Paola Balla (Wemba Wemba and Gunditjmara)
Who are you and where do you come from?
My name is Paola Balla and I am a Wemba Wemba and Gunditjmara woman from the Day and Egan families. I grew up in the Echuca Koorie Community on Yorta Yorta Country and my Mum, Margy and Nan Rosie would take us camping at our Wemba Wemba Country at Moonacullah with our relatives. My parents separated when I was little, after being born in Footscray Mum took me home to grow up in Echuca and my early childhood in Kyabram. I used to see my Dad about once a year, he migrated to Melbourne from Calabria, Italy in the 1960’s.
Tell us what growing up was like for you?
Growing up was not always easy, Mum raised my brother and I as a single parent, so money was always tight. We grew up in Aboriginal housing and struggled with rent and keeping the phone on, things like that. Mum did her very best, working jobs like waitressing, working in an underwear factory with her tiddas, was a Koorie educator, a drover, cook and did a cooking course and cooked locally on a paddle steamer and a local pub. But racism often destroyed these jobs for Mum, as she always made a stand over it and stood up for her rights including bringing the media to Echuca to do an expose on the appalling racism there.
I got my first job at 13 so I wouldn’t have to ask my Mum for money. Primary school was very difficult, and I experienced years of bullying, racism and physical violence from white kids. Trigger warning: I had also experienced sexual abuse so struggled with trauma symptoms.
High school was a bit better as there were more Koorie kids and cousins there, and we had one of our Aunties as the Koorie educator. I really enjoyed school, it was a place of routine where I could engage with arts, drama, and writing. In year 7, my English teacher, Anna did something that proved to be very significant, she asked me to enter a public speaking competition and I did it. I wrote an essay about being a Koorie young person and read it out in front of about two hundred students. It was the first time I was published, in the school magazine. I was petrified, but it lit a fire in me to speak out through writing and story-telling.
Being involved in community through my Mum and Aunties was so important – doing work experience with my Nan at Nyernda Keeping Place, doing a deportment course with Hyllus Maris at Shepparton with my cousins and a Koorie fashion show - thanks to Aunty Denise Morgan, being involved in school productions, sport with our community, Victorian Aboriginal Youth Sport and Recreation carnivals, and being the only Koorie young person in the local Push youth group meant that I was able to get a Koorie voice in the social events we put on like bringing bands to Echuca and under-age nights. It was really rewarding and gave me a lot of independence and community engagement skills.
Who are the women that inspire you?
All my matriarchs, my Mum and Nan, they taught me so many stories and to respect your family, genealogy, relatives and ways we are related. Both Nan and Mum have had to endure and survive a lot of trans-generational traumas, and despite this gave us so much love and support and encouraged us to get educated and always speak up against racism and injustice.
My Nan Rosie was an artist, a self-taught landscape oil painter and inspired me into art. Mum encouraged us to be creative and to work hard for you what you want in life and always carry yourself with pride and respect.
My Nan’s first cousin, the amazing young women and girls advocate Aunty Walda Blow and Nan’s sister Aunty Barbara Walker’s hard work and love inspired me, as well as Nan’s sisters Aunty Valerie and Aunty Patsy – they were all hard working women who made huge contributions to the Echuca community along with their cousin respected Elder, Aunty Melva Johnson, all these Aunties paved the way for us all.
What does self-determination mean to you?
Self-determination is so important to me and means that we as Koorie People, as Aboriginal People have the right to determine our own needs, aspirations, culture, expressions and rights without interference and without other people speaking or acting on our behalf.
What does NAIDOC Week mean to you?
NAIDOC week is a time that reminds me of our survival, the people we have lost, the strength and resilience of Aboriginal People to continue resisting and fighting colonial oppression. It also reminds me of the Old People who fought for our rights, and the original Day of Mourning in 1938 in Sydney to gather and mourn for our Peoples. My great-great grandmother Bapa Mariah Day attended that day alone travelling all the way from Moonacullah. Thanks to my Aunty Cecily Atkinson for sharing that story with me.
Can you please tell us about the work you do in Community?
I work as an artist, curator, writer and community arts worker – a lot of this is at Footscray Community Arts Centre (FCAC) with our community, children, young people and Elders. A lot of my work involves mentoring young Koorie People, a recent example is the exhibition Blak to the Future by our young emerging artists. At FCAC we set up the Indigenous Arts and Cultural Program in 2010 and the Wominjeka Festival with Arweet Carolyn Briggs, Uncle Larry Walsh and Karen Jackson who is the Director at Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Centre, Victoria Uni. I teach there in our Indigenous subjects and community projects.
Education that respects and embeds your history and culture is empowering and transformational. My grandmother Rosie told me to “get educated, go as far as you can and beat them (the white system) at their own game.” I love my work because I get to combine my arts, community and education work all together working with and for my community and educating non-Aboriginal arts organisations to do better at engaging with Aboriginal and especially Koorie artists and culture and ways of being and de-colonising their organisations.
What future would you hope for young Aboriginal women?
I hope that all young Aboriginal women, including my daughter Rosie Kalina and niece Maggie will have futures free from violence, racism and trauma. I hope that they have futures where they are respected and valued as matriarchal women of strength, culture, knowledge, beauty and intelligence.
I want them to live, long, healthy happy lives that they can create surrounded by loving relationships and opportunities that are culturally rich, rewarding and self-determined where matriarchal women’s authority is fully respected.