Warren Mundine writes in The Australian about how much difference just one job made in changing the fortunes of his indigenous family.
The story of his mob – the Mundines – is the story of how one person getting a job with income and self-respect flowing from it transformed the household and indeed an entire community. They are Bundjalung people.
His great-great-grandfather was famous and his grandson Harry grew up in his shadow always conscious of the family’s name and the need to maintain its reputation. He instituted a family slogan of ‘the Mundines not knowing their place.’ Harry always said you can do anything if you try hard enough and this was drilled into everyone he met. Everyone in the family inherited Harry’s belief in the need to work. They fought hard for the right of Aboriginal people to vote. Sit-down money was seen as the root of most evil if not all.
Dad and Mum are gone now but I like to think their values live on in our mob. Pride in our country and our culture as first Australians. A love of humanity of public service and political engagement. And of hard work.
It is a source of intense pride for me that my son hasn’t been content with merely getting a job but has gone a step further establishing his own business. By doing so he’s fulfilling a dream I have had for all first Australians the gradual development of an enterprise culture.