In 2017, M&G NSW’s IMAGinE Awards acknowledged one Special Award awarded for their Lifetime Contribution to Aboriginal Culture in NSW

SPECIAL AWARD | Lifetime Contribution to Aboriginal Culture in NSW

Jeanette Crew

Jeanette Crew, Chair of Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre was awarded for her lifetime contribution to Aboriginal culture in NSW.

Jeanette was born in Swan Hill, Victoria. She spent her early years on Moonahcullah, an Aboriginal Mission outside of Deniliquin, until the community was forcibly moved into Deniliquin in 1961.

Jeanette broke new ground in many areas of her career, from her role as the first Aboriginal Women’s Cultural Heritage Sites Officer in the National Parks and Wildlife Service in Sydney, to her success as the first Coordinator of the Deniliquin Local Aboriginal Land Council. Jeanette served on the Aboriginal Advisory Committee to various organisations including the National Museum in Canberra and the Australian Museum and National Maritime Museum in Sydney. In the late 1980s she was a member of the NSW Ministerial Taskforce on Aboriginal heritage and culture.

One of Jeanette’s major achievements is her work in establishing Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre which has now been running since 2003. Yarkuwa exists to collate and maintain traditional knowledge, to act as a base for community development and to provide an education service to the wider community.

Yarkuwa negotiates with government and other agencies on matters relating to culture, heritage, community wellbeing and the environment. Through Yarkuwa and through her involvement in forming the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations, Jeanette has been strategic in working towards obtaining water rights for Traditional Owners as well as building connections between local communities and government.

Jeanette was also instrumental in the repatriation and reburial of ancestral remains previously held in the National Museum of Australia, National Parks and Wildlife, Office of Environment and Heritage and the University of Sydney, a campaign she was involved with for some 17 years. Jeanette was a member of the International Repatriation Advisory Committee during 2009.

Jeanette is a keen weaver and has been central to the weaving revival in the Deniliquin region, weaving with and teaching elders, peers and young people. Jeanette is the only current Aboriginal Landcare Coordinator in NSW and aims to embed Aboriginal cultural values within Natural Resource Management work, and seek ways of incorporating Aboriginal culture within government and non-government services and to create a strong cultural identity in future generations.

Jeanette is pictured (centre) receiving this award.