Aboriginal Cultures, Ch 1: Introduction to culture with Aunty Julie

AUNTY JULIE MCHALE: Like, I didn't grow up in culture. My father was Aboriginal. He's passed over now. But my mother isn't. And at a very-- I was about three, I think, they actually separated. So I didn't know a lot about culture but I did just automatically spend a heap of time with Uncle Brien Nelson and Uncle Rick.

I think culture is part of your being. Some people call it your heart. Some people call it your brain. But it's part of your whole being. And when you're practicing anything that is of cultural significance, the feeling you get is, it's indescribable.

So first of all, from a selfish viewpoint, I love doing cultural things because it feels so good and it feels so right. It's sort of like revives me. But then the next part of that is by sharing it with the children, making sure they understand what culture is about.

It so often you see Aboriginal people that are lost. They don't know where they came from, often through stolen generations and things like that. But I also work at Middleton Prison, and like with a large group of Aboriginal prisoners out there who most of them have no idea where their people come from, I have no understanding of culture. And they just live for when I go out there and I can share little bits and pieces because I just want to know that.

Wow, there comes the important bit. Take the lid off.

So when like all the horrible things happened, like land taken away, massacres, all that sort of stuff, there was still that culture. It was still there, and it's something that you just can't throw out the door. It's your being. It's your essence.

And so that creates that resilience that I think Aboriginal people pretty much all over the world, I think, have where they mightn't be seen to be living in a cultural way. But they, it's still there and they understand bits. And if they're given the opportunity to practise culture, then their whole being is lifted.