OH4649: Synopsis. Interview with Winnie McHenry in 2021 by Bill Bunbury.

Summary

Winnie McHenry was born in 1935 at the then Badjaling United Aborigines Mission some ten kilometres from the wheatbelt town of Quairading. After a lifetime spent raising a family including foster children, while at the same time working with different health agencies to support Aboriginal families, Winnie returned to live at Badjaling where she has worked to restore the natural environment and to create homes for families with previous links to Badjaling. Winnie’s brother Basil Winmar (now deceased) is also cited in the interview. Winnie talks about her parents home in Badjaling; experiences at school; the natural environment in the area she grew up; being hospitalised in Quairading and Perth as a child; bush tucker and bush medicine at Badjaling; impact of the stolen generation and the child-removal policy; Carrolup Mission; working as a domestic; working in Karratha in the Pilbara; moving to Gnowangerup and being employed by the New Era Aboriginal Fellowship; indigenous role in farming; the impact of the 1905 Act; life in Perth and return to Badjaling; loss of culture and language. Winnie reflects on meeting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd when he was framing the National Apology.