Who is your mob? Yuwaalaraay and Muruwarrii, Hoopers/Johnstons round Wynnum / Charleville / Goodooga / Lightning Ridge ways
I require my certificate to register with Indigenous Allied Health Australia. I work as an Aboriginal Counsellor and Cultural Supervisor, am the current facilitator for the First Nations chapter of the Australian Counselling Association and am furthering our healing methods at university. I teach the Yuwaalaraay language and manage an online language yarn and have references from other Aboriginal people in the community … but none of this is recognised by Indigenous Allied Health Australia without a Certificate of Aboriginality. I appreciate your consideration, thankyou.
I have attached my family tree, identification documents for my connections and self, and with permission, the COA of my cousin Gail Johnston. My family have been in Wynnum for four generations but we originally came from Goodooga to Charleville in the early 1900s before settling in Wynnum. I have included a family story and photos around this as I wasn’t sure if it was relevant. Also, I have been a New South Wales resident for the last 12 years, due to the care required by my husband’s parents.
my working roles are in Aboriginal counselling and cultural supervision, my volunteer contributions are as the facilitator for the First Nations chapter of the Australian Counselling Association and managing dhuubaanmali, on online language space for Yuwaalaraay speakers. My PHD journey through CDU is focused on answering; what alternative understandings are possible when Euhalari descendants deconstruct historical texts written about their ancestors by non-indigenous researchers
yaama, gayrr ngaya djidjidan. brisbane-da queensland gaanga-nhi ngaya. ngaya gi-yaa-nha gaay guwaa-li yuwaalaraay-gu ngayagay english-gu gaay-a hello, myname is jedison. I was born in brisbane in queensland and I am going to talk in yuwaalaraay and english nhama bubaa-dhi gary johnston this is my father gary johnston wynnum brisbane-da gaangi-nhi nguru he was born in wynnum in queensland nhama gunii-dhi catherine wilson this is my mother catherine wilson bellshill-da scotland gaangi-nhi nguru she was born in bellshill in scotland nhama dhilaagaah-dhi colin johnston this is my grandfather colin johnston cunnamulla-da brisbane gaangi-nhi nguru he was born in cunnamulla in queensland garrimaay burrulbidi ngaya ada hooper ada hooper is my great grandmother ?? her life began on tinnenburra station and many of my great aunts and uncles were born and raised there ada’s parents were samuel and lizzie hooper, and it is from them that the most reliable knowledgge comes about our lands. samuel being Yuwaalaraay and lizzie being Muruwari. These are best guesses based on wisdom handed down through other families, records and our own mob yarns. If your ancestors are from Australian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander lands, you may already know of the colinisation methods used to move us, reduce us and assimilate us. And, as i’m finding out from this project, just because something was recorded by a whitefella, doesn’t make it true. wuu-nhi-baa ngaya yinarr-baa aboriginality is my inheritance ngaya dhuwi dhurra-li WITH gaay-biyaay, girruu-biyaay ngayagay gaay guwaa-lda-ndaay i express my identity with words, truth and story telling waan ngaya dhayndalmuu narrative gaay wuu-na dhayn-gu gaay-a gamil guwaa-y my work as a narrative counsellor gives voice to peoples stories that have not been told buwabil ngaarribu-dhi ngaya yuwaalaraay language is my legacy ngaya wuu-na biiba-gal balal ngiyaningu dhayn-gu gaay i give voice to the unwritten pages of our people bidjaay nhama yuwaalaraay ganungunda biiba-gal yuwaalaraay is the ink to those pages ngarragaa bidjaay balal alas the ink is dry nhama ngarray .. yilambiyal ngaya yuwaalaraay dhiirra-nhi biibabiiba-nhi old you see in the past, I learned language from historical books gaadhal ngaya-bala gi-la-nhi but I was only a parrot gaay gawaa-y guwaa-li yiyal nganha dhirra-li repetition only teaches me to say language ngaya-laa bamba dhirra-nhi dhilaagaa ? yinarraa? TAFE-gu then I learnt properly from Elders at TAFE ngaya yilaambiyal-gu gaay giirruu yuwaalaraay winanga-y-la-nha I began to understand yuwaalaraay purpose and reason ngaya yilaambiyal-gu yuwaalaraay dhubaanma-y I began to tell language then I went back to the history books and their purpose and reason did not make sense ngarranma-li-badhaay ngaya nginuhna let me show you You can contact me by phone, text and marco polo on 043 555 0084, email at girrabirrii@proton.me or through messenger: jedda wells. Also, if you are passing through the lands of the Gundungurra (Robertson) we can catch up face to face and every few months I make the trek through Tubbagah (Dubbo), Yuwaalaraay (Lightning Ridge), Bigambul (Goondiwindi), Turrbal and Jagera (Brisbane), Kunja (Cunnamulla) and Muruwarri throughout that trek.
i am a descendent of the Yuwaalaraay and Muruwuri peoples who come from the lands around the east end of what is now known as the NSW and QLD border, and the Scots whose land is also claimed by British ownership
b00316 In theory narrative conflict coaching works with a client to create an alternative story in which the conflict narrative is no longer as powerful as it was. T
i was born in Brisbane in QLD, ten years before the official stolen generation policies stopped, a little over a year after the constitution referendum, and twenty years before the exemption certificate in Queensland was finally outlawed. I spent the first 34 years of my life in Wynnum, the suburb my father was born in
family stories and records have (so far) shown our mobs emerging, travelling and settling around Cunnamulla, Goodooga, Charleville and Brisbane. My great grandmother Ada Hooper was born on Tinnenburra station to Lizzie and Samuel Hooper
Ada married Albert Johnston and in Cunnamulla my grandfather was born
outside of trusted spaces like family barbecues and funerals, culture was not freely shared during my childhood. It was a price paid by my Ancestors for the cost of exemption certificates and for my sisters and I for being partAbo1
in those safe spaces i asked questions and as my ability to read and write skyrocketed, I explored more through my greatest love, stories. I love everything about stories; narratives, accents, paper, books, pens, bookbinding and when I was a lot younger, dictionaries. I used to lean into the learned certainty of dictionaries when my home was caked in uncertainty. For my sixth Christmas, my parents granted me a dictionary as big as me. I have had a love/hate relationship with that book for 50 years
as a counsellor, i’ve taken my love of story into the professional space. I work with clients, to breakdown historical truths that were imposed by others. Others such as parents, teachers, government, religion etc who had the power of definition in a particular circumstance. I find that when people seek healing, they come clutching a story that they and others may only have considered from a select viewpoint. I combine these skills with my cultural and life experiences to expand those viewpoints
as Aboriginal became Yuwaalaraay and Muruwari, I started to learn languages through books and journals where our Ancestors were documented directly rather than Wanda2 guessing or analysing. I was forever frustrated by the application of English rules, the misjudgements about Aboriginal3 Australia and the mispronounciations and misinterpretations that did not align with the knowledges shared in community
when Covid hit, my learning changed dramatically as TAFE opened up online classes with elders Aunty Beth and Uncle John. These gatherings explored purpose and reason (words Uncle John would never let us forget) and the appropriate language sharing practices that are lived between us. After the courses finished, i started online groups to keep in touch with other speakers dhubaanmala and family tinnenburra-baa. I am not yet fluent but I practice both Muruwari and Yuwaalaraay everyday
i am now travelling back through language records as part of a PHD study with Charles Darwin University. Research has improved in the last century to help protect future collecting but for me it is important that in the language space, it is not left at that. I feel accountable to holding knowledges about us up against the light and seeing the different kinds of knowers and practices of knowing that were mutually present, and never acknowledged when our Ancestors shared the information
lastly .. i’m not really bad at grammar, the lack of capitals and full stops are for a reason. Our Ancestors were forced to take on another culture and language. I was born into those skills so it is not effective for me to protest by not using English. My compromise is that I do not start a paragraph with a capital (signalling the words have come from somewhere, like our Ancestors) and I do not end a paragraph with a full stop (signalling the words will go somewhere, like our future leaders
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2 sometimes it is necessary to use a general term to refer to a person who was not Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. I use the term Wanda which is influenced by my age, family, culture, experience etc. You may use a different word, you may use the word Wanda for something else, i respect your choices and I thank you for respecting mine
3 as far as I know, my history has not intertwined with the lands, seas and skies of what is now known as theTorres Strait Islands. When I am referring to the Indigenous population of Australia, I use the term Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander but when I talk about my own upbringing, I use the term Aboriginal
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Who is your mob? Yuwaalaraay and Muruwarrii, Hoopers/Johnstons round Wynnum / Charleville / Goodooga / Lightning Ridge ways I require my certificate to register with Indigenous Allied Health Australia. I work as an Aboriginal Counsellor and Cultural Supervisor, am the current facilitator for the First Nations chapter of the Australian Counselling Association and am furthering our healing methods at university. I teach the Yuwaalaraay language and manage an online language yarn and have references from other Aboriginal people in the community … but none of this is recognised by Indigenous Allied Health Australia without a Certificate of Aboriginality. I appreciate your consideration, thankyou. I have attached my family tree, identification documents for my connections and self, and with permission, the COA of my cousin Gail Johnston. My family have been in Wynnum for four generations but we originally came from Goodooga to Charleville in the early 1900s before settling in Wynnum. I have included a family story and photos around this as I wasn’t sure if it was relevant. Also, I have been a New South Wales resident for the last 12 years, due to the care required by my husband’s parents. my working roles are in Aboriginal counselling and cultural supervision, my volunteer contributions are as the facilitator for the First Nations chapter of the Australian Counselling Association and managing dhuubaanmali, on online language space for Yuwaalaraay speakers. My PHD journey through CDU is focused on answering; what alternative understandings are possible when Euhalari descendants deconstruct historical texts written about their ancestors by non-indigenous researchers When people seek healing, many come clutching a story that they and others may only have considered from one angle. Jedison Wells, Yuwaalaraay yinarr and therapist, supports people in expanding that view to fully see the influences that may be keeping pain, worry or suffering alive. Having journeyed through cultural vulnerability, denied identity, homelessness, child abandonment, sex work, redundancy, divorce, substance reliance and many other shadows, Jedison chooses to receive stories of suffering and explore people’s capacity to influence their own thoughts and behaviours to build faith in their abilities regardless of the external messages they have received in the past. Her professional approach is influenced by her identity as a Yuwaalaraay Australian, Narrative Therapy, Single Session Solution-Focused Therapy, Career Development qualifications and Indigenous Community Practices. Jedison is a Level 3 ACA Counsellor and Supervisor, Cultural Supervisor and Group Trainer. She is the current Facilitator for the Australian Counselling Association’s First Nations chapter and for Dhubaanma-la, a social media space for Yuwaalaraay, Gamilaraay and Yuwaalayay Speakers to express, share and practice language in ways that are meaningful to them. As a Researcher, Jedison facilitates the deconstruction of wyiaybaa (stranger) collections of languages to bring forward the Ancestors voice.
her PRIMARY research focus is on how knowledge is learned, how people apply it to their lives, and what makes expert knowledge outside of the colonised version of acadamiea