Members
Life Members.
Join the Margaret Tucker Hostel community and support our vital work.
We are proud to introduce profiles of four inspiring members who exemplify the spirit and dedication of our community. These women have committed themselves to our cause and continue to make a significant impact.
Life Member
Aunty Eleanor Harding (1934 - 1996)
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Aunty Eleanor Harding was a respected community figure who poured her energy into achieving a better deal for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. She was especially passionate about women's issues and education.
Eleanor was born in 1934 on Erub Island in the Torres Strait. Her mother, Emma Pitt, was Miriam Mer, from the Torres Strait. Her father, Fred Nain, was Guku, from Cape York, Queensland. Eleanor was the youngest of four siblings.
Eleanor's father was killed while working on a pearl lugger when she was eight years old. Not long after she lost her mother she moved from the islands to the mainland to live with her grandmother. They lived in several Aboriginal communities around Cape York, including Old Mapoon and Mona Mona, before settling at the Bloomfield River Mission — known today as Wujal Wujal.
At the time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Queensland were subjected to some of the most severe laws in Australia, with nearly all aspects of their lives controlled by state authorities. In 1956, Eleanor moved to Melbourne in the hope that she might give her children a better life.
After a brief stay in South Yarra, she settled in Fitzroy, where Aboriginal families occupied many of the suburb's boarding houses and flats. Life was not without its struggles. However, Eleanor quickly ingratiated herself with the poor but close-knit community.
What the residents of Fitzroy lacked in material wealth they more than made up for in goodwill. Neighbours were known to share food and watch each other's children. When Eleanor purchased the first toaster in her building, it quickly became a communal appliance used by all the tenants. Locals socialised at fortnightly dances held at Collingwood Town Hall, where Eleanor performed with a group known as the Fitzroy Dancing Girls.
Motivated by the hardship she saw around her, Eleanor worked alongside other dedicated individuals to help fulfil some of the basic needs of the Aboriginal community. She opened her heart to the most neglected, regularly visiting Aboriginal men and women incarcerated in Melbourne's prisons. She would bring them supplies like coffee and biscuits, paid for out of her own pocket, as well as a sympathetic ear.
During the 1960s, Eleanor was involved in a national campaign to secure equal rights for Indigenous Australians, as a member of the Aborigines Advancement League and the Victorian branch of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI). She was part of the latter's push for constitutional change, which resulted in the 1967 Referendum. Eleanor sold badges and distributed pamphlets to educate the public on what the vote's success would mean. It proved a symbolic win in the long fought battle for Indigenous rights.
Eleanor was an executive member of the National Aboriginal and Islander Women's Council. During Bicentennial celebrations in 1970, to mark the landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay, the Council organised for busloads of women to travel to Sydney and participate in a peaceful protest to highlight what the historic moment meant for Indigenous Australians. In 1972, they travelled to Canberra in support of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
Like many Indigenous women of her generation, Eleanor made her home available to those in need and would regularly provide short-term care to children who would otherwise be institutionalised. When Aboriginal people came to Fitzroy in search of missing relatives, she would assist them in finding their loved ones.
Despite having left school at a young age, Eleanor recognised the value of education. She was a supporter of Abschol, a program set up in the 1960s to raise money for scholarships for Aboriginal students, which later evolved into the federal Abstudy scheme. All Eleanor's children went on to complete higher education with her encouragement and support. Many of them are high profile figures in the arts and Aboriginal affairs today.
She sat on the board of several key Aboriginal-run organisations, including the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service and the Aborigines Advancement League. In 1978, Eleanor joined the Victorian Department of Community Services where she worked principally with victims of domestic violence. Concerned about homelessness among young Aboriginal women, Eleanor joined with others to set up the Margaret Tucker Hostel in 1983. She worked there voluntarily until ongoing government funding was secured.
As a respected Elder, Eleanor was a valued founding member of the Victorian Aboriginal Catholic Council, which later became the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry. In 1992, she helped establish the Victorian Wongai Torres Strait Islander Corporation. A memorial award is presented in her name each year at the Victorian Indigenous Performing Arts Awards. She passed away in 1996 and was buried on Erub Island.
Aunty Eleanor is remembered with great affection as an integral part of the Indigenous rights movement in Victoria. Her message was a simple but potent one: respect each other and be proud of who you are.
Life Member
Aunty Clara Luttrell-Garisou
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Clara Luttrell-Garisou, better known as Aunty Claire, devoted her life to improving outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians. Her active involvement in a number of movements, particularly those related to women and children and her championship of NAIDOC, earned her widespread respect affection amongst the Victorian Aboriginal community and beyond.
A proud Yorta Yorta woman, Clara was born in Echuca, the second eldest of Thomas and Mary (nee Hamilton) James’s 13 children. She was the grand-daughter of Shadrach James, an influential teacher who had taught future Aboriginal leaders such as William Cooper and Douglas Nicholls at Cummeragunja Aboriginal Reserve, across the border in New South Wales.
Clara spent her first few years at Cummeragunja Reserve before the family moved with their grandparents to Mooroopna and later to a house in Shepparton. Other James family members left the reserve during the 1939 ‘walk off’ in protest at the poor conditions and harsh treatment of the residents.
Clara’s parents instilled a strong work ethic in their children. As a young woman, she was a skilled cyclist who competed in local and regional competitions. She met and married Edward ‘Snowy’ Luttrell, a Tasmanian bricklayer, who was cycling around the mainland on a working holiday but got no further than Shepparton when he met Clara. They had 5 young children under the age of 7 when Edward died prematurely of pneumonia. With 5 children to support, Clara set about earning some qualifications. In 1963 she moved to Melbourne with her younger sister, Roma, to study nursing. The sisters were the first Aboriginal women to gain nursing qualifications at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
While working as a nurse in Melbourne, Clara mixed with the growing Aboriginal community in and around Fitzroy, many of whom she had known since childhood. It was at this time that she met Fred Garisau, who would become her second husband. They eventually settled in West Heidelberg with Clara’s children - Michael, John, Janene, Peter and Paul. In 1973 Aboriginal activists established the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) in Gertrude Street Fitzroy. Clara became the first nurse at the service and was one of the team that canvassed Aboriginal people living in the inner city and the western suburbs on the need to establish a dental service. The VAHS Dental Service, established soon after, was the first community-controlled dental service in Australia.
Clara joined with Aunty Edna Brown who was concerned that many in the Aboriginal community were unable to afford proper funerals or burials. Together they worked to raise money for a funeral fund, organising barbecues and cabaret nights at the Collingwood Town Hall. Their pioneering efforts led to the establishment of the Aboriginal Funeral Service.
Clara’s standing in the community was such that, in the mid-1970s, Pastor Sir Doug and Lady Gladys Nicholls requested that she become the manageress of the Gladys Nicholls Hostel, operated by the Aborigines Advancement League (AAL). Sir Doug and Lady Gladys had been behind the opening of the hostel in 1960, hoping to provide a safe and culturally supportive home for Aboriginal girls and young women, and later boys, coming to Melbourne for study or work.
Clara managed the hostel for over 25 years, taking a caring but very firm hand with the young people for whom she was responsible. She was often on call to pick up young women who had been released from juvenile justice centres and bring them back to the hostel or to Margaret Tucker Hostel.
Despite having a full-time job at the hostel and a family of her own to care for, Clara continued to give to the community in a multitude of other ways. She was concerned by the domestic violence endured by many Aboriginal women. Together with Elizabeth Hoffman and Eleanor Harding, she worked to establish the Elizabeth Hoffman House (now called the Elizabeth Morgan House) which opened in the early 1970s. Clara was also well-known in the community for her role in raising the profile of NAIDOC as a celebration of Aboriginal history and culture and the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
She chaired Victoria’s NAIDOC Committee for 25 years, advocating on behalf of the committee to the national body and distributing funds for NAIDOC Week celebrations each year to Victorian organisations. Clara was also a representative on the National NAIDOC Committee for 11 of those years. Her contribution to NAIDOC was recognised by a posthumous award from the National Committee in 2005.
For many members of the Victorian Aboriginal community, Clara’s crowning achievement was her organisation of the annual Miss NAIDOC contest and the NAIDOC Week Ball at the San Remo Ballroom in Carlton. She was determined that the ball would offer a memorable night at a cost that was affordable to as many people as possible. Her generosity in providing free tickets to those in need meant there was often some last minute reshuffling to fit everyone in on the night.
Clara was also a Board member for a number of Aboriginal community controlled service organisations. She was a Chairperson and Board member of the Aboriginal Community Elders Service and a Board member of the Aborigines Advancement League, Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, Elizabeth Morgan House and the Margaret Tucker Hostel for girls.
Known for her happy but forthright personality, Clara earned widespread respect for her heartfelt efforts to help her people. To her children, she provided a positive role model of how to care for community.
Sadly, she was taken by cancer shortly after her retirement from the Lady Gladys Nicholls Hostel in 1999. Her legacy lives on in the many community-run organisations that she helped to nurture and in her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Source: https://www.aboriginalvictoria.vic.gov.au/aboriginal-honour-roll
Life Member
Aunty Ella Pitt
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Aunty Ella was born on Darnley Island in the Torres Strait. In a village called Same Village. Darnley Island was the name given to the island by white missionaries but the traditional name of the island is Erub Island.
Darnley Island is the eastern islands closer to Papua New Guinea than the other islands. The island is known for the deepest water and there was a lot pearl shell diving done here.
Aunty Ella recalls Darnley Island as being clean and the missionaries taught them to clean and the people worked hard to make the island clean. Life on the island was a lot of hard work by the women who used to clean the roads making sure no bushes did not over grow onto the road. The women often carried heavy stones and put them on each side of the road to make it look neat and tidy. A lot of women had miscarriages working this hard. Aunty’s father spoke up to the missionaries about this and was told to stop making trouble and to leave the island and take your family elsewhere. The family then left to live on Thursday Island. Aunty Ella was around 6 years old at this time.
The family moved to Thursday Island where all the houses looked like barracks and looked very old and they leaked when it rained. They lived close to the town.
Every morning her mother would take a spear and get octopus in the ocean and they loved this. There were a lot half caste children at the school on the island where they started going to school. Her mum would send them to school with a can opener to open the tin of sardines and bully beef and damper that she had given them for lunch. At first they were shame about the lunch they had but the rest of the kids came around and started to all join in with lunch together which made it easier for Aunty and her siblings to settle into school.
Aunty recalls that this was also the first time that she saw a cow as they crossed a paddock to get the school one day. The cow mooed and it frightened her and her sister so much they ran off crying back to their mum to tell her about it. There was a dairy farm on the island and her uncle worked there she found out later.
They moved to the back of the island –the other side of the island to the town. There was a theatre they sat at the back of the theatre and white people sat at the front of the theatre. When it rained the white people had to sit with the blackfellas.
In 1942 when the war started and the government sent letters to people to go to an office in town to talk about his land for the army tents. Her dad said he is not selling it he will be coming back. The man said they do not know who will win the war and they should sell it to have money for when they come back. Her mother and father talked about it and decided to sell the land to the government. Mr Farquhar gave the lugger boats to Cairns. He can sell the lugger boats in Cairns.
Her dad’s brothers and relations could take the other boats – around 8 of them, it was a terrible trip – the women and kids were seasick – the men were alright.
Her dad took the biggest lugger boat – they all got sea sick her sister Mary was very sick – the dad would stop along the coast line get off the boat and head off again. Her aunty was too big to fit in the cabin – there was a big storm out at sea. The boys had to get the dinghy’s to pull the lugger boats from crashing into the land rocks. Her dad was Douglas. They could see the storm coming across the sea. Dad tied the aunty to the deck of the boat. The wind came and took the sail the boat took off fast and the waves were big. The boat went up the wave and crashed back down. It was a miracle that the boat did not break in two. They were crying for aunty out on the deck. She was crying out after coming back out of the wave. They all got to Cairns safely. When they arrived in Cairns it was so good to see the lights of the car.
Life Member
Aunty Walda Blow (1941-2015)
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Aunty Walda Blow was a Yorta Yorta and Wemba Wemba Elder who had been working to deliver services supporting Aboriginal people for more than 4 decades. Through her leadership, she inspired many young people to become active participants in their communities.
Born in Echuca in 1941, Walda grew up on Cummeragunja Mission. Her mother Hilda (née Day) passed away when Walda was only a few months old. Walda and her 3 brothers were cared for by their father Fred Walker and paternal grandparents Herbert Walker and Florence (née Hamilton).
Walda had many positive role models as a child, none more so than her beloved grandmother Florence – a woman unafraid to stand up for what was right, who once turned a hose on government officials threatening to take her grandchildren away. Music was also a big part of Walda's childhood, her father played the piano and there was no shortage of singers in the family to accompany him. Walda attended schools at Cummeragunja and across the Murray River in Barmah.
An enduring team, which would go on to make a significant contribution to Aboriginal affairs in Victoria
As a teenager, Walda moved to Melbourne, taking jobs in factories and also worked as a nurse. She later spent time with friends in Brisbane where in 1962 she met Reg Blow, a Kombumerri and Gureng Gureng man from Rockhampton. The two married the following year, thus forming an enduring team, which would go on to make a significant contribution to Aboriginal affairs in Victoria. Reg Blow was inducted to Victorian Indigenous Honour Roll in 2012. After a period in Echuca, the couple eventually settled in Melbourne to raise their 4 children.
While living in Dandenong in 1970, Walda and Reg formed an association with others in the community to deliver housing, welfare and employment services to struggling Aboriginal families. It was incorporated as the Dandenong and District Aborigines Co-operative Society Ltd in 1975. When, in 1972, Reg secured government funding to set up a hostel for Aboriginal boys, the director of the Victorian Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, Reg Worthy, asked Walda to manage it. The request came by telegram and Walda remembered having to call from a payphone to accept. She managed Gunai Lodge, as it was named, for five successful years. One of Walda's colleagues there was Winnie Quagliotti, who is a fellow 2014 Victorian Indigenous Honour Roll inductee.
Walda followed her time at the hostel with an administrative role at Monash University's Aboriginal Research Centre. She went on to work as an Aboriginal liaison officer with the Uniting Church Synod for 9 years, facilitating the handover of church properties to Aboriginal communities around Victoria. 7 properties were donated in this time, including the site of Berrimba Childcare Centre in Echuca. Walda was also involved with the church's Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress.
Walda dedicated much of her life to empowering other women
In 1991, Walda was appointed manager of the Margaret Tucker Hostel in Fairfield, a role she remained in for the next 21 years. The hostel cares for vulnerable Aboriginal girls, providing them with a safe, nurturing and culturally respectful environment in which to heal and develop. Walda was a mother figure and a mentor to the girls at the hostel, forging close relationships and teaching them about self-respect and resilience. To many in the community, she will always be synonymous with the Margaret Tucker Hostel.
Descended from a long line of women possessing great fortitude, Walda dedicated much of her life to empowering other women. In this spirit, she founded the Women's Interfaith Network Foundation. This organisation brings together women of different faiths and diverse backgrounds in an exchange of ideas, cultures and traditions. Walda was an accomplished public speaker and had delivered moving talks about the history of her people at forums in Australia and internationally, including America, Europe and Indonesia. It was a skill she also employed when lecturing on Aboriginal health issues at the University of Melbourne.
She did not shy away from fighting injustice, believing it to be the key to achieving equality
Walda had contributed to the work of many organisations and committees, including the Aboriginal Advancement League, Elizabeth Hoffman House, the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) and the Victorian and National Councils of Churches. She sat on the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation's Council of Elders, representing the rights of the Yorta Yorta people over the waterways that run through their land – a position she held in honour of her grandfather, who cared deeply for the environment.
Having twice served on the Aboriginal Housing Board of Victoria in the 1990s, Walda has also participated in state and national campaigns to end homelessness. She did not shy away from fighting injustice, believing it to be the key to achieving equality. Walda had seen the impact of a disadvantaged life lived without purpose, to which she attributed the loss of 2 brothers at a young age. However she was able to draw strength from pain, including the loss of her husband, who sadly passed away in 2012.
In 2007 Aunty Walda was highly commended at the Robin Clark Memorial Awards and in 2012 she was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women. She had never sought recognition for her work, only the best outcomes for her people. Her children and grandchildren were her real source of pride. Free of rancour, Aunty Walda promoted forgiveness and built partnerships in an effort to ensure that history never repeats itself.
Membership
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Criteria
If you are interested in becoming a member of Margaret Tucker Hostel and you fit the following criteria, you can apply.
Are you:
an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander woman
Over 18 years
Live within the Melbourne Metropolitan area
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For any queries regarding your membership or to update your member details, please contact us on 03 90868652 or email membership@margarettuckerhostel.org
