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The first time I met Aunt Emily Walker from Australia, it was in
the Sheraton Hotel in Sydney at a huge Press Conference. They told me that I was
to do a radio interview with a revered elder...Yep it was Auntie Emily. I looked
at her & she looked at me & we both laughed right away. I wasn't sure if
I needed to talk the language to her & she was laughing cause she didn't
know if she needed to speak a different language at me. Laughing is where we
went from there. Her & Auntie Pearl came up with some really good jokes...
none quite as good a when at Unadalla at supper one night, they passed a bowl of
soup & Auntie Emily, leaned over & told me it was Kangaroo...I then
passed it to Luciano Perez & told him...& then he passed it to Horse,
& as Luciano tried to tell him...Horse was just talking away & just
started eating it. We all laughed & laughed but then later he did get
sick & we were sorry for laughing.
Emily Walker is a Peace Elder and Aboriginal Tribal Elder of the Gumbaynggirr Peoples who resides in New South Wales, Australia. She is one of the founders of the Muurbaay Aboriginal Language & Culture center and has been working with and for Aboriginal young people all over Australia. In 1993 she was invited to be a member of the Peace Council in the Wolf Song III Peace Conference known as "Jinta Jingu" where she represented both her tribe and the indigenous women of Australia and the ancient wisdom they hold. Her autobiography is told in "Survivors of the Stolen Generations, Listening to the Elders from the Gumbaynggirr Peoples Land".