Mim O'Grady is a local teacher and artist who has a long history of doing wonderful work with our Indigenous community. This week's Sunday Profile comes from the Humans of Lismore Facebook page and was written by Denise Alison, who interviewed Mim and found out more about her life.

Mim O’Grady: “I wasn’t born here but I’ve been here for the last 25 years. I grew up in Greenwich, Sydney. My Mum is Dutch / Indonesian and my Dad is Dutch and they both moved over here away from their families after the war. Our family unit was just our family, that’s it.

People often ask me about my Dutch roots but to be honest with you, I feel more connected to Australia and I actually feel more interested in Australian history, especially our local Aboriginal Australian history than I do finding out about my Dutch heritage.

I left school and studied teaching specialising in special education. In my last prac I decided I wanted to go and teach out west because I understood that there was a fair chance that you could be posted anywhere and I really wanted to experience being a teacher way out west. I did one prac out west and I also did a prac working with children with special needs.

Both those pracs sort of formed where I am today. I went out to Bourke and volunteered in a school. I really enjoyed it so I applied for a job in Bourke. I don’t think they get too many people applying for jobs in Bourke. I got the job at the same school which is where I asked to go.

The Mother Teresa Nuns had a Missionary station there so I did a lot of voluntary work with them. It was just before the whole town of Bourke was locked up and barricaded off. My experience in Bourke was great. The school I taught in was predominately Aboriginal children and I guess that’s what fuelled my interest in Indigenous culture.

I came back to Sydney, worked in Special Ed for a while, had my family and moved up here to the Far North Coast. I never wanted to stay in Sydney. I have 2 children, separated from their father and met my partner who has a daughter as well. So we have 3 kids. There are some others. My partner had an interesting past (laughs).

I worked for about 15 years with young children with special needs and their families at Summerland Early Intervention. That was a beautiful chunk of my life, working with other great Educators, Therapists and Paediatricians. I developed a whole toolkit of skills working with families where there’s complex needs, using a strength based approach rather than looking at the things families are not doing well but looking at the things they are doing well. Innately, all parents want to do the right thing for their child but sometimes the complexities in their life are so overwhelming that other people might look at that and make a judgement. They are just doing the best they can at that point in time.

There is a transition to school program based at Goonellabah Public School which supports Indigenous children in the year before they start school. The reason it’s Indigenous specific is because it’s through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy funding. I’ve worked here for 10 years.

I work for the YWCA and the criteria for that funding is that all children who access that program need to be Aboriginal children. Also they need to come from families where there’s complexities. The children still go to pre-school and daycare centres for their socialising but this is extra.

Sometimes Mum is a single mum or not much family support, limited education or transport. Sometimes the children might have been removed and be in the care of Grandparents. Ice is a big problem, not just in the Aboriginal community but the whole community. There’s always been problems with alcohol and drugs but ice just takes it up a whole level.

The aim of the program is to support the children to be able to self regulate in a classroom setting. We work together with the families.

The YWCA offers a great program called the Hippy program which trains and employs Indigenous workers to then go and work with Indigenous parents to help those parents in their role as the first teacher of their child. A big part of Goonellabah transition is working with the community who then support us to share culture.

Research shows that if children feel culturally connected and strong, then their success at school is far greater.

I’m not an Aboriginal person of course, so I rely heavily on some of the Elders and Knowledge Keepers that we’ve built relationship with, to share language, stories, artwork and local stories of this area. Aunty Dorrie who sadly passed recently was one of those. We’ve developed good trust with local families.

We were part of a program called Growing up on Widjabul-Wyabul country, Bundjalung nation where we worked with the Elders Council. We got to know Aunty Thelma James, Aunty Dorrie, Uncle Gilbert, Uncle Micky, Marie Delbridge and more.

For me…that’s been such a blessing. It takes a long time. You get to know the mob, the families, generations. The grandparents or the great parents come in and yarn with the kids or tell stories. 

I play music too. I’ve play in a couple of bands. I’m in a duo at the moment. We live on 8 acres out of town and my partner grows roses. We have about 200 roses.

I have 2 grandchildren and 2 step grandchildren. I’m part of a group of people who organise social events and the un-plugged nights at Rous Mill Hall which has been pretty quiet due to Covid. 

I’ve been learning as much as the children. I feel a great privilege to have worked alongside some of the Elders and Knowledge Keepers.

Uncle Gilbert comes every week and works with the children.My mission is to paint portraits of Elders that I know like Uncle Billy Smith who busks downtown. I asked Aunt Dorrie if I was able to paint her portrait.

She said, that’s alright, as long as you make me look pretty. She gave me her permission and her blessing to enter it into the Hurford Portrait Prize. The original photo I used to paint the portrait was taken by Denise Alison, Humans of Lismore.”