Love of teaching inspired by Annie
Schools
If she’s not the first Aboriginal Catholic school principal in South Australia, then she’s almost certainly the second or third. Regardless, Emma Fowler who has run St Raphael’s School in Parkside for the past 18 months, comes with someone pretty cool in her corner.
“I look out to Annie for advice and guidance when I need it,” she said.
Annie Brice is her great-great-grandmother, an Aboriginal woman whose mother was married to a convict from Van Diemen’s Land in the mid 19th century, the epitome of Australiana.
What’s more, Annie was taught to read and write on the Penola mission where she grew up by none other than Australia’s first canonised saint, Mary MacKillop.
“Mary MacKillop believed every child deserved access to education, no matter their background or circumstance,” Emma told The Southern Cross.
“That belief changed my great-great-grandmother’s life and continues to inspire me every day as I work to nurture a love of learning in my students.”
But Emma’s story goes much deeper than that. She didn’t learn of Annie’s story until she was about 22 years old.
“Being Aboriginal was really quite taboo, people were denying their heritage because of the racism in Australia and it wasn’t talked about by my grandparents,” she explained.
“My grandfather was a bricklayer in Mount Gambier. They didn’t talk about the heritage or people wouldn’t go to him for work because he was married to a woman who had Aboriginal heritage.
“It was liberating for us to talk about it when we found out. A lot of things started to make sense that had not before.
“My sister’s skin is a little bit darker and my auntie’s skin is a little darker still. In the 1950s there was still a threat of children being taken from their homes so it was so much easier to go on with life than living in fear of what was going on in society.”
A Boadkin woman (with a population now of just 407), Annie was born in 1849 and, remarkably for the times, lived until she was 92.
But it was when she was just 11 years old that everything changed when she met Mary MacKillop. It is a testament to Mary that she entertained the young girl at all given she smeared in possum fat to protect herself from the cold and rain. And she also had lice running throughout her hair at their first encounter. Mary was not deterred.
Emma’s story is considerably less traumatic but she credits Annie with pushing her into a teaching career that for a time, looked like it might not happen.
“I have always believed we are pointed in the direction where we want to be, are meant to be. I thought I wanted to go into acting when I was about 17,” Emma said.
Unsure what career path to follow she worked in a school in England before becoming an education support officer in a school “with really challenging children with severe disabilities”. She loved it and knew this was her calling.
Fast tracked back at university Emma said she would go above and beyond for the “tricky kids”, as she calls them.
“The impact on me was flowing down from Annie and Mary. Annie was the person pulling me back into education and purpose.”
From mixed backgrounds, St Raphael’s 100 children (aged five to 12) come from across the Adelaide CBD, Parkside, Noarlunga and the Hills.
Emma’s vision is innovation, excellence in education, starting academic programs and a biggie today, reading. She ensures her students pick up a book every day so that literature is a constant.
“If you take away screens and don’t have an outlet there will be trouble.”
Books can be a replacement although children don’t always realise it. Emma encourages the students to read anything with Anh Doh, Harry Potter and The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley the mouse being popular picks.
Tellingly, Emma’s current reading matter is the The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
Achievement runs in the family. A cousin is a principal at a non-Catholic school in the South East and her mother works within education. Her sister is a nurse.
With Reconciliation Week celebrations coming up at the end of May, Emma said it was an important time to tell Annie’s story and the hardships she endured.
“Some of her children didn’t make great choices and she would go in and represent them in court,” Emma explained.
“Most Aboriginals only picked up bits of English rather than being taught it.
“It’s documented by court, it’s how we know. She had 13 children and three husbands, the last one on my side.”
On May 29 as part of Reconciliation Week at St Raphael’s, Emma will be telling the story of Annie and Mary MacKillop to show how one family’s legacy continues to inspire future generations.
Emma expects it to be thought provoking and a celebration of leadership, education and cultural connection underscoring reconciliation in modern Australia.
“I shared my story with staff and then the school community when I first arrived here. It was really powerful for them, it makes it real.”
Alongside Emma will be (her) Aunty Delrae Corletto and sister Amy Porter. And of course, looking on somehow, there will likely be Annie.
“Everything comes from Annie who has inspired me and is looking out for me,” Emma said.
“I go to her for inspiration.”
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