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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-11-21 Daily Xml
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JOHNSON, MRS G.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (15:13): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: The state government was saddened to learn of the passing of Mrs Gertie (Grannie) Johnson and extends its condolences to her family and to the Adnyamathanha people. Mrs Johnson was a much respected member of the Aboriginal community and was passionate in sharing her knowledge of Adnyamathanha cultural traditions. With Mrs Johnson's passing an important cultural link to the past is lost.

For the benefit of the parliament, I offer the following information regarding Grannie Johnson. She was born in 1919 at Finke Creek in the Northern Flinders Ranges. Her father was a witch doctor and her uncle a rainmaker. She began her life in a camp of Adnyamathanha people working around Angepina Station. She often stated that it was a hard but good life. She remembered the arrival of missionaries who came with their rations and shifted the Adnyamathanha people to Ram Paddock Gate. She then went through the experience of the Adnyamathanha people being shifted from Ram Paddock Gate to what is now the present day Nepabunna community.

Gertie married and raised her children at Nepabunna. Although Nepabunna was an Aboriginal settlement that was run and dominated by missionary influence over several decades, the Adnyamathanha people continued to speak their traditional language and live their lives according to customs.

Throughout her life she continued her role in maintaining her culture by sharing her skills in language, in telling Dreamtime stories and explaining the traditional ways of her own elders, to not only her own people but non-Adnyamathanha people as well. Evidence of her cultural wisdom and expertise can be found in several books and articles written about historical and contemporary Adnyamathanha issues.

Her experience, knowledge and leadership enabled her to be chosen as one of the registered native title claimants for the Adnyamathanha country. The Vulkathunna-Gammon Ranges Indigenous Land Use Agreement is just one of the many achievements stemming from Grannie Gertie's role with the native title process.

Grannie Gertie had a love for the natural world, and she showed this by supporting her community to establish the Nantawarrina Indigenous Protected Area. Nantawarrina was the first indigenous protected area, being declared on 26 August 1998. The property has an area of 58,000 hectares and is located adjacent to the southern boundary of the Gammon Ranges National Park in the Northern Flinders Ranges of South Australia. The title to the land is held by the South Australian Aboriginal Lands Trust on behalf of the Adnyamathanha people. Nantawarrina is one of only three Australian winners of the UNEP Global 500 award on World Environment Day 2000, recognising the significant efforts of the Nepabunna community in managing Nantawarrina as an IPA.

Grannie Gertie was a great support to the Nepabunna School, and was for many years a mentor and active member of the Nepabunna School Council. Grannie Gertie is survived by her children, countless grandchildren and great-grandchildren, extended families and numerous Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal friends

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