Ethel Munn

INDUCTED 2014

Aunty Ethel Munn is a strong and proud Aboriginal Elder of the Gungarri people in South West Queensland. She was born in the small town of Bollon on 3 August in 1930. Over many years Aunty Ethel provided guidance to the communitycontrolled health service in Charleville with a holistic perspective emphasising the importance of culture, Country, language and education.

Aunty Ethel grew up in a tight-knit family, moving often for her father’s work as a station hand, and for schooling. Her father instilled two guiding messages upon her: “education is key” and “people were always as good as we are, they were no better”.’ She attributes these statements as the basis for how she has lived her life as an advocate for Aboriginal people. Aunty Ethel grew up with the Gungarri language as her first language, spoken by her mother. When starting school, bullying from other students forced her to stop speaking her language. This experience, and the loss of Aboriginal languages, led to Aunty Ethel to become an advocate for the preservation of First Nations languages. She is a Committee Member of the Queensland Indigenous Advisory Committee, which advocates for Queensland’s First Languages. Aunty Ethel has a deep understanding of the link between language and culture and the affect this has on health and wellbeing. She advocates for languages to be revived and spoken again by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples starting at a young age and wants to see traditional languages being taught more in schools by having more First Nations teachers and teacher aides. Aunty Ethel believes that it is easier to start learning a language through song rather than speaking. This is something she learnt herself from experience as part of the Yamani project where she learnt five other languages through song. In 2016 Aunty Ethel was one of six women featured in ‘Yamani Voices of an Ancient Land’ a CD which features six different languages across Queensland. As well as being an advocate for language, Aunty Ethel has been influential in securing Native Title for her mob the Gunggari people. It is this broad perspective, wisdom and experience in advocating for her people that Aunty Ethel brought to her service as a board member of CWAATSICH for many years. She has a long history of community involvement – shaping and influencing Aboriginal affairs, particularly education, housing and health. From her experience as a board member Aunty Ethel has wisdom to impart to the younger generation and future leaders, “Be proud of who you are and have your say on what you believe is right, it is best to call it as you see it, don’t try to pretend to know things that you don’t and never be shy in standing up for what is right for your people”.