How Aunty Rhonda learnt to cry

Artist, author and Stolen Generations survivor, Rhonda Collard-Spratt, on bush hugs, beehives, emu bumps, and finding peace.

Aunty Rhonda Collard-Spratt is a Yamatji-Noongar elder and Stolen Generations survivor who grew up on the Carnarvon Native Mission in Western Australia.

As a little girl she would escape from her dormitory into the bush to feel the love and warmth she was missing from her mum.

After leaving the mission as a teenager, Rhonda trained as a hairdresser, creating some of the best beehives in Perth.

Later in life, she managed to reconnect with her mum and formed a surprising bond with her English stepfather, through music.

Rhonda Collard-Spratt's memoir, Alice’s Daughter: Lost Mission Child, was written with Jacki Ferro and published by Aboriginal Studies Press.

You can find her children's book series, Spirit of the Dreaming, online in both print and audiobook formats.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores Aboriginal Australia, black history, colonisation, segregation, assimilation, religion, Christianity, the Native Act, reckoning with Australia's history, the Voice, racism, Indigenous suicide, mental health, medical neglect, art, motherhood, writing, books, memoir, modern Australia, Ipswich, Churches of Christ, Aborigines Mission Board.