Brinja Yuin Elder and knowledge holder Patricia Ellis has spent her life working for the Aboriginal community and educating people about their culture.
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She has been teaching for 38 years, having a long career at NSW TAFE teaching the cultural perspective of other subjects like conservation and land management and children's studies.
Ms Ellis teaches two days a week at St Bernard's in Batehaven and one day at Carroll College in Broulee.
She has contracts with some healthcare services, is on the NSW Aboriginal Language Trust Board, which is a ministerial appointment, chair of the Eurobodalla Aboriginal Advisory Committee and involved in Monash University's Fire to Flourish program, among many other positions.
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Preserving, promoting language
One of her passions is the Aboriginal language, which she teaches to her people one or two nights a week.
"It is so important to have the same language that our ancestors spoke," Ms Ellis said.
She and her siblings Kerry Boyenga and Waine Donovan wrote The Dhurga Dictionary and Learners' Grammar, which was published in 2020.
Becoming a teacher was not Ms Ellis' first choice but her personal experiences of Aboriginal students being poorly treated took her down that path.
"Every child deserves to feel proud of who they are and their achievements."
Sharing culture
Ms Ellis has been practicing bush medicine her entire life but her business, Minga Aboriginal Cultural Services, only became formal in 2017 when she left TAFE.
"On these walks through local national parks people are amazed that every plant has a medicinal, nutritional and resource value for Aboriginals.
"They come away with more knowledge and respect.
"It has a domino effect and that is why I do it.
"I have to believe people will take that knowledge and do something with it," Ms Ellis said.
Saving the planet
She wants an end to the racism that her people experience every day in some way.
"By teaching, I hope it changes in some small way and that people come to respect the things we respect."
She also hopes that sharing her immense cultural knowledge will improve understanding and translates to looking after the planet.
"My people looked after this planet for 80,000 years yet it has taken just a fraction of that time to muck it all up.
"Aboriginal people believe we are borrowing from our children's future and having that outlook gives you obligations otherwise there won't be anything left for our kids."
Minga Aboriginal Cultural Services is part of the Connect to Country program organised by Southbound Escapes.
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