Female Orphan School, Parramatta South Campus, Western Sydney University.
As part of the Writing and Society Research Centre’s Other Worlds project, the eminent Waanyi novelist Alexis Wright, along with Ben Denham, Ben Etherington, and Anthony Uhlmann, travelled to Doomadgee, a community on Gangalidda country in the Gulf of Carpentaria where they spent several days collaborating with activist and community elder, Clarence Walden. They recorded his gripping story of growing up in brutal conditions on the Doomadgee mission in the 1960s and his emergence as a staunch leader of his people through the 1980s and 90s. From this material, Etherington and Wright produced the feature radio documentary Nothing but the Truth for ABC Radio National’s AWAYE! program. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/awaye/nothing-but-the-truth/10945938
The radio documentary was launched by Michelle Trudgett, Western Sydney University’s new PVC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy and Consultation, and sections of the documentary were played, along with a slideshow of images from the mission archive and trip. This was followed by a conversation and questions with Walden, with a particular focus on his experiences growing up on a mission and his battles, both current and past, against mining companies operating in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
