Noongars | Kayang (Hazel) Brown


Kayang Brown at the river near Point Ann in Fitzgerald River National Park	Kayang Brown and the Quaalup bells in Fitzgerald River National Park

I am an Elder from the Wilomin Noongar. I was born in 1925 at Kendenup. My mother, Nelly Limestone married my father, Freddy Yiller in 1921. My father died in 1930 and my step-father, William Roberts (Noongar name, Tjinjel) reared me up. My parents worked on farms, such as for the Dunns in the Porongorups and the Moriarty family.

When I was seven I went to school for a while at the Gnowangerup mission but was called a heathen for speaking in language. So I left and mum gave us lessons in reading and writing. We lived out in the bush during the Depression years. It was a hard life and my parents kept the family going on five shillings a week. We stayed at Needilup in Jerramungup, on farms, went everywhere. You went where the work was. My father taught me how to clear the land and work on farms. I did all types of work - mallee root picking, driving tractors, fencing and clearing. When I was 15 years old, I looked after a farm for seven weeks while my father was in hospital. This meant looking after 2,000 sheep when the ewes were lambing, and 40 pigs.

I married Harry Brown in 1947. Our children were born in Borden and went to school there. In the 1970s I moved to Perth. Kim Scott and I published our stories in Kayang and Me in 2005.