Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Christine Fejo-King, the daughter of Nanna Nungala - a big part of Indigenous history here in the NT - who passed away over the weekend shares memories of her mum

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Christine Fejo-King, the daughter of Nanna Nungala - a big part of Indigenous history here in the NT - who passed away over the weekend shares memories of her mum · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now, we learned over the weekend that Nana Nangla Fijo
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  Speaker 1: passed away aged ninety one, perhaps best known for being
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  Speaker 1: the member of the Stolen Generations mentioned in Kevin Rudd's
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  Speaker 1: apology speech in two thousand and eight. She was much
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  Speaker 1: loved here in the Northern Territory and around the nation,
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  Speaker 1: and her son and Darwin identity Richard Fijo, shared the
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  Speaker 1: news on social media late last night or late on
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  Speaker 1: Saturday night. It was which said rest in peace, Mum.
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  Speaker 1: I'll always carry you with me. Now, nanaan Angla Fijo's daughter,
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  Speaker 1: Christine Fijo King, joins me on the line right now.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Christine.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Firstly, I want to say I am so sorry for
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  Speaker 1: your loss, and I know that all of the territory
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  Speaker 1: is thinking of you and your family at this point.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Christine. Can you tell us a little bit
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  Speaker 2: about your mum.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, Actually, I'm actually working on her eulogy at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: and so I've had cause to reflect on mum's life
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  Speaker 3: and it's things like apart from being part of the
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  Speaker 3: Stolen Generation, I've been focusing more on what it was
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  Speaker 3: like growing up as her daughter and the things that
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  Speaker 3: she worked on that led to the awards that she won.
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  Speaker 3: So I guess Kevin Mudd has told the story of
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  Speaker 3: her being taken from her family very well. But one
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  Speaker 3: of the things that not many people know is that
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  Speaker 3: mom never, never ever learned to drive a car, and
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  Speaker 3: so my dad is the one that used to drive
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  Speaker 3: us around and then my sister would take her out
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  Speaker 3: to the community as my oldest sister. And part of
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  Speaker 3: our lives growing up was music. My father and all
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  Speaker 3: of his brothers played musical instruments, and my mother played
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  Speaker 3: the organ and she could make it sing. And we
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  Speaker 3: grew up with this, every weekend with this music, and
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  Speaker 3: it was a lovely, lovely way to grow up. My
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  Speaker 3: parents were heavily involved in the foot bo, the rules
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  Speaker 3: and rugby, and we would wake up with boys everywhere
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  Speaker 3: asleep on the lounge, and they would come. Some would
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  Speaker 3: just go the next day, some would stay over a
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  Speaker 3: couple of days, and my mother and father would feed
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  Speaker 3: them and house them and talk to them if need be,
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  Speaker 3: and then send them home to their parents and they
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  Speaker 3: My mother just loved children, She loved spending time with families,
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  Speaker 3: and these were not just Aboriginal kids them. There were
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  Speaker 3: Aboriginal kids, there were Italian kids, there were a couple
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  Speaker 3: of French kids. They were from all over the world,
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  Speaker 3: and so Mum would and Dad would welcome them into
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  Speaker 3: our home. And I was just reflecting on my mother's
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  Speaker 3: work life, because she worked all of her life and
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  Speaker 3: from when we were little, my sister, my older sister
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  Speaker 3: and I remember being pushed from Stuart Park into town
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  Speaker 3: because Mum cleans the old primary school and the old
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  Speaker 3: high school that used to be there where the old
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  Speaker 3: where the current post office is, and so she would
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  Speaker 3: clean the school. And then when Nightcliffe Primary School opened,
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  Speaker 3: she was a cleaner at Nightcliffe High School. And then
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  Speaker 3: she moved to work at the old Darwin Hospital in town,
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  Speaker 3: and then she moved to Casuarina Hospital where she worked
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  Speaker 3: and then Professor Matthews from Mensie's School of Health Research
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  Speaker 3: was trying to get someone to work with him on
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  Speaker 3: educational materials for our communities, and so he asked Mum
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  Speaker 3: to work as an Aboriginal health worker with him, and
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  Speaker 3: she worked on some of the projects that she worked
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  Speaker 3: on were around chlamydia HIV and then into the Strong
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  Speaker 3: and Strong Baby Strong Culture program and she used to
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  Speaker 3: always practice everything on us kids than our children later,
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  Speaker 3: and so we grew up being very aware of all
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  Speaker 3: these health things.
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  Speaker 1: She was an incredible woman, and you know, I think
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  Speaker 1: that very often we as members of the public, when we,
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  Speaker 1: you know, when we hear of the passing of somebody
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  Speaker 1: so incredible and so prominent, we very often looked to those,
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  Speaker 1: you know, to those different awards. I know that she
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  Speaker 1: was one of the first recipients of the Chief Minister's
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  Speaker 1: Women's Achievement Award in nineteen ninety eight, and she also
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  Speaker 1: obviously gave that very important message to the then PM
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Rudd. But you know, from what you've just told
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  Speaker 1: us this morning, the most important thing that she was
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  Speaker 1: was your mum.
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  Speaker 3: That's right, An it was, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And it sounds like she was an incredible one.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, she was. We we we had so much fun growing up.
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  Speaker 3: Like I said, we had music every weekend. Of course,
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  Speaker 3: she was always working, but she always made us important
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  Speaker 3: in her life, and not just us, but her brothers
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  Speaker 3: and sisters. Like we used to drive from Darwin to
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  Speaker 3: Alice Springs every year and Dad would do all the driving,
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  Speaker 3: and that was to visit my mum's sisters in Alice
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  Speaker 3: Springs and her really good friends from the mission, the
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  Speaker 3: Brave Family, and you know, all of all of these
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  Speaker 3: things were part of our lives, getting in the car
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  Speaker 3: and traveling. And then she found out that her youngest
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  Speaker 3: brother was in Elliott with his family. And I remember
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  Speaker 3: when he came up and Mum and us kidders went
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  Speaker 3: to the beach with him, and he'd never seen the
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  Speaker 3: sea and we and Mum was telling him about the sea,
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  Speaker 3: and she couldn't explain, so we took him down to
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  Speaker 3: the beach and it was the first time he'd seen
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  Speaker 3: the sea. And he went to take a drink because
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  Speaker 3: from the desert, you know, you drink the water. And
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  Speaker 3: then he saw a wave coming in and it scared
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  Speaker 3: him and he ran up the beach, going, what's happening? Happening? So,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and from that time we never lost contact.
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  Speaker 3: We and my mother loved her family, and so we
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  Speaker 3: learned to and came to love her brothers and sisters
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  Speaker 3: and her friends, her family from the mission. They all
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  Speaker 3: got together the Croke Island Mission, and they were like
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  Speaker 3: brothers and sisters to her as well. So you know,
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  Speaker 3: we had this massive extended network of family and other
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  Speaker 3: kin that were there for us.
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  Speaker 2: Christine, it's beautiful to hear some of those memories. And
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  Speaker 2: I know that.
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  Speaker 1: As I said, I know your mum means so much
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  Speaker 1: to the Northern Territory community, and obviously she means so
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  Speaker 1: much to you guys and to your whole family.
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  Speaker 2: What do you think your mum's greatest legacy will be.
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  Speaker 3: I think her greatest legacy is her children and her grandchildren,
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  Speaker 3: because she taught us to have the same ethics as
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  Speaker 3: she did, to have the same beliefs in being kind
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  Speaker 3: and generous and helping those around us, and the expectation.
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  Speaker 3: My mother was always very proud of being a war
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  Speaker 3: Amongo woman, so proud of it, and she would always
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  Speaker 3: say to us, you do all this work for the
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  Speaker 3: Larachie people, for your father's people, but don't forget my people.
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  Speaker 3: I am a proud war Amongo woman. And so that's
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  Speaker 3: the legacy that she's given us is pride in our heritage,
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  Speaker 3: pride in our family, but the knowledge that that pride
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  Speaker 3: comes with the responsibilities of care and love and capacity
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  Speaker 3: to help wherever we can. And that's a wonderful legacy.
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  Speaker 2: Christine. I really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: It's been beautiful to hear those words about your mum.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so very much for speaking with us today.
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  Speaker 3: You're very welcome.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you,