Noongar elder Carol Pettersen shares her inspiring story as her family reunites to reconnect with culture

Uplifting, refreshing and healing were the three words Noongar elder Carol Pettersen used to describe a reunion of 70 family members reconnecting with her mother’s country at Warriup Swamp east of Albany. Encompassing five generations, one of the region’s most respected elders gathered with dozens of relatives who made the trip from across the State at the weekend. “It was absolutely incredible,” she said. “It was family reconnection with places of significance to the family story, that’s what we needed to do, reconnect with stories. “Like with other families, children move away, become involved in a new community and a lot of them never had a chance to come back because of employment, careers, raising children. “It was great. I was the great-grandmother there and the matriarch storyteller, so it was very emotional for me to actually go back again and reconnect, reaffirm and reignite our history and our journey.” Ms Pettersen is an influential Menang-Gnudju woman in the Great Southern community who has strived to ensure Indigenous voices can be heard. In 2015, the City of Albany recognised her service to the community by renaming the ground floor of the historic Albany Town Hall, the Carol Pettersen Hall. Ms Pettersen has also authored several books as part of her mission to preserve ancient Noongar language and culture. Born at Gnowangerup Mission and raised in the bush at Jerramungup in a family of 17, Ms Pettersen has spent most of her life on her traditional country around Albany. She identifies as a traditional owner with the Menang and Gnudju peoples of the south coast of WA. She said Sunday’s reunion at Warriup Swamp — also known as Lake Mullocullup — was the first time most members of her family had reconnected on country. “I’ve had feedback from people saying it was amazing for them to sit through the stories,” she said. “They’ve heard about where they’ve come from but never heard the storytelling or never actually visited.” Ms Pettersen told her relatives how her parents first met and the struggles they encountered during Australia’s early settlement days. “My mum was a tribal woman and Dad was a white man,” she said. “In 1936, they met and fell in love and were ostracised by both sides of society because it was against the law for non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people to cohabitate.” “I took them on a journey to when she was a young girl and caught the eye of a handsome young white man and I got them to try to imagine what it was like when their eyes met. “Did she feel excited? Scared knowing what the law was about? Was he aware he was breaking the law and could have been jailed?” Ms Pettersen said it was unimaginable to think people could be arrested for marriage that was at the time illegal under the Native Welfare Act 1963. But her parents went on to have 17 children. “I tell everybody we were free-range kids. We lived in the bush, ate in the bush, had that connection. I had a wonderful childhood however I didn’t know any different,” she said. “Mum and Dad kept us safe in the bush, even though the police were trying to find us. They never found us. “We weren’t carted off like the Stolen Generation, my parents kept us protected and out of sight. “Life was pretty good for me, wonderful in the way we knew what foods to eat in the bush and how to read the language of nature.” Ms Pettersen has been passionate about making a difference in Indigenous affairs, earning appointments to many Federal and State Government advisory bodies. In 2008, she was named the Australian NAIDOC Female Elder of the Year. She still volunteers with environmental groups such as Gondwana Link, Heritage Australia and Green Skills. “Going back into the bush, it’s a regeneration of spirit, the spiritual connection of the bush, because we believe everything in the bush is a spiritual entity,” she said. “To sit quietly and listen to the language of the birds, the whispers of the wind and look up and see the clouds. “To keep the ecological knowledge alive and maintain it — that’s what’s good about going back, you can’t do that in the city.”