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🇦🇺 Australia /Culture & Society

Walking archive helps Indigenous Australians find family history

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Context piece
  • Ali Abdullah-Highfold, an Indigenous Australian man, helps First Nations people trace their family history using the South Australian Museum's extensive archives.
  • He has assisted hundreds of people annually, including Stolen Generation members, in reconnecting with their lineage, often leading to emotional reunions.
  • Abdullah-Highfold continues the legacy of his Aunty Doreen Kartinyeri, who founded the museum's family history unit, and draws on historical records from anthropologist Norman Tindale.

Ali Abdullah-Highfold serves as a vital link to the past for hundreds of Indigenous Australians each year. Working at the South Australian Museum for nearly three decades, he guides First Nations people through the institution's vast archives to uncover lost family histories.

We've had Stolen Generation members come in and I've shown them photos of their mother before that they've never seen, [after] they were taken and adopted into a white family.

— Ali Abdullah-HighfoldDescribing the emotional impact of his work helping Indigenous Australians reconnect with their past.

His work offers profound emotional connections, as he has reunited Stolen Generation members with images of mothers they never knew and helped individuals reconnect with their lineage after years of searching. "We've had lots of tears and laughter so it's very rewarding to be able to give them back their family history," Abdullah-Highfold said.

Abdullah-Highfold, who is of Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri, Narungga, Kokatha, and Wirangu heritage, utilizes detailed genealogy records and archives that date back to the colonial era. He acknowledges the difficulty of such research, noting that some individuals have been searching for connections for over a decade.

We've had lots of tears and laughter so it's very rewarding to be able to give them back their family history.

— Ali Abdullah-HighfoldReflecting on the emotional rewards of his role in uncovering family connections.

He continues the legacy of his Aunty Doreen Kartinyeri, a prominent Ngarrindjeri elder and historian who established the museum's family history unit in 1988. Abdullah-Highfold also draws upon the extensive records collected by anthropologist Norman Tindale between the 1920s and 1960s, which documented Aboriginal communities across Australia at a time when many believed Indigenous cultures would disappear.

People will come in and say, here's my mother's name, here's my father's name, give me my family history, and that's obviously not an easy thing to do.

— Ali Abdullah-HighfoldExplaining the complexity and challenges involved in genealogical research for Indigenous Australians.

"There was that belief back then that we would die out and become extinct so those expeditions recorded everything and anything about our people, our culture, our language," Abdullah-Highfold explained. His own great-grandfather, Clarence Long, assisted Tindale on these expeditions.

I get up of 300 to 500 people a year come in and it's hard work.

— Ali Abdullah-HighfoldHighlighting the significant demand and effort involved in his work.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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