20 Reading Oodgeroo

This response was prompted by an article written by Oodgeroo Noonuccal in The Bulletin in 1970, and a speech Oodgeroo gave to the Architecture Conference in that same year.

Determined, Native and Authentic

DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid

A complex chemical molecular structure

The carrier of our genetic information

DNA, I hear, shapes me, and makes me,

It is not DNA however that constructs my identity

That’s on me and pressures that be.

The Department of Native Affairs: D.N.A.

Controlled both the DNA and the identity of our community,

Who was ‘exempt’, who was empt,

Who was trucked to a mission, and who was not,

So D.N.A. controlled our affiliations, our collaborations, and our collaborators,

Our family, our space, our geography.

But, in 1970 Oodgeroo said we are not the problem here

B.C. Before Cook we were well in our lands

A.C. After Cook we were not.

Why?

Despite thousands of successful years on our lands

Their DNA somehow made them superior beings and ours did not

But as Oodgeroo says ‘these things can destroy but not degrade’¹

When you took us from our land, we became a people lost.

Then tools of destruction were played through the D.N.A. to destroy our DNA

As the racist and abusive coloniser, you were determined to smooth our pillows

As we were forced down a path toward death and annihilation.²

But we say DNA!

Do Not Attempt          to enact our passing

Do Not Access             our lives for your entertainment

Do Not Activate          your processes to control us

Our Destiny is our own

Determined, Native and Authentic

References

1. Noonuccal, O (Moondjan). (1970). ‘Australians in the years A.C. (After Cook)’. The Bulletin, 26 September.
2. Noonuccal, O (Moondjan). (1970). Australian Architecture Conference Speech, Sydney, 19th May 1970.

*                            *                            *

Biography

Associate Professor Stephanie Gilbert is a cross-disciplinary researcher with expertise in the fields of social work, Aboriginal education and Indigenous genomic research and is Associate Dean (Indigenous Engagement) for HASS. A proud Tubba-gah Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi (NSW) woman, she has been with UQ since 2020, where she has made significant contributions across the realm of academic engagement, but particularly to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Degrees by Research. She oversees more than 70 Indigenous PhD students across the UQ campuses and considers mentoring and coaching a particular focus and love of her work. She finds HASS and its disciplines a comfortable place as a social scientist and historian, as they provide space for Indigenous Australians and other Australians to come together and work together on shared interests. She strongly advocates for Indigenous knowledges and decolonising practices, considering her research practice as a social worker and advocacy for the Stolen Generations as her life’s work.