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The Forum > Article Comments > Purposefully breaking the glass ceiling > Comments

Purposefully breaking the glass ceiling : Comments

By Stephen Hagan, published 6/11/2008

A modest Murri woman working as an engineer provides a role model for young Indigenous girls.

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Thankyou for sharing Jayde and Karen's stories with us Stephen. How practical and clever your daughter is, you must feel very proud of her and what an inspiration Karen is. Reading her story made me think of the women in my family all affected by our previous governments "child removal policies." I was taken from my Indigenous mother at birth and adopted into the predominant culture. I did not know my origins until I was 37 years of age.
My eldest daughter, now in her 30's qualified as a mechanical engineer. My younger bio sister owned/ran a company that was responsible for the plumbing on a number of the largest projects in SA.
I know of other's who are part of 'the stolen/lost generations' who don't know the details of their pasts who have achieved a lot and unfortunately they don't identify with their Indigenous origins because they don't know about them.
To me it is sad to realise all the role models young people like your daughter Jayde are missing out on identifying with, all because of past practises that abuse our human rights to know our cultural backgrounds and who we are.
Posted by oi, Thursday, 6 November 2008 3:12:24 PM
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"I wished in that instant that I could’ve named an Indigenous woman working in that field to hold up as a role model,"
Geez Stephen you are setting incredibly difficult challenges for your children. No indigenous person I know of in a particular occupation, then let's look elsewhere. If you had adopted that attitude 60 years ago Indigenous people would still be domestics, nurses and labourers. Why do you need an Indigenous role model? Barrack Obama had no black President to drive his ambition. Are Indigenous people in Australia so insecure that they have to seek only Indigenous role models? Neville Bonner had no Indigenous role model for his career as a Senator in the Australian Parliament yet he became a fine Senator.
As the Wurumpi Band sang "blackfella, whitefella, it doesn't matter what your colour"
Posted by blairbar, Thursday, 6 November 2008 5:20:34 PM
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This is a lovely story Stephen, and one that I trust will shortly become so commonplace that it will only draw the 'ho-hum' factor. For women, Indigenous, disadvantaged, and other peoples. Barack Obama is just the start to the change-over, I feel. Well, I hope so, anyway.
Posted by arcticdog, Friday, 7 November 2008 1:21:24 PM
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