TK: Hello, my name is Tammy King. I am a Barkandji woman. When I reflect on the river, I think about my grandmother Elsie Jones, how she would keep us in touch with nature and culture. Telling of our connections to country and creation stories like the Falling Star. As a mother of seven children, I can see how much they’re missing out on the connections to culture.
KK: Hello, my name is Kerry King. Tammy is my younger sister. We are descendants of the Barkandji nation belonging to the Darling River. As Tammy’s older sister, I was fortunate enough to grow up in between 2 brothers, Colin and Malcolm. Being around our grandmother always meant food gathering and learning and sponging in our culture. I’d follow my 2 brothers to the river, the waterways, the creeks, collecting eggs and duck to share with family. Nowadays, I don’t see any of these opportunities for our children to connect to country. They don’t have no river life to connect to. Nothing to be passed onto them. I sit on my verandah, and as each day go by, I listen to the birds and I tell my family, I’ll say to them “There, we’re just going home from the river, just going home from fishing. Collecting wood on the way home” That’s my memories, that’s my life of the river.