“I took my shoes off and my feet were solid on the red sand. I started singing in language. I just remember my whole body buzzed up. It’s like I was flying. It’s like the ancestors were talking to me and reminding me to stay strong to my culture.”
Growing up in care with no memories of a link to her mob, Emily approached our Heritage and Information Service as soon as she turned 18 to help look for answers to the questions she had about her cultural identity and her time in care.
Now 19 years old, Emily is part of a new generation of care leavers contacting MacKillop’s Heritage and Information Service for help to collate and decipher information about their background.
Emily says working with MacKillop’s Heritage team has helped her to find and interpret the records about her early life, and better understand their meaning. This process underlines the importance of case workers being mindful that all the information they record today will have a huge impact on the young person receiving it, and to be cognisant of this when writing their case notes.
Emily is still looking for information about her mob, knowing that “everything will fall into place when a deep connection to my culture is established” and this connection will give her the belonging, strength and confidence for a bright future.
