By Jed Lanyon
Indigenous Elder and Healesville resident Aunty Dot Peters has been recognised as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) as part of the Queen’s Birthday 2019 honours for her significant service to the Indigenous community of Victoria.
Aunty Dot said she was surprised when she heard she earned the achievement.
“I don’t do anything to get glory out of it. I do it because I am interested in the community,” Aunty Dot said.
Aunty Dot said she was happy to see the work of Indigenous people be recognised at a national level.
From 1980 to 1991 Aunty Dot worked as an Aboriginal Educator at Healesville Primary School, educating students about Indigenous culture and showing them how to weave baskets.
“It was good to talk to the children, but even now I still have some of them talking to me in the streets as young men,” she said.
“I taught them about Aboriginal issues and they had remembered what I said to them, so I think that’s terrific.
“My grandmother taught me how to make baskets… I like to share what I know about our community and about our people,” she said.
Aunty Dot shared a story about her grandmother and her links to the family of famous bushranger Ned Kelly.
“When they were on the reserves, my grandmother was up near Alexandra.
“And the police would come down and try to take the kids away, and when Ned Kelly’s mum would see them coming, she used to hide the kids away in their house.
Aunty Dot said she has always had a soft spot for the Kelly family.
“They were very good to the Aboriginal people.”
“I like to tell people that story because they had a hard time in the community with the police, the Kelly’s.
Aunty Dot said that she loved the community spirit of Healesville, the town she grew up in.
“When we had got the word that dad had died, at the time mum owed the butcher and the grocer money and they told her to forget about it.
“That’s what Healesville was like in those days.”
Aunty Dot said she is proud of her work to create an Indigenous remembrance service, an event that started at Healesville RSL where a didgeridoo was played alongside the ode as a way of honouring her father, who had died as a prisoner of war on the Thai Burma railway.
Now, the event is held at the Shrine of Remembrance each year to honour the thousands of Aboriginal service men and women who have served and continue to serve in the Australian Defence Force.
Some of Aunty Dot’s other achievements include, founder of Yarra Valley Aboriginal Elders Association, Honorary Elder and founding member of Healesville Indigenous Community Services Association, a member of Victoria’s Aboriginal and women’s honour roll and a Centenary Medal recipient.
The Queen’s Birthday 2019 list recognises 993 outstanding and inspirational Australians.
