FROM THE ARCHIVES | CAN.ORG
2 min
The Incredible Nana Beanie
Aunty Margaret Culbong
She calls it her boardroom. A big old table and collection of chairs rescued from a kerbside rubbish collection, tucked in amongst her beloved pot plants, trinkets and old trees in her suburban front yard.
It's here where she will often knit her beanies. Hundreds of them. Mostly in red, black and yellow – the colours of the Aboriginal flag.
Aunty Margaret Culbong is quite famous for carrying a bag of them to hand out at every meeting or public event she attends. She is decolonising Perth, one beanie at a time.
"My grandkids call me Nana Beanie. They love the beanies. My grandson wears a reconciliation beanie. It's got white in it, mixed in with the Aboriginal colours, for reconciliation."
The second of eight children, Aunty Margaret was born and raised on the outskirts of the small southern wheatbelt town of Narrogin.
Her mother's nickname for her was Moogedy.
The Culbong children attended the local primary school, but only after her mother sat outside the headmaster's office for a week, demanding they enrol her children.
"My father said we had to learn English – the white man's language – to survive in the white man's world."
A gifted student, Aunty Margaret learnt English and was particularly good at maths.
She secured a Country Women's Association scholarship to study business management in Perth, which eventually led to her first job working for the Department of Native Welfare in Narrogin.
It was around this time that her mother left the family and Native Welfare stepped in to make her siblings wards of the state.
Despite working for the department, she had no power to prevent the family from being torn apart.
Heartbreakingly, she was able to have a say in where they were sent. Margaret and her father opted for Sister Kate's home in Perth because they thought it would be better for the children than being sent to a mission.
Growing up experiencing segregation, racism, injustice and state-sanctioned control ignited a fire for activism in her belly.
She studied to become a nurse and then a community health worker. Her work across Western Australia helped revolutionise the way health services were being delivered to Aboriginal people. She was instrumental in establishing the first Aboriginal-controlled medical services in Western Australia.
"We set up Aboriginal community-controlled health services because the doctors and their surgeries and clinics weren't delivering proper services to Aboriginal people because they couldn't understand the Aboriginal people."
In 2021 her contribution to Aboriginal health in Western Australia was recognised when she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science by Curtin University.
Dr "Moogedy" Culbong – an agitator, a trailblazer and also... an incredible knitter!
Written by Michelle White
Produced by Community Arts Network during the Ngaluk Waangkiny project.
can.org.au/ngaluk-waangkiny
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