PROJECT
Cole Baxter
Theresa Walley and Phil Walley-Stack
In this podcast series we explore the lives and experiences of Noongar Elders living in Boorloo (Perth).
Hosted by Noongar performer and story teller, Phil Walleystack, their stories reveal powerful and at times heartbreaking accounts of what it was like growing up Aboriginal in Australia, treated like outsiders and second class citizens on their own land.
Listen to our Elders as they share another layer of history – one that has always been there, just kept in the shadows.
Ni! means listen was produced by Community Arts Network in partnership with the City of Perth and with support from the ABC.
As the home of Australian stories, conversations and events that shape our nation, the ABC’s support of our project will amplify the Aboriginal hidden histories of the City of Perth.
Listen to the podcast now on your favourite podcast app or through the link below.
Executive Producer
Program Manager
Vocalist and Podcast Editor
Podcast Host
Artist
Creative Producer
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Executive Producer
Michelle is an award winning former ABC journalist with more than thirty years’ experience in television, film, radio, print and digital media.
A proud Yamatij storyteller, she is passionate about sharing the stories of First Nation people and they have formed the basis of many of her creative projects, including short stories, publications and plays.
Michelle’s role at CAN is to look for opportunities to platform CAN’s work and partner with like-minded organisations so we can continue to deliver transformative arts and cultural development programs with communities.
When not working for CAN, Michelle volunteers on the board of 100.9fm Noongar Radio, Seesaw Magazine, As One Nyitting and is a member of the Kalamunda Arts and Culture Advisory Committee.
In 2019 Michelle was featured in the SBS series Every Family Has a Secret which explored her Mother’s stolen generation experiences of removal as a child. She also discovered her Grandfather was sent from England to Australia as a child migrant.
Program Manager
Elly is an experienced Program Manager with a passion for creating spaces for connections to grow and for people to be heard. She joined the CAN team in March 2020 as Lullabies Project Coordinator and in 2021 moved into a Program Manager role, overseeing both CAN’s Lullabies and Place Names projects.
Since 2012, Elly has worked in a variety of project coordination and facilitation roles in the arts and community sectors including supporting young people to develop social action projects to advocate for their rights and create positive systemic change.
In 2020, Elly coordinated CAN’s Noongar Lullabies from Home project, bringing Noongar artists and families together online to learn and celebrate Noongar language through the creation and recording of lullabies.
Vocalist and Podcast Editor
Jemma King is a nyidiyang yok (non-Aboriginal woman), born on Whadjuk Noongar country of the Bibbulmun Nation. Jemma is a self-taught vocalist and 12-string guitarist who enjoys recording and editing sound. With a profound respect for First Peoples' culture and country, Jemma sings in harmony with the group, Della Mob. She has dedicated much of her energy towards a number of collaborative projects that foster reconciliation, including oral history projects with elders, documentary making and guiding university students to produce Noongar Dandjoo TV.
Podcast Host
Singer-songwriter Phil Walley-Stack is a Noongar man raised in Country Western Australia. Phil has been performing since he was a child, and is an accomplished performing artist, musician, dancer and author. Phil has traditional connections to Whadjuk, Yued, Ballardong and Wardarndi language groups.
Artist
Tyrown Waigana is a Wandandi Noongar (Aboriginal) and Ait Koedhal (Torres Strait Islander) multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer. His practice includes painting, illustration, sculpture, animation and graphic design and his clients include Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia, Australian National University and First Nations Justice Campaign. He recently won the 2020 NAIDOC poster competition.
Tyrown’s paintings and sculpture are expressive and abstract explorations of fantasy and surreal concepts. He has had pieces featured in Fremantle Art Center’s Revealed Exhibition 2019 and held in the Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries (WA) Collection.
Creative Producer
Poppy van Oorde-Grainger is a filmmaker and artist based in Perth WA. She is also founding director of Same Drum production company. Poppy first gained national recognition as winner of the Fremantle Print Award and later the Australia Council Kirk Robson Award for leadership in community arts and cultural development.
Poppy’s work has been broadcast on Nickelodeon, SBS and ABC and presented at international festivals and galleries including London International Festival of Theatre, Japan Media Arts Festival and Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Most recently Poppy directed, co-produced and co-wrote Galup for Perth Festival 2021.
Uncle Albert McNamara
It wouldn’t be even 20, 30 years ago, Aboriginal people couldn’t even get a foot in the foyer of the City of Perth. And now we’re up on the sixth floor talking with the mayor and making changes.
Uncle Ben Taylor Cuiermara
Aunty Doolann Leisha Eatts
I belong to Whadjuk Noongar boodjar through my grandmother, Fanny Yurleen Bennell and her dad belongs to Kings Park, Lake Monger, Jack Monger Bennell... They lived there for years before Captain Stirling came in with the Red Coat troops and slaughtered them and chased them off.”
Uncle Farley Garlett
I went back through my Native Welfare reports and I was documented in it from when I was born until I turned 18. There were reports from postmasters, the police, teachers, even shopkeepers – everyone was keeping an eye on us.”
Aunty Irene McNamara
"I went to school at Wandering Mission. It only went to grade four, so I was in grade four for three years! I didn’t have much schooling, but I still ended up working for the Education Department for more than 30 years and I’m in their Hall of Fame”
Aunty Margaret Culbong
"Racism doesn’t change overnight, but it takes action and you’ve got to do it, because we’re been here for 60,000 years and we’ll be here for another 60,000.”
Aunty Muriel Bowie
"We kept in the bush because Native Welfare was always around and they’d come along and grab the kids and take them away... One minute your cousins are there and then the next they’re down at Roelands Mission.”
Uncle Noel Nannup
"Every time I get the opportunity now, I’m always talking to young people and saying – look, you have your old people at home and they are your library. Go and talk to them and find out as much as you can about your family line and hang onto that.”
Aunty Theresa Walley
"I was taken away. In the middle of the night. There I was asleep in my bed and black figure came into my room and grabbed me, wrapped me around in a blanket and took me and placed me in the back of a truck. By morning, we were at Carrolup.”
Uncle Walter Eatts
"I wasn’t wanted by my white side and I didn’t know how to break into my Aboriginal side, so I was just somewhere in between, in limbo more or less... not black, not white, not wanted.”
Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm
PO Box 7514 Cloisters Square WA 6850
King Street Arts Centre
Ground Floor 357-365 Murray St
Perth WA 6000
08 9226 2422
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