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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-11-21 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

JOHNSON, MRS G.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (15:38): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement relating to the death of Mrs Gertie (Grannie) Johnson, an Aboriginal elder, which was also made by the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in another place today.

Leave granted.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: 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 she 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 parliament, I offer the following information regarding Mrs Gertie (Grannie) Johnson. Grannie Gertie was born in 1919 at Finke Creek in the Northern Flinders Ranges. Grannie Gertie's father was a witchdoctor (Yura Urngi) and her uncle was a rainmaker.

Grannie Gertie 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. Grannie Gertie then went through the experience of the Adnyamathanha people being shifted from Ram Paddock Gate to what is now the present day Nepabunna community.

Grannie Gertie married and raised her children at Nepabunna. Although Nepabunna was an Aboriginal settlement that was run and dominated by missionary influences over several decades, the Adnyamathanha people continue to speak their traditional language and live their lives according to Adnyamathanha customs on a daily basis.

Grannie Gertie, throughout her life, continued her role in maintaining Adnyamathanha culture by sharing her skills in language, the telling of Dreamtime stories and by explaining the traditional ways of her own elders to not only Adnyamathanha 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. Grannie Gertie's experience, knowledge and leadership enabled her to be chosen as one of the registered native claimants for Adnyamathanha country. The Vulkathunna-Gammon Ranges indigenous land use agreement (ILUA) 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 showed this by supporting her community to establish the Nantawarrina indigenous protected area. Nantawarrina was the first indigenous protected area (IPA), being declared on 26 August 1998. The property has an area of 58,000 hectares and is located adjacent to the southern boundary of 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 was among only three Australian winners of a 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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