I only get to tell this story once…

…so I want the content to present the unexpected to a big audience about an extraordinary custodian who is progressive and innovative. But how many know of women like Henrietta? I have sat for many hours over the years, listening but with so many questions underlined and circled in my notes and I have written: The Unexpected Quiet Revolutionary “

This film must deeply connect with people. To know of the woman who had lived on Palm island, an island on the Great Barrier Reef, known now as Bwqcolman. This tropical paradise on the lands of the Munbarra was named Palm Island by James Cook in 1770, it’s a lush landscape with a heady scent of saltwater and heavenly fragrances. But sadly, has a troubled history and in the western gaze it is synonymous with Indigenous disadvantage.

For our people it’s a very different lens, one of political activism which has sought to improve the conditions and the treatment of the island’s residents. But the Racism is an everyday in our shoes, It’s a conversation that is hard to discuss and so as a result we simply don’t. So, this is a story of one of those activists, Bukal, Honorary Professor Aunty Henrietta Marrie AM, a proud Gimuy Walabura Yidinji woman, a Custodian. Henrietta was born in Yarrabah, in 1954. She is an internationally recognised Indigenous rights activist and is a Member of the Order of Australia for her advocacy on Indigenous cultural heritage and intellectual property rights.

Her world was one of codified racism and she has witnessed the profound effect this prejudice has on all levels of society. But in her eyes eye there is the hope and determination, lightly sprinkled with a twinkle of laughter. When you meet a true custodian you feel like you have been cocooned with gentleness but the voice is coated with a fierce wisdom and her knowledge lingers on the wind, the words that are spoken are only used when needed, they flow as you listen, entwining you close, there is the hint of humility and selflessness. and always the many learnings.

It’s like the Bukal- The Yidinji spirit name of Aunty Henrietta, meaning black lawyer vine, the vine is a prickly climbing plant, perhaps a suitable antagonistic imagery to the invisible rules of institutional racism? I imagine the telling of her story and the memories as a feeling of breaking open, like the imagery of the lawyer vine prickling the invisible rules hiding within and between them and then made visible for the first time. The beginnings of her change as a woman during her student days, one incident reminds us how deeply ironic life can be. When she first visits South Australian Museum as a young student looking at cultural material , it affects her personally, years later an exhibition in Australia displays the cultural material she had viewed that was stolen from her country, her grandfather’s ancient ceremonial headdress , so close to see the headdresses intricate shell placement from country, so close to be able to reach out and touch it. But ironically it still remains at arm’s length, with the British museum and she wonders will she ever be able to bring it home and continue the ceremonies it was originally prepared for.

The film will show us a world, a world unthinkable not too many years ago. The difficult parts and the hurt but the incredible strength of a young woman from Yarrabah. Who gives us all a voice and a protection on a global scale through her work. From the First Nations woman executive at the United Nations and then headhunted to Silicon Valley. Henrietta’s spirit flows in and through her advocacy, She once announced, ‘An ignorant population is very susceptible to political manipulation. How has our world changed?’