Summary

Digital photograph depicting Aunty Jennine Armistead's hands holding a glass vial of soil with black, red and yellow ribbons, the colours of the Aboriginal flag, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This photograph was taken by Museums Victoria curator Catherine Forge after interviewing Aunty Jennine, along with Uncle Peter Aldenhoven and Anne Benton, about their experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and their involvement with the Willum Warrain Aboriginal Association.

Willum Warrain, which translates to "home by the sea" in the Boon Wurrung language by Westernport, is an Aboriginal Community-controlled organisation that provides a safe cultural space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the Mornington Peninsula. It officially opened in 2014, but had been in the works under various other names and operations since the late eighties. With over 450 Aboriginal members as at December 2020, it provides a range of programs for its Aboriginal community members, including a Women's group, a Men's group, a Deadly Kids group, a Bush Play group (for younger kids and toddlers) a Gardening group (open to non-Indigenous members as well) and a Welcome to Country ceremony for babies, where glass vials of soil from Willum Warrain are ceremoniously gifted to the babies' parents or guardians.

Aunty Jennine Armistead, a proud Yaran woman from the Padthaway region in South Australia, lived in Tennant Creek and Darwin before moving to Victoria later in life upon meeting and marrying her husband. In the interview she described feeling like a 'lost soul' until she discovered Willum Warrain Aboriginal Association: 'I'd been lost for a long time, not belonging anywhere, having been taken out of the desert and brought down here. And walking in through Willum Warrain gates, it was like, Thank god I'm home. I automatically had a sense of belonging.'

When COVID-19 forced Willum Warrain to close its' gates and discontinue on-site activities, the significance of this soil became even more important to Aunty Jennine. 'If you get really lonely you take the cork out and you just rub it between your fingers and you'd be surprised how soothing that is, to have your Country with you. So, you know, when I used to travel, I would love to have had this with me, but I was given it later on. That bit of soil means more than you giving me a pocketful of fifty-dollar notes.'

Another way that Aunty Jen remained connected to her Willum Warrain community, and her ancestry, was via gardening and basket weaving. During COVID-19 lockdowns she gave away plant cuttings, plants and weaved baskets to her neighbours and passers-by via a pink bookshelf that she placed on her front street. Giving away plants and basekts to strangers was, for Aunty Jennine, a way to lift community spirits, practice kindness and honour of own ancestry and story: 'In our culture, sharing is very important', she reflected in the interview: 'In the Indigenous culture, you share. And you must share.'

Physical Description

Born digital photograph, TIFF format.

Significance

This is one of a series photographs that were taken by curator Catherine Forge to document the story of Aunty Jennine Armistead and her wider connection to the Willum Warrain Aboriginal Association during COVID-19. These photographs are accompanied by an oral history interview and several items that were donated by Aunty Jennine Armistead including: 2 x handwoven baskets, a handwritten diary entry and a Willum Warrain 'Black and Deadly' T-Shirt. These were all collected with support from the Office for Suburban Development for the Museums in My Neighbourhood Project and digital exhibition, and now form part of Museums Victoria's Collecting the Curve: COVID-19 Pandemic Collection.

This collection of Willum Warrain items represent a wide range of COVID-19 related storylines including: daily life during lockdown, local neighbourhood connections, gardening, kindness and gift giving, and the emergence of new neighbourhood traditions. These items also symbolise and reflect a deeper story of First Peoples cultural knowledge and community connection, including storylines around truth telling, Stolen Generations, resilience, solidarity and intergenerational cultural exchange. These items will provide a lasting reminder of the community support activities of Willum Warrain members during COVID-19, as well as the importance of place, connection to Country and the vital role of First Peoples cultural knowledge and customs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and always.

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