Our aim is to fight to keep our children safe and to stop them from being forcibly removed by DOCS,. taking them off country and placing them with non-indigenous carers and families where the children in turn lose their culture and id entity and the essence of their footprints, their land and country. We need to stand together united and fight this ongoing battle – Cephia Maria Williams.
This is a tribute to a proud and strong Butchulla and Darumbal woman, Aunty Cephia Williams. Cephia passed away recently. The contribution of the women from Cherbourg has always been strong. Karen Fusi, Cepha Roma and her niece Cephia Williams are part of this story, they are part of Brisbane Blacks, they set up the Grandmothers group to stop DOCs from taking aboriginal children. They did this from the Sacred Fire in Musgrave Park in 2012 when aboriginal people were ringing and asking for help from as far away as Perth. They joined with and strengthened national groups like Grandmothers Against Removals (GMAR) and another group in Western Australia. They went to Canberra seeking federal assistance against state laws that had their grannies removed.
In 2012, I remember going to Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services with Aunty Cephia and her husband Sonny Williams. Cephia and Sonny were trying to get back custody of their grannies. In the meeting Cephia asked to see her file and, after some delay, one of the child safety officers brought a file into the room and produced it over the table. There was only one problem, the picture on the file was that of her Aunt, Cepha Roma. According to Child Safety Cepha Roma was Cephia Williams with a date of birth in 1960. Even though ‘DOCs’ had taken Cephia and Sonny’s grannies and claimed to have a better understanding of what the family’s needs were, they produced a file where they had confused Cephia Williams with her aunt, Cepha Roma, some years her senior. When Cephia pointed out this mistake, the DOCs officer remained unshaken and condescending. They simply had no idea who they were dealing with. They showed little, if any, understanding of the importance of family relationships in aboriginal culture. They were not only stealing children but they were stealing first nations people’s culture and trying to fit it into a colonised society.
What Cephia learnt from her own expereinces she use to help others whose children had been taken. In this statement facilitated by Jonathan Sriranganathan, Councillor for the Gabba ward outlines the case for Sarah to get one of her children returned by DOCs.
Listen to Cephia speak out at DOCs headquarters at 1 William Street Brisbane.
Each invasion day Cephia Williams and her family would take their struggle to the streets of Brisbane (Meanjin). This is what Cephia had to say on Invasion Day 2014.
Me and Karen … our role is to go up against DOCs. We have placed a lot of our Aboriginal children in families and we are succeeding. We go to Canberra and travel around … we’ve got support networks all around us. We’re organising a trip for Canberra on 11, 12 and 13 February. Any donations would be deadly … to support us on our travel to Canberra .. I am a Butchulla and Darumbal woman.
On Sorry Day, 26th May 2016, eight years after Prime Minister Rudd’s apology to the stolen generation, I received this text from Aunty Cephia Williams (Brisbane Grannies Group) who could not make her own submission to DOCs officers at South Brisbane regional office because of sickness in the family.
What I remember most about Cephia is how smart she was. I remember visiting Cephia when she was working in the kitchen at the Born Free hostel in Brookes Street in West End. Cephia was cooking for the residents and after she had finished her work we sat out on the verandah. We were talking about how important education was. Cephia said that she had graduated from with a Certificate 4 from a TAFE course. I think it was a welfare course. I asked her why she did this course. Cephia replied: “I was bored with cooking and cleaning, so I thought I enrol in that TAFE course.“
Vale Aunty Cephia. My condolences to Sonny, family and friends.
Ian Curr
24 Nov 2022