The City of Cockburn Aboriginal Oral History Project records and summarises the oral histories of eleven indigenous people with a custodial or cultural connection to the Cockburn district. In this interview with Dr. Leonie Stella, Beth Woods talks about her work with Aboriginal organisations in the City of Cockburn area, and her employment with the Health Department of Western Australia. She also pays tribute to the work of her husband Robert.
Transcript:
This is an edited transcript of the interview with Beth Woods, speaking with Dr. Leonie Stella at South Lake on 9 June and at Coolbellup on 29 June 2001.
Leonie Stella (interviewer): Beth, could you please state your full name and date of birth so that I can test the tape?
Beth Woods: My name is Beth Woods, and my date of birth is the first of the first 1943. I was born at Cosmo Newberry.
LS: Thankyou. Would you like to start by telling me a little about her parents?
BW: My mother’s tribal name was Thungoona, [she was Wongutha – Central desert] the non-Aboriginal people named her Princess Smith, then when she lived traditionally with an Aboriginal man – Dingi Mason – her name became Princess Mason.
LS: And they [staff at Mt. Margaret Mission] gave you a name and date of birth?
BW: My date of birth was a given one, it was the first of the first ‘43, and a lot of our people were either given birth days in January, July or December so that it sort of fitted in with either the first half of the year or the second half of the year….
LS: So they would guess your age and fit you in with the school year?
BW: School, yeah, well depending .. I s’pose like … I was lucky I lived around the Mission before being put in the Mission [Mt. Margaret], so people had a fair idea how old I was but not the exact date of birth.
LS: OK. So like I said we are not doing family history at this point but asking about leaders in the Cockburn Area, so we can now move onto asking how you came to be living in the Cockburn area?
BW: When I married in 1965 I lived in Rivervale, and me and my husband applied for a house through Homeswest – it was the State Housing Commission at that time – and we were fortunate to get a house in Coolbellup. We moved to Coolbellup in December 1966 and we have sinced lived in our home, which was a brand new home at that time, we were the first owners and we have actually bought our house through the Homeswest scheme. They have given [that opportunity to] people who have lived in their accommodation for a number of years.
LS: What is your husband’s name?
BW: My husband is Robert Charles Woods, he is a Nyungar person, he grew up in Brookton and Pingelly and it wasn’t until he came to Perth in the 1960’s that we went to lived in Coolbellup.