FROM THE ARCHIVES | CAN.ORG
2 min
My Legacy is My Family
Aunty Theresa Walley
Stolen as a child, Aunty Theresa Walley spent her life building and supporting a family that the authorities couldn't take away.
Theresa Walley was a multi award-winning author, an acclaimed artist, a cultural historian and tour guide, the founder of Perth's first Aboriginal corporation, a survivor of the Stolen Generations, a social justice campaigner, and a much-loved matriarch.
But when asked what she considered to be her legacy, her answer was simple: "My family".
"I am so proud of all my children and grandchildren. They're good people; my greatest achievement."
At the age of seven, Theresa and her brothers were snatched from their beds in the middle of the night and bundled into a Native Welfare Department truck. Her mother, in a blind panic, managed to jump into the back of the truck with them. Eight hours later, they were emptied out at Carrolup mission in the Great Southern.
The children remained there until their mother was able to negotiate to get them back. But the homecoming was short-lived. The family was constantly harassed by Native Welfare. Theresa's mother made the painful decision to surrender her kids herself.
The family walked for two days, before arriving at the doors of New Norcia Mission.
"Mum thought I'd be safe there... I had an Aunty that looked after me from the day I got in there. I was talking to her... and the next minute Mum disappeared. She went out slowly and shut the door and I didn't see her again until I was 16."
When they were reunited, Theresa's mother was homeless and living in a park in Guildford.
"Looking at Mum – a blind woman with no help from anybody – that broke my heart. Not my living in the mission. Not my being taken away. But seeing a blind woman in the park with no help from anyone. That broke my heart."
Over the years Theresa was able to reconnect with her siblings. She found her brothers by bumping into them in the street.
"I found [out] that I had a sister in Pinjarra, so I went one weekend to see my sister with my mother. I was too afraid to go on my own, so I went with my mother and went to see my sister for the first time."
It was there she met her husband and together they had seven children.
Theresa's journey to reclaim her language and culture came after her children finished school and left home. She enrolled at TAFE in the eighties.
"They said, ‘Do you want to be a writer?' And I said, ‘I don't know what we're going to write about.' So I wrote my first book, Blue Book, a book of little stories about going to school in York."
She has also written books in language. She wishes she had written more books, but regrets that "my eyes have gone on me."
Theresa Walley passed away in July 2021, surrounded by her loving family. A childhood spent pining for family inspired a lifetime committed to hers.
Written by Michelle White
Produced by Community Arts Network during the Ngaluk Waangkiny project.
can.org.au/ngaluk-waangkiny
PODCAST on SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7cZSJgSauZE8mS8ABR7LNv?si=kIdVshFZTsm3YGOeH2TwCA
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