An amazing sister act
An AFL-loving nun, who realised the importance of trying to understand indigenous culture rather than changing it, was recently declared Senior Australian of the Year. She lives right here in the Territory and her story is remarkable
“D O YOU like the way the kids calm down when Sister Anne walks in? Stick around for another 60 years and it might happen for you.” The words from the principal of the Murrupurtiyanuwu Catholic Primary School on Bathurst Island to a fresh-faced new teacher illustrate the gentle, yet respected, presence of Sister Anne Gardiner. Since 1953 she has educated almost five generations of Tiwi people in her time as principal of the primary school, and is a muchloved stalwart of the community.
“I think people admire stickability,” Sister Anne said with a smile.
Tea and biscuits slowly disappear from Sister Anne’s modest dinner table in the convent-cum-accommodation as she reflects on how she came to be the 2017 Senior Australian of the Year.
“I think first of all its continuity, which is the name of the game in Aboriginal life, they have someone that can go right back with them,” she said.
“Not that I am a great person who has done any more than anybody else, but I think I’ve stuck at it.”
She was just 22 when her feet first touched the red earth of the tropical islands, and was immediately struck by the bright faces of the Tiwi children.
But she freely admits she was
ill prepared — she knew nothing of their culture.
“I thought I was going to be mentored by Sister Margaret Sullivan, but she had a suitcase in her hand when I got off the plane — she was going to Kiribati on the Gilbert Islands, so I was left alone,” she said.
“But the welcome I received from the people was just astounding and the Sisters that were here were really helpful.”
Not only was she thrown in at the deep end to learn about her new role with the Mission with the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart congregation; she also learned about a completely new culture by trial, error, and many apologies.
“Today you get a lot of insight into the culture you’re coming to work in,” she said. “I didn’t get that.
“I made many mistakes thinking I was here and I would be the one giving the instructions.
“But I wasn’t. They were people, they knew what they wanted. You only learn by listening.
“That was one of my great
failures — you’re young and think you know it all.
“I learn something every day about their culture. I’d say to anyone coming now, put away your western ideas and just listen to what the people are saying.”
Sister Anne recalled the first time she realised she had a lot to learn about her new home.
“I remember my first big mistake was when we were having a concert and there were two bright little ones about five or six years old,” she said. “I placed them together because I thought they were good leaders, and then I placed all the others together. When I got back the first two were gone.
“So I called them back, I said ‘stand here’, and did that three times before a Tiwi woman said to me, ‘come outside, I tell you what, they’re married’.
“Of course I laughed — how could six-year-olds be married? But it was part of the promise system I knew nothing about and they couldn’t stand together — so I made the mistake, and I had to apologise. I learned very quickly from there that I ask before I made suggestions.”
*** As the sun sets on the dining room through the traditional Tiwi printed curtains, it’s obvious Sister Anne is deeply entrenched in the Tiwi Islands’ “second religion” — AFL.
A red and white football clock sits on her kitchen bench next to a display cabinet full of memorabilia.
“I got a lovely letter from the managing director of the Swans and he’s sending me a parcel of red and white to put more in my home — and I’ve got a lot already,” she said.
Sister Anne’s love for Sydney Swans and the Rabbitohs began when she was young living in New South Wales.
She was one of four born to farmers in Gundagai in a time when they rode horses to school. The depression forced her parents to sell the farm and her father passed away suddenly at just 54 years old.
The young Anne was sent to boarding school in Albury, where she first met the congregation that would become her life.
Her interest in working with indigenous Australians was sparked by a photo in her youth. In it, a row of nuns sat in a canoe being guided by a Tiwi woman.
The photo is now part of an impressive collection at the Patakajiyali Museum in the old Mission Church, a stone’s throw from the Tiwi primary school.
The museum has been a labour of love and tireless commitment by Sister Anne for decades.
It beautifully details important areas of the Tiwi culture and creation story, and the Catholic Mission and the role of the Tiwi people during World War II.
“I’ve worked with the Tiwi people to the best of my ability when I was in school to educate them,” she said.
“Now I’m a freelancer I can see the necessity to maintain their language and culture.”
In March Sister Anne will take a step back from the museum and hand it over to the Tiwi people to run. She did the same after many years as principal of the school — handed it over to be run the way it would work for the community.
“I guess my platform is, where I can, to help people become leaders the way they want to become leaders,” she said.
*** When Sister Anne’s name was read out in Canberra as Senior Australian of the Year, the entire community erupted in singing and tears of joy.
The young ones shouted “Maninaw! Maninaw!”, Tiwi for grandmother.
Translator and linguist Magdalen Kelantumama was two years old when Sister Anne came into her life.
She remembers learning from Sister Anne under the old Church, writing notes on slate.
“She was lovely in those days and she is still now,” she said.
Tiwi Designs manager Steve Anderson said Sister Anne’s work with the museum was admired in many ways.
“In her work with repatriating indigenous objects and artworks back to the community, given the history of the church, it should be really applauded,” he said.
“As outsiders or whitefellas coming in, it’s very easy to think you know and how you can help, but they have afforded us our ignorance and held our hands and showed us the ropes of how to engage in a completely different way, based on family principles and values in the larger picture of a unique community. That’s the gift that just keeps giving and Sister Anne is definitely a testament to that.”
For Sister Anne, life will go on as normal, despite the national accolade.
The days of spending weeks out bush, hunting and fishing with the community may have passed, but her dedication to the hearts of those on Bathurst and Melville will go on.
“I’m just an ordinary person I think, who is grateful for the time I have been given both from my congregation for leaving me here and for the Tiwi people for keeping me here,” she said.
“I accepted the award not for myself but on behalf of all those Sisters who have worked up here for the past 100 years and for the Tiwi people themselves.
“I take no glory, I’m just humbled with it.
“I’ll just do what I always do and be who I always am, and spend time with the people.”