Earlier this year, Pastor Ossie Cruse stood outside the cultural centre at Jigamy Farm, watching hundreds of primary school children travelling between activities designed to teach them about Aboriginal culture.
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“Just look at all these kids,” he said, a wide smile spreading across his face.
It’s the opportunity to pass the Aboriginal culture on to future generations that motivates the Eden-based Aboriginal elder.
He’s spent his whole life working to put the framework in place to do just that, with one of his greatest achievements being the elaborate cultural centre.
The accolades have followed, with an MBE and Order of Australia medal among them, and now it’s his work in building the Keeping Place and educating young people that has been recognised.
Last week, Ossie attended a ceremony in Sydney, where Museums and Galleries NSW presented him with an award for his ‘lifetime contribution to Aboriginal culture’.
The next day in Batemans Bay, he received another award, this time in acknowledgement of his volunteer work at Eden Marine High School.
“Culture isn’t just a figment of our imagination – it’s a living thing,” Ossie said.
“All I’ve ever done is make sure we maintain our culture and leave something behind for our children’s children, so that they can pass it along themselves.”
It’s not just indigenous children who Ossie aims to reach with his work.
For many years, he had a visions of a cultural centre for local Aboriginal people, and on the Aboriginal land at Jigamy Farm, near Broadwater, it eventually became a reality.
A large venue with significant ties to Aboriginal heritage, it’s a place for everyone – regardless of their cultural background.
Though he grew up and lived through a time when Aboriginal children were removed from their families and placed on missions, he has never harboured ill will.
“We’re an extended family – the Aboriginal culture is about caring and sharing, and that’s what it’s always been about,” Ossie said.
“There was a terrible period where Aboriginal people were excluded from society, but even though I saw that racism around me, I didn’t accept it.
“There are some parts of culture that can’t be taken away, and in a way, the system actually did us a favour.
“Instead of splitting us up, they put us all together on missions, and that allowed us to maintain the things that need to live on, like the extended family and our kinship.”
Having overcome so many hurdles, Ossie is proud to see the advent of so many new and promising programs.
He works with Aboriginal children in schools, the first ‘Back to Country’ leadership camp for Aboriginal children was held at Jigamy Farm earlier this year, and an ancient Aboriginal pathway from the coast to Mt Kosciuszko is soon to be opened once again.
For around 30 years, work has been carried out along the Bundian Way, with the Keeping Place at Jigamy Farm forming the gateway.
“In our language, it’s called ‘Monaroo Bobberrer Gudu’ – peoples of the mountains and the sea,” he said.
“Before settlement, land like this was our supermarket – it was where we lived and where we got our food.
“We’ve honoured that and preserved that land, and we’ll continue to do that for future generations.
“And not only for Aboriginal people – as an extended family, we don’t distinguish between colour or race or background.”
Ossie said putting this belief into practice has created many strong relationships over the years.
They range from one he recalls fondly, where a young girl he spoke to at a school went home and advised her grandmother to marry him, to his relationship with a young man of European background, who he helped get through a period in which the young man was contemplating suicide.
“If you get to know an Aboriginal person, you become their family,” he said.
“Young people call us ‘aunty’ and ‘uncle’, because even though we’re not related by blood, they’re our family.
“That’s the kind of relationship that you want to have with young people, whether it’s at school, church or wherever.
“There’s nothing more alarming than being in a place where you feel you don’t belong, and kids need to know that they can be proud of their culture and express that.
“At different events, I often deliver the ‘Welcome to Country’, and to us that has great meaning.
“You don’t welcome strangers, you welcome family.
“To me, that’s not just Aboriginal culture, that’s the true Australian culture – respecting yourself, each other and your environment.”