We go back to South Australia, to my mother's Country, and the Country of much of my family – Maralinga – where in the 1950s and 60s the Australian and UK Governments had done atomic testing on Aboriginal land.
They removed people off Country, for the atomic testing, and moved them all the communities of Ooldea and Yalata. It was hard to go back and hear Elders share their stories with me. Some of them aren't alive today. My father had shared stories too, from when we were growing up in Port Augusta.
When your family give you a story, that's a different responsibility. I was a new mother too. I remember going in and doing rehearsals and I'd have to pop out and breastfeed, then hand the baby over and go back in again. I felt very exposed and very vulnerable, and maybe a bit overwhelmed. It was probably lack of sleep as well!
This story was particularly important to me. It happened in our own backyard and it's not taught in high school. One of our responsibilities in Bangarra is to tell these stories. It's not to make non-Indigenous Australians feel ashamed of their history, it's about acknowledgement.