Rhonda Ansiewicz lay awake, a sea of faces swimming before her eyes.
Earlier that day, she had been named as a Member of the Order of Australia – a completely unexpected honour, and one that brought up a wave of recollections from the past.
‘All I could see was this sea of faces from all the people I’ve worked with,’ the Federal resident says of the award, which she received last week.
‘Their struggle becomes part of you.’
Much of Ms Ansiewicz’s life has been devoted to helping others who are struggling, though she insists that she has received just as much, if not more, in return.
Growing up in a welfare home following the death of her mother, Ms Ansiewicz had a taste of what life was like on the edges of society.
‘Most of us were there because our parents failed us,’ she says of the welfare home.
‘My father couldn’t run a chook shed, let alone look after a child. We were just meant to go into service – menial jobs. I was trained to work in a launderette. I reckon ever since then, I’ve just had a rebellious streak and a strong sense of injustice.’
Driven by these qualities, Ms Ansiewicz worked hard at school, securing a place in teaching college.
But after just a few years working in a suburban Catholic School she went back to study social work and counselling.
Mum Shirl
Soon after she found herself in Redfern, standing face to face with Mum Shirl, now recognised as one of the most influential Indigenous social-worker-activists in Australia’s troubled history.
‘The first day I came in, Mum Shirl just looked at me and said “what are you doin’ ’ere?”’ Ms Ansiewicz recalls.
‘I said, “I’m here to help”.
‘She looks at me and says, “you know how many times in the past 200 years we’ve had you lot come around and say you’re gonna help? You want to help? Sit down right there and listen and try and learn something!”.’
This memorable moment was the start of a long and profound relationship between Ms Ansiewicz and the Aboriginal community in Redfern.
‘I was drawn to the poverty, sadness and dispossession,’ she says.
‘It was the most searing and inspiring experience in my life. That was an experience that defined who I am today.’
‘I loved it because I was just helping people. If someone needed a lift, I gave them a lift, if they needed a coffee, I made them a coffee. Just real simple grassroots stuff.’
Around the same time, the young social worker began working for Amnesty International, initially as a torture and trauma counsellor, and then as the campaign co-ordinator of the organisation’s NSW branch.
Her work in this area grew and she later became the co-founder of the Service for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors in Fairfield, and the co-founder of the NSW Refugee Advice and Casework Service.
Redfern community
Despite being incredibly busy, Ms Ansiewicz remained connected to the Redfern community, and the cause of Indigenous Australians more broadly.
In 1984, she became the co-ordinator of the Aboriginal Rural Education Program, which helps guide young Aboriginal people living in rural areas into tertiary education.
At the same time, she was transitioning into academia, becoming a lecturer in the Department of Social Policy and Human Services at the University of Western Sydney.
It was only when all of this incredible and challenging work started to seriously affect her health that Ms Ansiewicz turned her attention to the Northern Rivers.
‘Toward the end of my time in Sydney, my asthma was starting to play up really badly,’ she recalls.
‘The specialist said, “you have to get out of Sydney and get well”. I knew that I needed a break, but I never intended to move here. Then a friend and I chipped in and bought a property here in Federal as a superannuation thing, and just fell in love with it. I had long service for a year, and three months in, I said, “I’m not going back, this is where I belong”.’
At the age of 59, and with nearly four decades of incredible service behind her, Ms Ansiewicz could have been forgiven for spending the next few decades floating around on a lilo.
But floating around lazily is not, it would seem, in her nature.
While the pace perhaps slowed a little, Ms Ansiewicz continued to find a way to help.
Since 2005, she has been a volunteer with both the Winsome and Lismore Soup Kitchen, and the Bangalow branch of the Country Women’s Association.
There have also been numerous board memberships, including the Mullumbimby Neighbourhood Centre, the Northern Rivers Aunty Program, and the Federal School of Arts.
‘I love volunteering and working in this community, but really, there’s lots of people volunteering in this area. The award, as much as it was deserved at all, was really for the work I did in Sydney.
‘I was honestly shocked and pretty uncomfortable with it initially. But now I’m starting to realise that it’s been given to me, but it passes on to all those human beings that I worked with over the years. The forgotten ones on the edges. Like the Aboriginal person with a drinking problem, because they’re trying to drown out the pain.
‘I love grassroots work. It’s about the relationships. Connecting with people. It’s all about caring for people and for the land.’
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