'PLEASE HELP US KEEP OUR ELDERS AT KAPULULANGU
Kapululangu is Australia’s only Aboriginal Women’s Law and Culture Centre. It is one of Australia’s most remote women centres, and a core provider of Law (ceremonial) and Culture (custom) activities and training for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous women from across the Kimberley, throughout Australia, and around the world.
Kapululangu runs on a framework of the Circles of Cultural Learning. It’s a stand-alone, one-of-a-kind, whole-of-community, whole-of-life Law-based strategy which centralises the Elders to teach their cultural knowledge into every age group, and to support the Men Elders. Circles is a local strategy, using our community’s local Law (ceremony) and Culture (custom) to heal the cultural trauma and historical pain that has resulted in myriad social problems impacting our community - including one of Australia’s highest youth suicide rates.
Our Elders believe that without a foundation of Law and Culture knowledge and practice our children and young people will continue to hurt, repeating the cycle of devastated lives.
The Circles of Cultural Learning Strategy came out of the ground here. It was envisaged by our Women Elders. It’s their strategy, their solution to their own families’ problems. It engages and empowers the whole community.
And yet it has never been adequately funded. And right now it hasn’t got any funding at all. Our Women Elders are getting older – and they don’t want to die without having first passed their cultural knowledge on to their younger generations.
But as important as that is, there is something else…. The Elders themselves. Our Elders are all aged 75 to 83 years old. Our Elders are getting frailer and need care. And we need your help to ensure that our Elders can continue to live in their own Women’s Law House, on their own Women’s Law Ground, in their own community, close to their families, for as long as possible – and to perhaps even die here if that is their choice.
I’ve been holding back, I’ve been really holding back, but I can’t keep my silence anymore. I know that there are heaps of people out there who really care … who really truly support the Kapululangu Women Elders … and I feel it would wrong of me to be silent when the future of their Women’s Centre - the Kapululangu Women’s Law and Culture Centre … and the possibility of them living here together on their sacred Women’s Law (ceremonial) Ground is at risk.
I feel extremely privileged to have the responsibility of caring for these remarkable Women Elders in this very isolated part of the world. I’ve been very reluctant to tell you what’s happening financially with Kapululangu. I’ve been holding off for months - hoping that something would happen. But I have reluctantly come to realise that to hold out any longer would be … to continue my silence would be to betray their trust, and to betray your trust.
The facts are: Kapululangu doesn’t have any money. I mean, really! Kapululangu has zilch money. We’re broke. No money. At the moment, the Elders and I are keeping Kapululangu going from our pensions.
If we can’t find the money to maintain Kapululangu and to keep on looking after our Elders at Kapululangu they may have to move to the mainstream aged care facility in our nearest town.
Let me stress what this will mean: This will mean that our Elders who are among the last few remaining Aboriginal people who grew up in the desert before first contact with White society will be forced to leave their ancestral homelands (and their families and community) and a residential centre where their Law and their Culture is not only honoured and enjoyed but forms the bedrock of their care.
They will be forced to move to a mainstream centre where they will be expected to conform to a truly alien culture and environment. They will be forced to live within a culture does not fit them, and which cannot sustain their identity or their spirit. Such magnificent Elders should be recognised as National Living Treasures of Australia – not forced into some unfamiliar, foreign environment where they are expected to behave like Whitefellas.
We simply can’t sustain Kapululangu without any money.
Now, when we have our backs to the wall, I believe that it would be very wrong of me not to give you the opportunity - the option - to stand up for the Elders and ensure that they have the right to continue to live together on their Women’s Law Ground where they can support each other, and continue to use their energy and time to teach their grannies and great-grannies.
You help make this possible for them by making a monthly programmed payment or a one-off payment of any amount from $5 to $500.
Several years ago the Elders asked me to promise them that they will never have to leave their ancestral homelands and go and live in a mainstream aged care facility somewhere else. These magnificent Women Elders who grew up in the desert and learned the Old Ways before they world was shattered by the arrival of an alien society.
These Elders - our Elders - deserve the right to live and die in their ancestral Country - in touch with their Country, in touch with the Tjukurrpa (Universal Life Force/Dreaming). They have a right to continue to teach their younger generations to grow up strong and proud, and in this way to heal the traumatised generations and the devastated lives of their families. And certainly their younger generations truly need their Elders’ guidance.
The “Right to Live in Country, the Right to Die in Country” is the commitment and the promise that I made to the Elders long ago. But I know that there are many - very, very many - of you out there who also hold that same commitment to our Elders. Sure, you can’t be here - but we can’t all be here. Not being here doesn’t diminish your comprehension of how enormously precious these few Women Elders are. And it does not stop you from respecting, appreciating, and loving them - for who they are and for what they represent.
There’s a small group of “you” who have been solidly putting in a couple-of-dollars every month for several years … And for this we are grateful … but there’s not enough of “you” … we need more “you”s contributing to the care of our Elders ….
Please don’t let Abbott’s government and its lack of heart and vision get the better of Kapululangu. Please help Kapululangu Women Elders to hold on - for their sake, and for the sake of their grannies and for their grannies’ grannies.
If you send us your well-earned money we promise to use every drop in the best way we can to look after our Elders and to keep supporting them to enjoy and practice their Law and Culture and to pass their Cultural Knowledge onto their Younger Generations so that they grow up proud and strong in their Aboriginality. This way to heal the pain, stop the illnesses, stop the suicides.
Your money will be well looked after. We’ve got all the financial protection and accountability mechanisms in place. Kapululangu is an Indigenous Corporation, a Registered Charity, and a Benevolent Institute with Deductible Gift Recipient status. This means that every donation over $2 is tax deductible. We’re legally obliged to have our finances audited every year. And we have a great auditor who also cares about the Elders and their vision for the families and community.
So, yes, my friends, I am writing to you to ask - to encourage you - to inspire you to gift some dollars to the Kapululangu Women Elders and their efforts to raise their grannies and great-grannies knowledgeable and proud of their Law and Culture.
Any amount of dollars will help us keep on keeping our Elders on their Country for a little longer. And as each day passes we become more hopeful that somehow the funds will be found to come the Elders at home.
It’s easy to support the Elders and their cultural initiative by making an Electronic Transfer to them into their bank account. Just go online to your bank, or pop into your bank and get them to arrange it for you. You can make a monthly programmed payment or a one-off payment of any amount to:
Commonwealth Bank, Kununurra Branch
Kapululangu Aboriginal Women’s Association
BSB: 066 530
Account: 1010 7707
So that we can send you a tax-deductible receipt, please send us an email telling us your name, your email address, how much you sent, whether it’s a monthly payment, and the date you sent it. For one-of-donations we will send a receipt within 30 days. For monthly deposits we will send a receipt at the end of the financial year. Our Donations email is: kapululangu.donations@gmail.com
In recognition of your generosity we will also send you a Certificate of Deep Appreciation which you can place on your wall to show your friends that you are part of our extended Kapululangu Walytja (Family) - and hopefully to inspire them to support our Elders also. We’ll also put you on the mailing list for our new Newsletter. And at the end of the fiscal year we will send you a receipt. To receive all of this you must email us your name, the amount of money you deposited, and the date you deposited. If you would prefer to remain anonymous that’s fine too.
For those of you who are able to gift to the Elders we thank you for your generosity of spirit. To those who simply can’t afford it we thank you for reading this post through to the end, and invite you to Share our request for donations with your friends and networks because they might just be wondering how they can make a real difference to Aboriginal women and children living in Australia’s remote desert.
Now is the time to dig deep. Now is the time to take action and give life to your concerns about “Closing the Gap”. Now is when the Kapululangu Women Elders really, truly need you. You can give freely, knowing that your money is being well-spent, and that every dollar really is improving our Elders’ lives.
Please share this post with your friends. If you aren’t able to contribute… maybe your friends can. Give others an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of some of Australia’s most remarkable Women Elders.
To repeat, Kapululangu's bank details are:
Commonwealth Bank, Kununurra Branch
Kapululangu Aboriginal Women’s Association
BSB: 066 530
Account: 1010 7707
Please send your details to: kapululangu.donations@gmail.com
(Photo: Couresty of Ersilia Baratto, one of our wonderful Marlpa (Companion) Volunteers)
Please Share and pass on our request.'