“As a Jewish person, my indigenous ancestors came from the Middle East, even though I was born in Romania.
As a child of Holocaust survivors, I came to Australia in 1951 and I grew up in the eastern suburbs of Sydney as part of the Jewish community. I still live on Cadigal Land and as a young man I was aware of Aboriginal people living at La Perouse, but in spite of my 17 years of education to a tertiary level, I knew very little about who these people were. So in 1971 I decided to go to La Perouse and make a film about Aboriginal people living there. I was shocked to see people living in third world conditions just 7 kilometres from my home in the first world. This began a journey for me of learning about Aboriginal people and their profound culture.
I was later involved for a number of years in teaching Aboriginal studies to migrant and refugee youth through the Adult Migrant English Service. I then taught Drama, ESL, History and Literacy at Cleveland Street High School which was 60 to 80% Aboriginal at the time. This led to the creation of the Anti-Racism Radio Show, co-created with the youth, the Koori Youth worker and local youth workers and then to a highly successful theatre production called Stand Your Ground at Pact Youth Theatre in Erskineville.
Eventually this led to my researching a doctorate in social ecology which developed strategies to challenge racism through drama education, conflict resolution and non-violence training. Initially this research was undertaken with students at the school and then as a program for the NSW Department of Education Multicultural Programs Unit, where it was called Cooling Conflicts. It was implemented in some 100 schools in NSW over several years.
My work with Uncle Noel Butler in recent years has culminated in supporting him and his family in training Ambassadors to Country. This was something he felt was needed after the severity of the bushfires 2019/20 that devastated his land at Jamanee Gunya. These trainings occurred most recently in April this year and previously in 2021 and involved a one week immersion in Country with Uncle Noel and his family. With some 35 participants in 2021 and then 23 participants in 2023, this work has been a profound experience for the non-Aboriginal participants as well for members of his family who conducted the training.
My introduction to Uncle Noel came through one of my social ecology Masters’ students at Western Sydney University and then led to my organising several annual Spring Retreats on his land with the Sydney Dances of Universal Peace group. During these retreats we sang and danced on country and received teachings from Uncle Noel and his family, which included being gifted an Aboriginal Dance for our repertoire.
I had been previously involved with his cousin the late Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison, a Yuin Elder from Wallaga Lake, NSW. Uncle Max used to come to our social ecology residentials at the Hawkesbury Campus of Western Sydney University, on Dharug Country. He would share teachings and stories with our students.
Then I was involved in a 4-day festival at the Milton Showground on Budawang Country, involving numerous ways of connecting to country from indigenous, eastern and western ways. This involved Uncle Noel and his family, Uncle Max, Uncle Bruce Pascoe, author of ‘Dark Emu’ and Bill Gammage, author of ‘The Greatest Estate on Earth’. I co-led a workshop during that festival with Nicola Lambert on connecting with your indigenous ancestors, as everyone is descended from indigenous ancestors somewhere on the planet.
Another recent project was an event I co-organised with Rabbi George Mordecai and Abe Schwarz from Melbourne’s Initiatives of Change group at the Emanuel Synagogue in Woollahra in December 2022, in honour of Uncle William Cooper. Abe had organised this event in Melbourne for many years, but it was the first time it was celebrated in Sydney. This involved a number of speakers and performers from both Aboriginal and Jewish backgrounds. It included four of Uncle William Cooper’s descendants as well as several other Aboriginal elders like Auntie Ali Golding and Bruce Shillingsworth. During this event I led a Native American inspired Dance of Universal Peace. It also involved an event at the Newtown Synagogue on the Friday of that week on the same theme.”