DCM > Women > Tribute > 2003 > Eileen Cummings

Eileen Cummings (b. 1943)

Eileen is recognised in the 2003 Tribute to Northern Territory Women for her outstanding community service.

Eileen Cummings was born in Central Arnhem Land . She is a member of the Stolen Generations having been taken from her mother as a young girl to live on Croker Island .

Eileen has the distinction of being the first Aboriginal person to qualify as a Pre-school teacher in the Northern Territory . She has dedicated much of her time to addressing Aboriginal community issues. Eileen was a State Member of the Committee on Discrimination, Employment, Occupation and Equal Rights, and is a member of numerous committees and taskforces that are addressing issues such as discrimination, family violence, education, substance abuse and community development and education, Eileen was also a member of the 1987-89 Women's Advisory Council to the Chief Minister.

Eileen has presented a number of papers to national and international conferences, forums and seminars, and represented the Northern Territory at United Nations conferences on the status of women. She has worked as a teacher, and in policy development and community liaison.

Eileen is mother of three and grandmother of ten and a great-grandmother of one, and is known and deeply respected by women and communities across the Territory.

Eileen's mother on her feelings about Eileen being taken from her to Croker Island Mission

"I did not know why they took you my girl, I always thought I was a good woman and mother and I worked very hard all my life on the station. I rode in cattle musterings, cooked and cleaned the station homestead and never asked for anything or expected anything from anyone".

"Sometimes I would sit next to the campfire and think about you and wonder where you were or if you were still alive. I would cry inside and my heart it really hurting". "Them white fellas could do anything to us blackfellas, like we had no say in what happen, even though we work hard all the time".

"When you came back I was really happy and glad you bring all my grandchildren and great grandchildren to see me, so I can tell you about your country and blackfella business. You my girl have to make sure all the family understand blackfella business too and don't let the white fella take your children or grandchildren. Hard for me to tell you how I really feel inside me, I don't understand government and white people properly".

Eileen Cummings on the Stolen Generation

"We may go home, but we cannot relive our childhood. We may reunite with our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles and communities, but we cannot relive the many years that we spent without their love and care, and they cannot undo the grief and mourning they felt when we were separated from them. We can go home ourselves as Aboriginal, but this does not erase the attacks inflicted on our hearts, minds, bodies and souls, by caretakers who thought their mission was to eliminate us as Aboriginals".

Excerpt from "Eileen Cummings - Journey. From Central Arnhem , Remote Cattle Station - Croker Island Mission - Darwin - Brisbane - Darwin ".

"It was government policy in those days to pick up children of mixed race and place them in some institution to be cared for and to be educated in the white system. Having been born on a pastoral property and having a white father, I was seen by the Australian Government to be one of those children who would have to be removed from my mother's country and my family under that policy".

"Croker Island was a mission with about 200 "part-Aboriginal" children with about twenty white staff. There were five houses with girls and five houses with boys with a "sister" caring for the children.There were two tribes of Aboriginal people living on the Island who practised their traditions, but we were forbidden to participate in any activity with the island people. The missionaries seemed ignorant to the fact that for many of us we had already experienced and had been part of similar activities in our home communities..."

"Some one asked me once what was my motivation to strive ahead even though I had experienced such a policy. I replied that I had established my identity as an Aboriginal person at a very early age and I knew who I was and had no identity problems about being Aboriginal. My Aboriginal father always had a saying, "you've got to love and respect yourself and then you can spread that around". I have tried to live by that all my life.."

"The government never took into account that we would never forget our Aboriginality no matter how far they took us away from our families the Aboriginal method of networking and the way that our people ensured there were older children to remind us who we were and where we came from".

"We were isolated from our families, our names were changed, reprimanded if we used our native language and some children had their heads shaved on arrival to the mission. You see we had no identity but wards of the State with no ties to mothers or fathers or even our tribal group".

"Aborginals that were displaced, dispossessed, isolated from their families and country have always had a big hurdle in the past and even today in the government's method of disempowerment".