Page 3119 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 20 August 2019
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While the Army Reserve may not have been for her, she still married a soldier and later moved into Aboriginal employment services. In the 1980s and 1990s Ms Whetnall ran the cultural training for the AFP, which she said was an eye-opener and gave her a unique perspective on law enforcement.
She undertook significant service through her work at AMC and Bimberi. Although she was part of the council that recommended the creation of her job, Ms Whetnall did not expect that she would be appointed. She recounted that she was very nervous on her first day:
I didn’t know many people but I knew their people. With most of them I’d find someone in common.
Ms Whetnall need not have been nervous. Throughout her time as the official visitor, she helped countless people and their families. It was a great disappointment to her that the rates of incarceration of Aboriginal people continued to climb in the ACT. Over the years her role became increasingly important and demanding, but the prisoners loved Aunty Tracey. For many she was the only visitor they had or the only person they could talk to. Nothing was ever too much trouble, or any act of kindness ever too small. She was selfless and generous, but if you wanted something while the Rabbitohs were playing, it would have to be urgent.
Ms Whetnall was a highly respected member of the Aboriginal community. She was very much in touch with her Aboriginal heritage and was keenly aware of mistreatment and racism.
My great aunt, she was one of the stolen generation, she ended up a domestic for Dame Nellie Melba—
she recounted in an interview.
My great-grandfather served in World War I as a light horseman and was never recognised.
Ms Whetnall dedicated her life to ensuring that she left a better world for the next generation of Aboriginal children. Her employment history and volunteer work speak for themselves, demonstrating the commitment she had to her community. She worked as an Aboriginal adviser to the equal opportunity unit of the commonwealth Public Service Board. She was in the Aboriginal employment strategies branch of the Department of Employment, Education and Training. She was a commission liaison officer at ATSIC. She was an Indigenous trainer for Lifeline Australia’s domestic violence alert program, providing cultural perspectives and running training programs for front-line workers engaging with Indigenous communities.
She served as an office-bearer for the ACT NAIDOC committee and Gugan Gulwan Aboriginal Youth Corporation. She facilitated numerous cross-cultural training workshops and assisted in stakeholder engagement activities for state and federal government agencies.
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