Myra Ah Chee

Last updated

Myra Ah Chee or Kanakiya Myra Ah Chee (born 13 April 1932) is a Southern Aranda (Pertame) and Luritja woman who was born at Oodnadatta in South Australia. She is an artist, interpreter and translator, storyteller and author. In 2021 published her autobiography Nomad Girl: my life on the Gibber Plains and beyond which was cowritten (told by) Linda Rive. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

She is the granddaughter of Charlie Apma and the niece of Undelya (Minnie) Apma. [1]

Biography

Ah Chee is the daughter of Molly Niningaya and Dick Taylor Junior (an Aboriginal man who worked with Afghan cameleers in Australia) and she was born at the Australian Inland Mission Hospital at Oodnadatta. She was named after Sister Myra, the nursing sister there, who delivered her. She spent her early years living in a watuti (lean-to) on the fringes of the township with her family with her siblings. Starting at the age of 7 Ah Chee began attending the United Aborigines Mission (UAM) Church School in Oodnadatta and to 'ensure' that the children would be nice clean and tidy when they attended lessons she lived there from around 1939 to 1940; her parents were only living a short distance away. [1] [3]

Ah Chee's time at the UAM school ended abruptly in 1940 when she ran away from the home when the male missionary there was to bath her and she ran away; she said of this: [1]

Normally I would enjoy a both, but what we didn't like about it this time was that it was the man giving the little girls a bath, and the lady giving the boys a bath. We were just little girls, and we were shy about that sort of thing. We didn't like the man bathing us. It does seem a bit inexplicable, a bit strange, even today.

— Kanakiya Myra Ah Chee, Nomad girl (2021), p. 34

When she returned home and the missionary came to bring her back she refused to return. [1]

In October 1940 Ah Chee's mother died, after unsuccessful treatment in Port Augusta in which her arm was amputated, and her cause of death was likely cancer. After her death the family decided to leave Oodnadatta and return to her father Dick Taylors traditional country in the Northern Territory. They travelled there on her fathers camels and took what Ah Chee calls a "meandering journey" in order to see the country of the Northern Territory and meet their extended family; one place that they stopped for sometime was Horseshoe Bend Station where she compared their journey to that of Carl Strehlow as told by the book Journey to Horseshoe Bend (1978). [1]

Ah Chee's father began taking on work at cattle stations along their journey, including Tempe Downs Station, where he dug wells and built cattle yards and the family spent many years living out in the open and sleeping under the stars. During World War II Ah Chee and her family lived in Alice Springs, where they camped with their camels just south of Heavitree Gap. Ah Chee spent some of her time in Alice Springs staying with her Aunty Maude in town and attending Hartley Street School but this was short-lived as she missed her family too much and did not like staying away from them. [1]

In 1945 Ah Chee was sent by her father to the Colebrook Home, near Quorn in South Australia. She attended school alongside her cousin Lowitja O'Donoghue who was a good friend to her; Ah Chee remembers her being a good friend, very kind and that she was always encouraging Ah Chee to do additional studies and her homework; acting like a tutor to her. [1]

Ah Chee left school in 1949, at the age of 16, and began working as a domestic hand at Maryvale Station (where her father was already employed) for a short time before starting work for Charles Duguid and his family in Adelaide primarily as domestic help with some secretarial assistance also provided. She remembers him very positively and believed him to be a hard-working fighter for Aboriginal people; she said:

We used to have a good yarn together. I used to call him Tjilpi - old man. I'd ask him sometimes, 'Tjilpi!' 'Yes?' 'Why haven't you being knighted? Why aren't you Sir Charles Duguid?' 'How can I Myra?' he'd reply, and go on to say, 'I am always fighting the government!'

— Kanakiya Myra Ah Chee, Nomad Girl (2021), p. 107

When she had days off she would meet up with other girls from the Colebrook Home and was in contact with many family and friends while in Adelaide. It was here that she met with Fred Ah Chee who she would later marry. Fred, who was originally also from Oodnadatta, was a friend of her brothers who was studying at the School of Mines as well as working as an electrician, he was boarding with her Aunt Undelya (Minnie) Apma. The pair married on 13 February 1954 from the Duguid's home and it was covered in The Australian Women's Weekly; Lowitja O'Donoghue was one of her bridesmaids. [4] [5] Afterwards they made their first home in the Adelaide Hills and Fred continued work as an electrician and spent periods of time (several months in total) working at the Maralinga nuclear tests. [1]

In October 1958 Ah Chee and her husband moved to Alice Springs, alongside their one-year-old son Paul Ah Chee (later part of the Amunda band), [6] where Fred began working at the Power House and, by the end of his career, was the chief there. In Alice Springs Ah Chee began working as a gallery attended at the Centre for Aboriginal Artists and Craftsmen and, from the early 1980s, began working as a teacher demonstrator and interpreter/translator at the Institute for Aboriginal Development. Here she worked alongside Cliff Goddard on the Yankunytjatjara sections of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara to English Dictionary (1987). [7] She also worked at the Alice Springs Hospital and Central Australian Aboriginal Congress as a liaison officer/interpreter. [1]

Ah Chee largely retired after Fred's death of reported heart failure in 1987 and she suspects that exposure to radiation at Maralinga contributed to his early death. [8] In her retirement she committed much more time to her art and most of her works where acrylic on canvas.

Publications

Ah Chee's photograph collection the "Myra Ah Chee Collection" is available through AIATSIS.

Related Research Articles

Robyn Davidson is an Australian writer best known for her 1980 book Tracks, about her 2,700 km trek across the deserts of Western Australia using camels. Her career of travelling and writing about her travels has spanned 40 years. Her memoir, Unfinished Woman was published in late 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lowitja O'Donoghue</span> Australian public administrator (1932–2024)

Lowitja O'Donoghue, also known as Lois O'Donoghue and Lois Smart, was an Australian public administrator and Indigenous rights advocate. She was the inaugural chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) from 1990 to 1996. She is known for her work in improving the health and welfare of Indigenous Australians, and also for the part she played in the drafting of the Native Title Act 1993, which established native title in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Far North (South Australia)</span> Very large region in the arid part of South Australia

The Far North is a region that covers about 70 per cent of the Australian state of South Australia. It extends across the entire width of the state – about 1200 kilometres – for approximately the northernmost 750 kilometres. The state government defines the Far North region similarly, although it separately delineates the Maralinga Tjarutja Lands, the Yalata Aboriginal community and other unincorporated crown lands in the state's far west, which are officially considered part of the Eyre and Western region. Colloquially, South Australians regard anywhere north of Port Augusta as the Far North.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara</span> Local government area in South Australia

Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, also known as APY, APY Lands or the Lands, is a large, sparsely-populated local government area (LGA) for Aboriginal people, located in the remote north west of South Australia. Some of the Aṉangu (people) of the Western Desert cultural bloc, in particular Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra peoples, inhabit the Lands.

Charles Duguid was a Scottish-born medical practitioner, social reformer, Presbyterian lay leader and Aboriginal rights campaigner who lived in Adelaide, South Australia for most of his adult life, and recorded his experience working among the Aboriginal Australians in a number of books. He founded the Ernabella mission station in the far north of South Australia. The Pitjantjatjara people gave him the honorific Tjilpi, meaning "respected old man". He and his wife Phyllis Duguid, also an Aboriginal rights campaigner as well as women's rights activist, led much of the work on improving the lives of Aboriginal people in South Australia in the mid-twentieth century.

Pukatja is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands".

Indulkana is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands". At the 2016 Australian census, Indulkana had a population of 256.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladys Elphick</span> Australian activist (1904–1988)

Gladys Elphick, also known as Gladys Hughes and Auntie Glad, was an Australian Aboriginal woman of Kaurna and Ngadjuri descent, best known as the founding president of the Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia, which became the Aboriginal Council of South Australia in 1973.

The Aboriginal South Australians are the Indigenous people who lived in South Australia prior to the British colonisation of South Australia, and their descendants and their ancestors. There are difficulties in identifying the names, territorial boundaries, and language groups of the Aboriginal peoples of South Australia, including poor record-keeping and deliberate obfuscation, so only a rough approximation can be given here.

Nura Rupert was an Australian Aboriginal artist from north-west South Australia. She was also a ngangkari until her death in 2016. She produced two primary kinds of art works. She produced her print works using intaglio methods of printmaking. The designs are drawn by etching and linocutting, and the prints are done on paper. Her second medium of choice is making punu, wood carvings often decorated with a hot poker.

Jimmy Baker was an Australian Aboriginal artist.

Colebrook Home was a South Australian institution for Australian Aboriginal children run by the United Aborigines Mission from 1924 to 1981, existing at four different locations over its lifetime.

Wawiriya Burton is an Australian Aboriginal artist. She is known for her acrylic paintings. Her paintings are representations of sacred stories from the Dreamtime. Like other Aboriginal artists, the representations are blurred for cultural reasons. The full meaning of her artworks can only be understood or deciphered by people who have been initiated. Burton is a ngangkaṟi, so she has more knowledge about sacred traditions than most in her community.

Kunmanara Tjilpi Kankapankatja, Robin Kankapankatja, was an Australian Aboriginal artist. He worked for most of his life as a labourer and conservationist. He is the manager and senior traditional owner of Walalkara, a homeland and Indigenous protected area on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. He began work as an artist in 2004, aged in his 70s. His artworks are now held in several major galleries in Australia.

Phyllis Evelyn Duguid, née Lade, was an Australian teacher and Aboriginal rights and women's activist, who was highly regarded for her long-term commitment to those she saw as members of an underclass in society. She was married to, and often worked alongside, Charles Duguid, medical practitioner and Aboriginal rights campaigner, the couple leading much of the work on improving the lives of Aboriginal people in South Australia in the mid-twentieth century. She founded the League for the Protection and Advancement of Aboriginal and Half-Caste Women, which later became the Aborigines' Advancement League of South Australia (AALSA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ida Standley</span> Australian school teacher (1869–1948)

Ida Standley was the first school teacher in Alice Springs, Australia. For 15 years, from 1914 to 1929, she worked at The Bungalow. Standley was appointed MBE for her services to children's welfare.

Alfreda "Freda" Glynn, also known as Freda Thornton, is a Kaytetye photographer and media specialist. She is known as co-founder of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association Group of Companies, which incorporates CAAMA and Imparja.

Pearl Ruth Powell, née Price, formerly Bird, was an Australian memoirist. She was the co-writer of By Packhorse and Buggy (1996) alongside her daughter Eileen McRae. This memoir follows her life where she grew up at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station, the daughter of postmaster Fred Price and, following his early death life on various cattle stations throughout Central Australia.

Sally Scales is an Australian activist and artist. She is an ethnic Pitjantjatjara from Pipalyatjara, South Australia in the northwestern part of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands (APY).

Undelya (Minnie) Apma was a Arrernte domestic servant who was born at Horseshoe Bend Station in the Northern Territory.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Ah Chee, Kanakiya Myra (2021), Nomad girl : my life on the gibber plains and beyond, Aboriginal Studies Press, ISBN   978-1-922059-83-3
  2. ↑ "Myra Ah Chee". Art Gallery of South Australia. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
  3. 1 2 "Nomad Girl". AIATSIS Shop. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
  4. ↑ "Dusky bride wore white satin". The Australian Women's Weekly . Vol. 21, no. 41. Australia, Australia. 10 March 1954. p. 13. Retrieved 24 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "Myra 15 now Mrs Ah Chee". The Mail (Adelaide) . Vol. 43, no. 2, 175. South Australia. 13 February 1954. p. 12. Retrieved 24 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ Barton, Jacob (29 November 2007). "Amunda". Deadly Vibe. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  7. ↑ "Myra Ah Chee's story told in her own languages of life: one woman's memoir is an important work of Australian history". The Australian . 5 November 2021.
  8. ↑ Finnane, Kieran (30 November 2021). "Memoir: 'We met everything that came to us' - Alice Springs News" . Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  9. ↑ Ah Chee, Myra Kanakiya; Rive, Linda, 1954-, (translator,); Pitjantjatjara Council Cultural Heritage Unit, (issuing body.); Ara Irititja Project (S.A.) (2016), Stony land spirit : a memoir, Pitjantjatjara Council Cultural Heritage Unit, retrieved 24 April 2024{{citation}}: |author2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.