Amber Seccombe Interview

Details

IntervieweeAmber SeccombeInterview Date15 May 2020Place RecordedWoolgoolga-NSWDuration1h21m21sAccession NumberLS2020.21.2Credit LineRecorded with funding from the State Library of NSW

More Information

InterviewerSurinder KaurAgencyCoffs Harbour City LibrariesCollectionLocal Studies CollectionSummaryAmber identifies as a person of mixed heritage, being the daughter of a mother with Scottish and Irish background and an Indigenous father. She mentions how indigenous people were considered lesser human beings and marrying them was considered subversive.

Amber talks about the fluid indigenous boundaries based on songlines and walking tracks, and the difficulty of rigid linear indigenous land map not being able to show the cohesive interactions and mother country –the gathering places where different indigenous groups met and performed essential ceremonies and business.

Amber mentions the difficulties in finding out about her own cultural practices and spiritual beliefs due to the colonisation of the East Coast and loss of language. Nonetheless, she mentions protocols and constraints that applied in terms of interactions, marriages, sacred sites and prohibited sites.

Colonisation never ended according to Amber. She mentions the deliberate attempts to destroy records, remove people from the land, forced marriages against traditions and the irony of breaking connection with land and then having to prove connection to claim it back. Amber goes on to say that the aboriginal children are still being removed from their families and statistics tell this alarming story.

Amber mentions the methods employed to undermine indigenous culture and history and wishes that we could create shared history with a better human story of interactions. Amber believes in self-created sustainability, protest through creativity and non-violence. She recommends respect for land and not treating the earth as a commodity for our own sustainable future.

Classification

SubjectsLocal indigenous historyColonisationIndigenous ritualAboriginal cultureSocial life and customsConnection to countrySustainabilityActivism

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