Sarah Conway-James found out she was a Gamilaroi woman at the age of 12.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
She was about to start high school and said “my identity definitely shifted” following the news.
Sarah discovered her heritage through her mother, Rita Noakes (nee Small) who discovered she was Gamilaroi at the same time.
“She has two birth dates that she celebrates. She grew up with one birth date and an age, and when I was 12 she found out she wasn’t that old and had a different birth date altogether. And that’s when she found out she was Indigenous,” Sarah said.
“She had an inkling because she met her [Indigenous] mother when she was a little bit older and that’s when she found out she was Indigenous.”
Sarah said her mother’s childhood memories were “very hazy” but “from her memory, she said she grew up on the Namoi River in a shack” in Gunnedah.
Rita was one of the Stolen Generation, taken around the age of two.
“She was in a few homes and then bounced around 20 something foster families before coming to my [adopted] grandparents when she was about 16 in Forster,” Sarah said.
“She stayed with them and then she started nursing quite young - younger than she thought she was because the age she was given when she went to the home was incorrect… She started nursing when she was 15.”
Sarah said her mother spent time working in the Tamworth hospital and overseas in the United Kingdom. Sarah’s father passed away when she was one and afterwards, her mother married Steve Noakes. They live in Grafton.
It’s part of your identity, it’s a part of who you are, which I think is why my Mum probably struggled with her background because it’s something she has felt she had lost.
- Sarah Conway-James
“[Mum] threw herself into learning about where she was from... and my parents do kinship care for Indigenous kids,” Sarah said.
Sarah said her mother had “such a horrific experience in the foster system” that she wanted a different life for other Indigenous kids. Sarah and her four sisters shared their home with these kids as they grew up.
“They started fostering when I was 12/13 – a lot of it was respite. Because she’s indigenous, she was able to take on Indigenous kids... That’s always what Mum did, she just took on children,” she said.
Look at my Mum - she’s probably one of the strongest people I’ve met and one of the most resilient I know.
- Sarah Conway-James
Sarah joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 2013 and is now a flight lieutenant based in Adelaide. She also volunteers as the Indigenous liaison officer at RAF.
“What’s really lovely is… the people down here are the Kaurna people… [and] what it has allowed me to do is connect with the community here in my role in air force,” she said.
“I guess what it did was made me realise what I missed out on because my Mum was taken from her culture and her community and if anything it raised sadness more than anything that I didn’t get the opportunity to be a part of that growing up.
“So I guess there’s a bit of loss and trying to kindle that and trying to learn through another Indigenous nation and feeling a part of something I missed out on.”
READ ALSO:
Sarah said she has heard there are other Gamilaroi people in the air force but is yet to meet them.
“I would actually really like to get back to Gunnedah and learn more about the culture. And one thing I’ve tried to learn is the language, which is really hard, trying to do that on your own,” she said.
Sarah said her sister Joanne Noakes, a doctor in Tamworth, has also been trying to learn the Gamilaroi language to capture their heritage.
She was deeply impacted by an incident during NAIDOC Week when a Kaurna elder introduced her as “Aunty Sarah” to the young dancers and asked them to tell her their names in their language. She had her son Max with her who was 18 months old at the time.
“I was so taken aback from it, I almost started crying because I can’t share anything with [Max], and that’s something I’d really like to be able to do is pass that onto Max,” Sarah said.
“It’s part of your identity, it’s a part of who you are, which I think is why my Mum probably struggled with her background because it’s something she has felt she had lost. And it’s definitely something I want to share with [Max] when he’s at an age he will understand.”
Educating and empowering women is how you change a generation.
- Sarah Conway-James
Sarah said this year’s NAIDOC theme, ‘Because of her, we can’, “really resonated” with her.
“I think it sends a pretty powerful message,” she said.
“Look at my Mum - she’s probably one of the strongest people I’ve met and one of the most resilient I know.”
READ ALSO:
Sarah said other Indigenous women including the late Aunty Marjorie Tripp – the first Indigenous woman to become part of the Women's Royal Australian Navy Service – had great impacts on their communities.
“You just hear of these women who became a mother figure to all these people,” Sarah said.
“Women, particularly in Indigenous community, have always been the matriarchs of the community.
“They’re the women I want to see come up - not just in defence, but in so many organisations – and really be those sort of role models for Indigenous women.
“Educating and empowering women is how you change a generation.”
This story Flight lieutenant delves into her Gamilaroi identity | Video first appeared on the Namoi Valley Independent.
