Menang elder Vernice Gillies has a passion for sharing her ancient culture and continues to inspire the community

Vernice Gillies is on a mission to make sure her ancient Menang Noongar culture is not lost — and the best way she says to do that is to share her knowledge and inspiration. Although she retired some years ago, Ms Gillies is still heavily involved in the Albany community. Formerly a child protection case work manager and peer support worker at Albany Regional Prison, she still keeps busy running Aboriginal arts and culture store Kurrah Mia. The decision that would see her spend 37 years in child protection stemmed from her childhood. “I came from a family that had a lot to do with welfare but on the other end of it,” she said. “My mum was a Stolen Generation child and we grew up with that, so as a child I had welfare visiting on a regular basis to make sure the kids were being cared for. “I thought I could make a difference which is why I stayed at it for a long time and I did enjoy my work there, but as time went by it got more and more difficult especially seeing so many young Aboriginal kids and families being torn apart.” As the only Aboriginal person in her role for a long time, Ms Gillies said at times she struggled. “I could see there were lots of wrongs that were happening and I could see they were happening because people didn’t understand the differences with how we do things and other people do things,” she said. “Quite often people would go and meet with Aboriginal families or groups with preconceived ideas ... and this always caused a difference with our people. “I used to do short cultural heritage information sessions at lunchtime just to get staff along to start understanding why we are the way we are.” In 1948, Ms Gillies parents, older brother and her grandparents all moved to Albany before she was born the following year. The second eldest of five siblings, Ms Gillies spent most of her early years in Mt Lockyer before moving to Milpara around the age of 10. “Out there it was all bush and a few houses, which we loved, we’d just go out bush and be gone, I spent most of my life there,” she said. Ms Gillies now lives about 4km outside of Albany on a quarter-acre block with lots of animals. The influential elder has a long history in presenting cross-cultural awareness workshops and educating people about Indigenous culture. In January last year, she was named Albany’s Senior Citizen of the Year for her dedication to protecting the region’s Aboriginal heritage. She has also served as the chair of Albany’s Aboriginal Heritage Reference Group, the Museum of the Great Southern’s Aboriginal education liaison officer, and as a member of the WA Aboriginal Justice Committee. Mrs Gillies believes the best way to protect Noongar culture and country is to teach people about it and get them inspired. “The way we do it is get it out there to tell people to talk to people about special places,” she said. “This preservation is important to me because I now have grandchildren and we have a lot of young people coming through primary schools and even now in high schools who don’t know about their own cultures. “Anything we can do to assist in bringing that back helps us to understand just how rich the culture of Aboriginal people of this country actually is. “When I was young growing up it was like ‘oh, gran’s telling another story’, but as I got older it came quite apparent that the stories had lessons in them and there was a motto that always came back to boodja.” Despite not having “one creative bone in her body”, Ms Gillies opened Kurrah Mia with her son Larry Blight, and Ron and Justine Grey in February 2019. “Kurrah” means the red-tail cockatoo, and “Mia” means home. Ms Gillies said they started the store to give the area’s Noongar artists an outlet previously lacking in the Great Southern. Kurrah Mia also runs cultural tours, sharing knowledge, stories and giving people a chance to “see the land through our eyes”. “Kurrah Mia has been a dream for many years,” she said. “It is very nice to be helping to keep the traditional art forms going. “People are coming back to that raw, rich culture that goes with Aboriginal art.” Now in her seventies, Ms Gillies still has a burning passion for cultural conservation. “I think for too long people either didn’t know or didn’t care about the richness of the culture of Aboriginal people,” she said. “Albany will always be my home and even when I worked away, I knew I would always come back.”