Walking the talk with Indigenous Australia

Donna Ingram calls herself “an accidental tour guide”. A tourism course she took many years ago was the initial instigator behind the establishment of her Aboriginal history walking tour of “Redfern, Then and Now.” She jokes that the walking tour has grown legs and on a recent tour organised in partnership with Emanuel Synagogue and The Jewish Independent participants got to see why.

Over 90 minutes she not only shared some of the historic political highlights of the area that were the epicentre of Aboriginal life in Sydney, but she also addressed stereotypes around Aboriginal people and explained the many challenges they have faced, including racism and intergenerational trauma, that continue till this day.

Using many of the colourful murals and local buildings as opportunities to share more about neighbourhood artists, activists and beloved Redfern characters, Ingram interweaves her own personal story of growing up in the area within the historic times as the community. She explained how with the help of allies, the community galvanised to establish support services like the Aboriginal Medical Services, the Aboriginal Legal Services, Koori Radio station, Wyanga Aged Care services and the Black Theatre.

With a fair amount of dark humour to share some of the grim information, Donna is keen to focus on the positives, rather than the depressing statistics.  Even after the defeat of the Voice Referendum she emphasises that the local community chose to focus on the fact that 40% of the nation supported their Voice to Parliament. Noting the thinking that, “even though this door has closed another will open.”