambri.[1] The government recognised ACT as Ngunnawal territory in 2002, but a group that had formerly identified as Ngunnawal subsequently decided that they wished to be identified as Ngambri. Historical accounts indicate that "other languages such as Ngarigu and Walgalu may also have been spoken in the Canberra region". Genealogical research carried out around 2010–2012 found "Research indicates that the Canberra–Queanbeyan area was depopulated very early. It was almost impossible to find any descendants with links to any of the few documented Aboriginal people in the 19th century for the Canberra region." [2]

References

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  1. ^ Schubert, Misha (1 February 2008). "Elders hit out over bungled protocol". The Age.
  2. ^ ACT Government Genealogy Project (2012). "Our Kin Our Country: August 2012 Report" (PDF). Retrieved 26 January 2021. alt. vers.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Francis, Niki (2013–2019). "Shea, Agnes Josephine". The Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 2021-01-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ a b c Francis, Niki (2017). "Bulger, Josephine Violet (1900–1993)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  5. ^ Austlit. "Vincent Bulger | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 2021-01-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "Footprints on our Land - Tuggeranong Arts Centre". Tuggeranong Arts Centre. 14 August 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-08-14.
  7. ^ Stanhope, Jon (2019-05-07). "Befuddled saga of the bush healing farm". Canberra CityNews. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  8. ^ Hayne, Jordan (2015-10-08). "Indigenous rehab 'healing farm' to open in Canberra by mid-2016". ABC News. Retrieved 2021-01-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ "Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm". ACT Health. Retrieved 2021-01-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ "Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm (NBHF)". Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Association ACT (ATODA). Retrieved 2021-01-26. ATODA understands that the NBHF is not a drug and alcohol service despite its original intention to be so.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ ACT Government Health (2015). "Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm [information leaflet]" (PDF). The Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm will not be an alcohol and drug detoxification service.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ "Defence unveils Indigenous artwork". Defence Science and Technology Group. 31 August 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  13. ^ Lazaroo, Suzanne; Kang, Kimberly (18 April 2019). "UC launches education space with native plants used by the Ngunnawal peoples". University of Canberra. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  14. ^ Armstrong, Leah (May 2012). "CEO Message" (PDF). Reconciliation News (23): 2–3.
  15. ^ Chivers, Jo (2017-07-03). "(Award recipients announcement on Facebook)". Facebook Page for Naidoc Week ACT. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  16. ^ "Footprints on our Land". Tuggeranong Arts Centre. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  17. ^ "Footprints on Our Land: Aunty Agnes". HerCanberra. 2016-07-16. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  18. ^ Connery, Georgina (2016-07-17). "Ngunnawal elder Aunty Agnes Shea stars on screen". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  19. ^ Sloane, Brenton (2016-07-16). "New film tells the story of Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Agnes Shea [ministerial press release]". Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate (CMTEDD), ACT Government. Retrieved 2021-01-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ Freebury, Jane (19 October 2016). "Canberra International Film Festival is committed to diversity, says 2016 director". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
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[ should use NLA Trove people ID (P1315), rather than Libraries Australia ID (P409). Perm. ID http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1665896 URL https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/1665896 ].

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