A Chat on the Telephone

Thea Calzoni with Barbara Kelly and Kimberly

Koori families may be wary of non-Indigenous people approaching them with questions about their home life. Many carry the knowledge of grandparents or parents as little children taken away by welfare workers to live in institutions and be trained up to work as servants. Not so long ago, people from Aboriginal backgrounds were classified according to how black or white they were. Families were separated, children from mothers, brothers from sisters and so on. Some people were pushed by the authorities into arranged marriages with other Aboriginal people which would have been forbidden under tribal law. In doing this, some quite well meaning priests or managers of institutions sometimes actually made Aboriginal people commit a kind of incest. The laws and moral teachings of Aboriginal society were broken up by Church or government people whose job was to look after their welfare. Some of the strife that turns up in Koori families today is a result of little children growing up apart from their mothers, without any connection to their families, to their land or to their people's history and culture. This is very very sad, but in the midst of tragic circumstances, there are survivors whose strength and wisdom gives sustenance to the new generation. One such person is Barbara Kelly, mother of Kimberly who has Cerebral Palsy. Their story is like that of many others in Cooinda who have had to travel many times from Wodonga to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, who have had to overcome obstacles to get appropriate education, who have sometimes felt on the outside because of disability, but who have gown strong in the process and have developed remarkable capability. And their story is a little bit different, because they have had other issues to deal with in their family and in the community.

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Barbara Kelly, her daughter, Kimberly, and some grandchilren

Barbara and I were not able to meet when I was in Wodonga, but she made me very welcome when I called her from Melbourne. I caught her in the midst of getting dinner for Kimberly and three little ones and we had a long chat on the telephone. The story that follows is what she told me, as I recall it. And there's a little bit there from Kimberly, too.

For the Complete Story...
Contact: Cooinda Family Support Group