Ngajanoo Nilawal, Anne Poelina, Ngaiyoo Yimardoowarra Marnil. My name is Anne Poelina I am a woman from the Mardoowarra, Fitzroy River. Ngaiyoo mandajarra Nyikina. My people are Nyikina. Ngaiyoo Nyikina, I am Nyikina.

The traditional lands of Nyikina people are located in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. In the past Nyikina people have been given many names; Walangaree people according to the early writings of Daisy Bates (1907), was one such name.

I have always identified as a Nyikina my great grandmothers are of Nyikina Warawa and Nyikina Walmajarri heritage. My life experiences and my life work has never changed from knowing who I am and my responsibilities to my Nyikina culture, the river, my people and communities.

"Building the new economy: actionist, enterprise and social and economic change : Environmental Humanism".
Dr Anne Poelina

Today's economy is built on the foundation of global industrial and financial systems with immense productive capacity, but the extractive nature of this has created extreme income disparity and social injustice and wrought devastation on people, communities and nature.

There was stillness all around her as Moongara gently rocked
On the silent Berkeley River as smooth as if she’d docked.
From Darwin ‘cross Bonaparte Gulf she’d been more than ably sailed
And now the crew was reminiscing about what that had entailed.
Stretched out and sipping Champers, they talked of the past days
Spent cross open waters rough with windy sprays.
It had taken nearly sixty hours against a capricious tide
But their spirits hadn’t faltered as they watched the Southern Cross, glide

My childhood growing up in the pearling town of Broome is filled with amazing memories. Broome was, from my understanding, the only place in Australia where the White Australia Policy did not seem to apply because the demand for pearls and the pearl shell industry brought men in from all parts of Asia. In the mid 1930s, after a cyclone that destroyed many luggers and lives, my father came to Broome from West Timor as a Dutch National. Official records show he spent time in the Dutch Merchant Navy on board the ship Gorgon.