July 11, 2024 • 17 mins
Aunty Ruth Simms has seen a lot in her 83 years. She’s one of the most respected indigenous elders in the Shoalhaven. So Naidoc Week seems the perfect excuse to sit down and acknowledge exactly how much she has contributed to our region.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My heartshall Haven.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
We need to look after our country because if we
want this for another whatever so thousands of years, we
need to pay respect to Mother Earth.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Hello. I'm Peter Andrea and my guest for this episode
is someone many in the Shalhn know and love. Artie
Ruth Simms. Has seen a lot in her eighty three years.
She's one of the most respected indigenous elders in the
shoal Haven. Dare I say Australia and Nate okweeks seem
the perfect time to sit down and acknowledge exactly how
(00:32):
much she's achieved and contributed to our region. But first
I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and
custodians of the land and pay my respects to their
elders past and present as well as emerging leaders. And
I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island
of peoples listening today Artie Ruth's work with children and
(00:55):
as the longer standing Aboriginal Education officer in New South Wales.
I saw her awarded an a M in the Queen's
Birthday honors, and Artie Ruth has seen plenty of the
world too, Having never missed a single World Indigenous Conference
in twenty years. She spent her childhood though, traveling between
missions at Larperu's and Orient Point in the Shoalhaven, where
(01:17):
her mother instilled the connection between land and sea. Artie
can I ask, first of all, where do you come from? Well?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Mostly I grew up at Laparu's, but my mum comes
from Orient Point and we've always come backwards and forwards
on the old steam trains, and before they had a
Bitchmond road around collub to Carlbara, we'd have to rail
across the river, across the cook Haven River to get
to Orient Point.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
See you've been around for a while.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I can remember once my brother and I Sonny Annie
Ada come up to Larpa and get it. Mom might
have been expecting one of my siblings, my brothers or sisters,
and we had to sleep on the wharf as a
boat shit down at Greenville Point. We slept in that
in the night till Anniatea. The next morning you had
to COOLi out to someone to take us across the river.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Really yep, really, so that's.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
A long time ago. I turned eighty three on Thursday
fifty July.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Happy Thursday.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
But you've seen a lot of change since then.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I have, and even at lap Roofs too. Like well,
as I said, I come from there, but always backwards
and forwards down here, and eventually moved down here to
stay about forty or junior fifty years ago. When you
say it like that, that's a long time. It is
a century.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
And in that time you've become a well respected elder
within the indigenous community.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Here is just I'm just me an abrage lady, a mother.
But I don't know, I don't think people really see
queries that we can like, well, we can hold a job,
and there's been men that's worked down at the paper mill,
has been there for years. I think it's people getting
(03:07):
to really know coury people, sitting down having a conversation
with them, because my people are pretty deadly. We're all right.
You've got a lot of non Averaginal friends who are
just they're beautiful people.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Absolutely, You're really easy to talk to. Thank you no,
and you carry a message always of hope and reconciliation.
But I suppose you've seen a lot in the past
though that's you know, forty years ago you wouldn't have
been treated as well as you have been to you
(03:41):
know you are today.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
When you live on missions or reserves, you're under the
control of the Average Protection Board. There's managers who look
after these reserves. It's the same as out rosseby Park,
reck Bay, Laparouse. I'll talk on what I know. You
up on a reserve and there used to be a
sign at the gate. If you had an abigettle friend,
(04:06):
which I did, you'd bring them ome to your house.
And there was a sign that said if you were
on that mission after a certain time without permission, you
had to go into the manager and let them know
you were coming onto the reserve, you'd be fined twenty pounds,
which is equivalent to forty dollars to day.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, which would have been a lot of money back there. Yes, yeah, yeah,
And so that's the attitude that white Australia had back then.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah. Look, I could remember going on the Tramsomary rejunction
and you hear some people say, oh, you're going out
there where the blacks live. You know what, out where
the blacks live today you'd need to have deep pockets
and at least a million dollars. So that's out where
the blacks live. But the thing is all of my people.
If we take look in the chele aven at Roseby Park,
(04:54):
Wick Bay, beautiful spots you know right away where no
one wanted to be. But that's where our people fished
and lived off the rocks and the sea the sand
for food. Pippies go to the bush, could know what
foods to get, but wild currants. Mum used to show
us the wild currants and the gea bungs, like there's
(05:15):
a broader leaf geebung and a narrow leaf gea bun
and sometimes you'll get the red bark geebung with it.
I was brought up culturally and I went to school
at Laperuz and I went to school down at Rosebury Park.
The teachers there like at La Peruse at public school,
they were great teachers. They were great teachers. But we
(05:35):
used to go down to the French monument and seing
the French Marsilla on the fourteenth of Wat's at July
last Stiel days. We'd go down. But when we went
to school we never learned about our people. Mum used
to take us to the rocks to the bush, make
our own little billy can out of a powdered milk
tin with a little bit of wire across it, and
we went to school and my father, he was brought
(05:58):
up in Bomitary children, then went to work out a
place on a property called Girly. I remember seeing that
place too because I'm involved with the New South Wales
Aboriginal Education Consolative Group. My father was an advocate for
his people standing up for our rights, and I remember
him saying, I'm going downtown today Girly. It's our day.
(06:19):
But nine Aboriginal people help with that march because around
your small percent of the people, there are a lot
of good non Abaginal people out there also that help
us and could see the injustices that have been placed
on our people, the rightful owners of this great nation
we live in.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
And you ended a career in education as well as
raising a family.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yes, I've been. I am the longest serving Aboriginal Education
officer in New South Wales. I could remember at that time,
I didn't. I didn't get introduced when I came into
the school. We used to go on school camps for
a week like five days, and I remember I went
on that school camp five days and I show the
(07:03):
teacher what I could do. They are impressed. I take
my little group into the bush. We'd get a tea
tree room, a chum, my lungs or g buns, and
I had my own group. And I look after those
children as well as I'd looked after my own children.
I love what I do. I'm good at teaching children
to read. I think that's my I don't say forty,
(07:26):
but I'm good at culture as well. That's what I've
been brought up on. I didn't go to sleep on
red Riding Order, Goldilocks or Cinderella stories. I went to
sleep on Gunjan stories.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So you have real connections.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I love it. Yeah, And that's why if you, Peter,
if you think this is easy for me to talk,
I've lived it. When you live something, you don't have
to think about it because it's just automatic.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And you're still in education today.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I am. Yeah. I love it. I love what i'd do.
I wasn't now primary skill for forty three years. That's
a long time. Yeah, And I could prove it today.
I built little none able to children to read. Their
parents come up to me in the street. See this woman,
she taught my boy how to read.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Next Artie Ruth Sims speaks frankly about the fallout of
Australia voting No in the referendum on the Indigenous Voiced Parliament.
It's a decision that hurt deeply, but she hasn't lost
hope on her vision for one Australia.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I heart shoul Haven. I heart shoul Haven.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
We continue our conversation now with Artie Ruth Sims, one
of the Shoalhaven's most respected Indigenous elders. The Yes votes
in last year's referendum was a huge disappointment for her.
Artie Ruth has a rather simplistic approach to closing the gap.
Get non Indigenous Australians to just have a yarn with
coury people. Artie Ruth's Welcome to Country dialogues are always
(08:59):
heartfelt and challenging all of us to be more open
to understanding and learning. Like finding out who are the
two Aboriginal men depicted on the Assie two dollar coin
and the fifty dollar note. Most of us don't have
a clue.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Unfortunately, some non Aboraginal people don't get that opportunity to
talk and have a conversation, sit down and have a
talk with courry people. I went down to the council
naytokwek yesterday. That was a great day. I mean the
curry man there, intelligent speaking talking for the dancers and
(09:35):
tell them also like me, about our country, how our
people have lived here for thousands of thousands of years,
how we've looked after it. You know what in two
hundred and fifty four years, we've got pollution, We've got
plastic bottles, bags been thrown into the river. We need
to look after our country because if we want this
(09:56):
for another whatever, so thousands of years, we need to
I respect the mother Earth. If we look after our land,
the land look after us.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And that deep connection to country that's part of that,
isn't it?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Absolutely, Now you I've heard you speak on a number
of occasions and one of your keynote little mentions is
the two dollars Australian coin and the fifty dollars Australian note.
And so I'd challenge anyone listening grab out a two
dollar coin and a fifty dollars Australian note if you've
(10:34):
got one, and have a look at the indigenous people
that are on that coin and the note. Who are
they aren'ty?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Well, David upon came from a mission at Point Maclay
and the name of that mission was like Rock and
I think a spell capital R double a uk. I'm
not right with that spelling, but it's an unusual name
and it's Point Maclay and Victoria a very very intelligent
(11:04):
man and he's on that and he had input into
improving the shearing shoes in the sheds for the men
who sure sheep. And then he also was instrumental in
the rotatory of the helicopter blades, but unfortunately he never
had money to pay for a patent to have ownership
of that. But the intelligence he was an orator, a speaker,
(11:26):
a writer, and you know what, it's very important we
get your picture on a stamp, but from me personally,
if you get your money on we call it wollong
on money. That's really something that you've made. And I'm
so pleased that he's been recognized for what his contribution
as a human being and an abidal human being. And
(11:49):
on the two dollars coin, I can't think I had
to pronounce jungle marras, but the story to that he
was the only survivor from a massacre in Coniston in
roundabout Ularu Alice Springs. He was the only survivor. And
I remember that name Coniston because we've got a Connistan
just up near Woollongong.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah. Now what's interesting is that no, not many. Every
time I've heard you ask that, no one's been able
to tell that story. That's an important story.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It saddens me really because people must look and two
dollars coin they must, And I wonder how many like
you just said, Peter, actually look at the money they're
holding in their hands, the importance of that person on
our currency. And you know what, Peter, those people are important.
(12:42):
But I think back to you've talks now, I like
to show Kathy Freeman all Australia. She won that four
hundred meter race for the whole of Australia, our country.
You know what I said it earlier. There's a lot
of good Averaginal people, deadly people, but there's just there's
good people, just fundamental lame people. You don't have to
(13:03):
be famous in your heart. You'd be a good, decent
person holding a job down. You know that's important. But
I don't think we as average people get that recognition.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Now, twelve months ago we had the Voice vote and
that was voted down, and I know that affected you deeply.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, I had a week off work. Have made me sick,
made me sick, and then I had to try and think, No,
there was a lot of good people who voted. Yes,
a lot of my good friends are non average people,
and so that's the way I sort of managed to
get over that. And we've had a lot of good
(13:51):
non Abaginal people stand with us to get the right
to vote in the first place, and then we come
over a hurdle with that. Yes. No, I just hope
that we're treated as human beings and given the right respect.
And anybody listening to this this morning, Peter, we should
(14:13):
know the true history of our country. We have a
great country and we are Australians, but you must know,
in my opinion, you must know the true history of
this country. And you know what else, Peter, I say
these too, one heart, one heart, many colors, maybe different
facial features, maybe have sur name that doesn't go with
(14:37):
Smith or Jones. We're all human beings and the blood
that runs through our veins, but that one heart is
what keeps us alive.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
One Australia, One Australia, one art.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
But if you really understand the history of our country.
A lot of terrible things have happened to Abisinal people,
But I believe in education and as human beings, I hope,
I honestly hope that on the day to day, as
human beings, we can overcome those atrocities that have happened
(15:12):
to my people. And there's no good say in nadasn't
it has, but we still have a way to go
and by learning about our people in education.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
What's your message to people who are listening this morning.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I think I'd like you to get educated. Look at
the man who's that faces on the two dollar coin,
look at the man who's on that fifty dollar note,
and think about Katy Freeman, and think about the late
Albert Namajira and we had an Aberiginal tenor. And think
about Abaginal people when they can make music from a
piece of wood, did we do the clapsticks and play
(15:47):
in the gum leaf? If you put that into our curriculum,
that science. After you make fire fire from rubbing two
sticks together, that's science. My people have been intelligent people
that they looked after our country that we share today
with many, many, many different people who come from across
the seas, but we still call Australia home. So I
(16:08):
just hope that one of us, all of us, will
go forward as human beings with one heart beating.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Well, you can't say it any more succinctly than that, Kenny, Really,
you can't say any more than that, Peter.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
That's from my heart. I think it's easy, Peter.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
From your heart. You know what. It's been a pleasure
to talk to.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
You anytime, Peter, and I like to thank you for
giving me this opportunity and have a good day everybody.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Anytime, Artie anytime.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
That's our yarn with eighty three year old Arn'tie Ruth
Sims the wise words of a woman who's battled for
a better life for her Indigenous brothers and sisters throughout
the decades, and she's urging every generation to keep the
fire burning black law and proud thanks for listening to
iHeart shoal Haven, proudly supported by the New South Wales Government.
(17:06):
I'm Peter Andrea. Catch you next time.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I heeartshual Haven
My heartshall Haven.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
We need to look after our country because if we
want this for another whatever so thousands of years, we
need to pay respect to Mother Earth.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Hello. I'm Peter Andrea and my guest for this episode
is someone many in the Shalhn know and love. Artie
Ruth Simms. Has seen a lot in her eighty three years.
She's one of the most respected indigenous elders in the
shoal Haven. Dare I say Australia and Nate okweeks seem
the perfect time to sit down and acknowledge exactly how
(00:32):
much she's achieved and contributed to our region. But first
I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and
custodians of the land and pay my respects to their
elders past and present as well as emerging leaders. And
I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island
of peoples listening today Artie Ruth's work with children and
(00:55):
as the longer standing Aboriginal Education officer in New South Wales.
I saw her awarded an a M in the Queen's
Birthday honors, and Artie Ruth has seen plenty of the
world too, Having never missed a single World Indigenous Conference
in twenty years. She spent her childhood though, traveling between
missions at Larperu's and Orient Point in the Shoalhaven, where
(01:17):
her mother instilled the connection between land and sea. Artie
can I ask, first of all, where do you come from? Well?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Mostly I grew up at Laparu's, but my mum comes
from Orient Point and we've always come backwards and forwards
on the old steam trains, and before they had a
Bitchmond road around collub to Carlbara, we'd have to rail
across the river, across the cook Haven River to get
to Orient Point.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
See you've been around for a while.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I can remember once my brother and I Sonny Annie
Ada come up to Larpa and get it. Mom might
have been expecting one of my siblings, my brothers or sisters,
and we had to sleep on the wharf as a
boat shit down at Greenville Point. We slept in that
in the night till Anniatea. The next morning you had
to COOLi out to someone to take us across the river.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Really yep, really, so that's.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
A long time ago. I turned eighty three on Thursday
fifty July.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Happy Thursday.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
But you've seen a lot of change since then.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I have, and even at lap Roofs too. Like well,
as I said, I come from there, but always backwards
and forwards down here, and eventually moved down here to
stay about forty or junior fifty years ago. When you
say it like that, that's a long time. It is
a century.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
And in that time you've become a well respected elder
within the indigenous community.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Here is just I'm just me an abrage lady, a mother.
But I don't know, I don't think people really see
queries that we can like, well, we can hold a job,
and there's been men that's worked down at the paper mill,
has been there for years. I think it's people getting
(03:07):
to really know coury people, sitting down having a conversation
with them, because my people are pretty deadly. We're all right.
You've got a lot of non Averaginal friends who are
just they're beautiful people.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Absolutely, You're really easy to talk to. Thank you no,
and you carry a message always of hope and reconciliation.
But I suppose you've seen a lot in the past
though that's you know, forty years ago you wouldn't have
been treated as well as you have been to you
(03:41):
know you are today.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
When you live on missions or reserves, you're under the
control of the Average Protection Board. There's managers who look
after these reserves. It's the same as out rosseby Park,
reck Bay, Laparouse. I'll talk on what I know. You
up on a reserve and there used to be a
sign at the gate. If you had an abigettle friend,
(04:06):
which I did, you'd bring them ome to your house.
And there was a sign that said if you were
on that mission after a certain time without permission, you
had to go into the manager and let them know
you were coming onto the reserve, you'd be fined twenty pounds,
which is equivalent to forty dollars to day.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, which would have been a lot of money back there. Yes, yeah, yeah,
And so that's the attitude that white Australia had back then.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah. Look, I could remember going on the Tramsomary rejunction
and you hear some people say, oh, you're going out
there where the blacks live. You know what, out where
the blacks live today you'd need to have deep pockets
and at least a million dollars. So that's out where
the blacks live. But the thing is all of my people.
If we take look in the chele aven at Roseby Park,
(04:54):
Wick Bay, beautiful spots you know right away where no
one wanted to be. But that's where our people fished
and lived off the rocks and the sea the sand
for food. Pippies go to the bush, could know what
foods to get, but wild currants. Mum used to show
us the wild currants and the gea bungs, like there's
(05:15):
a broader leaf geebung and a narrow leaf gea bun
and sometimes you'll get the red bark geebung with it.
I was brought up culturally and I went to school
at Laperuz and I went to school down at Rosebury Park.
The teachers there like at La Peruse at public school,
they were great teachers. They were great teachers. But we
(05:35):
used to go down to the French monument and seing
the French Marsilla on the fourteenth of Wat's at July
last Stiel days. We'd go down. But when we went
to school we never learned about our people. Mum used
to take us to the rocks to the bush, make
our own little billy can out of a powdered milk
tin with a little bit of wire across it, and
we went to school and my father, he was brought
(05:58):
up in Bomitary children, then went to work out a
place on a property called Girly. I remember seeing that
place too because I'm involved with the New South Wales
Aboriginal Education Consolative Group. My father was an advocate for
his people standing up for our rights, and I remember
him saying, I'm going downtown today Girly. It's our day.
(06:19):
But nine Aboriginal people help with that march because around
your small percent of the people, there are a lot
of good non Abaginal people out there also that help
us and could see the injustices that have been placed
on our people, the rightful owners of this great nation
we live in.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
And you ended a career in education as well as
raising a family.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yes, I've been. I am the longest serving Aboriginal Education
officer in New South Wales. I could remember at that time,
I didn't. I didn't get introduced when I came into
the school. We used to go on school camps for
a week like five days, and I remember I went
on that school camp five days and I show the
(07:03):
teacher what I could do. They are impressed. I take
my little group into the bush. We'd get a tea
tree room, a chum, my lungs or g buns, and
I had my own group. And I look after those
children as well as I'd looked after my own children.
I love what I do. I'm good at teaching children
to read. I think that's my I don't say forty,
(07:26):
but I'm good at culture as well. That's what I've
been brought up on. I didn't go to sleep on
red Riding Order, Goldilocks or Cinderella stories. I went to
sleep on Gunjan stories.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So you have real connections.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I love it. Yeah, And that's why if you, Peter,
if you think this is easy for me to talk,
I've lived it. When you live something, you don't have
to think about it because it's just automatic.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And you're still in education today.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I am. Yeah. I love it. I love what i'd do.
I wasn't now primary skill for forty three years. That's
a long time. Yeah, And I could prove it today.
I built little none able to children to read. Their
parents come up to me in the street. See this woman,
she taught my boy how to read.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Next Artie Ruth Sims speaks frankly about the fallout of
Australia voting No in the referendum on the Indigenous Voiced Parliament.
It's a decision that hurt deeply, but she hasn't lost
hope on her vision for one Australia.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I heart shoul Haven. I heart shoul Haven.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
We continue our conversation now with Artie Ruth Sims, one
of the Shoalhaven's most respected Indigenous elders. The Yes votes
in last year's referendum was a huge disappointment for her.
Artie Ruth has a rather simplistic approach to closing the gap.
Get non Indigenous Australians to just have a yarn with
coury people. Artie Ruth's Welcome to Country dialogues are always
(08:59):
heartfelt and challenging all of us to be more open
to understanding and learning. Like finding out who are the
two Aboriginal men depicted on the Assie two dollar coin
and the fifty dollar note. Most of us don't have
a clue.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Unfortunately, some non Aboraginal people don't get that opportunity to
talk and have a conversation, sit down and have a
talk with courry people. I went down to the council
naytokwek yesterday. That was a great day. I mean the
curry man there, intelligent speaking talking for the dancers and
(09:35):
tell them also like me, about our country, how our
people have lived here for thousands of thousands of years,
how we've looked after it. You know what in two
hundred and fifty four years, we've got pollution, We've got
plastic bottles, bags been thrown into the river. We need
to look after our country because if we want this
(09:56):
for another whatever, so thousands of years, we need to
I respect the mother Earth. If we look after our land,
the land look after us.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And that deep connection to country that's part of that,
isn't it?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Absolutely, Now you I've heard you speak on a number
of occasions and one of your keynote little mentions is
the two dollars Australian coin and the fifty dollars Australian note.
And so I'd challenge anyone listening grab out a two
dollar coin and a fifty dollars Australian note if you've
(10:34):
got one, and have a look at the indigenous people
that are on that coin and the note. Who are
they aren'ty?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Well, David upon came from a mission at Point Maclay
and the name of that mission was like Rock and
I think a spell capital R double a uk. I'm
not right with that spelling, but it's an unusual name
and it's Point Maclay and Victoria a very very intelligent
(11:04):
man and he's on that and he had input into
improving the shearing shoes in the sheds for the men
who sure sheep. And then he also was instrumental in
the rotatory of the helicopter blades, but unfortunately he never
had money to pay for a patent to have ownership
of that. But the intelligence he was an orator, a speaker,
(11:26):
a writer, and you know what, it's very important we
get your picture on a stamp, but from me personally,
if you get your money on we call it wollong
on money. That's really something that you've made. And I'm
so pleased that he's been recognized for what his contribution
as a human being and an abidal human being. And
(11:49):
on the two dollars coin, I can't think I had
to pronounce jungle marras, but the story to that he
was the only survivor from a massacre in Coniston in
roundabout Ularu Alice Springs. He was the only survivor. And
I remember that name Coniston because we've got a Connistan
just up near Woollongong.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah. Now what's interesting is that no, not many. Every
time I've heard you ask that, no one's been able
to tell that story. That's an important story.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It saddens me really because people must look and two
dollars coin they must, And I wonder how many like
you just said, Peter, actually look at the money they're
holding in their hands, the importance of that person on
our currency. And you know what, Peter, those people are important.
(12:42):
But I think back to you've talks now, I like
to show Kathy Freeman all Australia. She won that four
hundred meter race for the whole of Australia, our country.
You know what I said it earlier. There's a lot
of good Averaginal people, deadly people, but there's just there's
good people, just fundamental lame people. You don't have to
(13:03):
be famous in your heart. You'd be a good, decent
person holding a job down. You know that's important. But
I don't think we as average people get that recognition.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Now, twelve months ago we had the Voice vote and
that was voted down, and I know that affected you deeply.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, I had a week off work. Have made me sick,
made me sick, and then I had to try and think, No,
there was a lot of good people who voted. Yes,
a lot of my good friends are non average people,
and so that's the way I sort of managed to
get over that. And we've had a lot of good
(13:51):
non Abaginal people stand with us to get the right
to vote in the first place, and then we come
over a hurdle with that. Yes. No, I just hope
that we're treated as human beings and given the right respect.
And anybody listening to this this morning, Peter, we should
(14:13):
know the true history of our country. We have a
great country and we are Australians, but you must know,
in my opinion, you must know the true history of
this country. And you know what else, Peter, I say
these too, one heart, one heart, many colors, maybe different
facial features, maybe have sur name that doesn't go with
(14:37):
Smith or Jones. We're all human beings and the blood
that runs through our veins, but that one heart is
what keeps us alive.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
One Australia, One Australia, one art.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
But if you really understand the history of our country.
A lot of terrible things have happened to Abisinal people,
But I believe in education and as human beings, I hope,
I honestly hope that on the day to day, as
human beings, we can overcome those atrocities that have happened
(15:12):
to my people. And there's no good say in nadasn't
it has, but we still have a way to go
and by learning about our people in education.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
What's your message to people who are listening this morning.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I think I'd like you to get educated. Look at
the man who's that faces on the two dollar coin,
look at the man who's on that fifty dollar note,
and think about Katy Freeman, and think about the late
Albert Namajira and we had an Aberiginal tenor. And think
about Abaginal people when they can make music from a
piece of wood, did we do the clapsticks and play
(15:47):
in the gum leaf? If you put that into our curriculum,
that science. After you make fire fire from rubbing two
sticks together, that's science. My people have been intelligent people
that they looked after our country that we share today
with many, many, many different people who come from across
the seas, but we still call Australia home. So I
(16:08):
just hope that one of us, all of us, will
go forward as human beings with one heart beating.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Well, you can't say it any more succinctly than that, Kenny, Really,
you can't say any more than that, Peter.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
That's from my heart. I think it's easy, Peter.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
From your heart. You know what. It's been a pleasure
to talk to.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
You anytime, Peter, and I like to thank you for
giving me this opportunity and have a good day everybody.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Anytime, Artie anytime.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
That's our yarn with eighty three year old Arn'tie Ruth
Sims the wise words of a woman who's battled for
a better life for her Indigenous brothers and sisters throughout
the decades, and she's urging every generation to keep the
fire burning black law and proud thanks for listening to
iHeart shoal Haven, proudly supported by the New South Wales Government.
(17:06):
I'm Peter Andrea. Catch you next time.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I heeartshual Haven
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