“I am just the background person,” Anthea Edmunds said self-effacingly.
However, as the wife of renowned local musician Russell Smith, she’s been instrumental in organising the successful Stories and Songs series at Tamborine Mountain library.
“Those background roles are the key helping make everything work,” she explained.
“We both love people. Russell’s on the face of it and I’m the facilitator behind the scenes and the two different lenses work together.”
The couple met in Melbourne in 2010 when Anthea was working with Australian Volunteers International on a Pacific program and Russell was taking Aboriginal youth to India through the program.
“I went back to Russell’s community in Port Augusta and volunteered helping take kids from Sacred Heart College in Adelaide back to where he grew up on Umeewarra Mission.
“I had not been to an Aboriginal community, and it was a life changing experience.
“That’s where I saw the real Russell and fell in love.
“Then I thought ‘may as well get married and have kids’.”
Anthea said she feels privileged to see things others haven’t and meet important Aboriginal people through Russell’s connections, like the late Uncle Archie Roach AC.
“Having an Aboriginal husband and children and being non-Indigenous, it’s important for me to educate myself through reading books by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors.”
Anthea works at the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation and is halfway through a Juris Doctor with a focus on Indigenous rights.
“I did it more for my own interest and to have the knowledge for my children to understand how we got to where we are as a country.”
Having grown up on the mountain, her connection to it is strong.
She moved off the mountain during her tertiary studies, before moving to Melbourne.
The couple moved back when their first-born, Wyntah was 18 months old after having spent time travelling around the country for both their work.
A few years later they had their second child, Bailey.
“I’m really proud they are both thriving at the same school I attended as a child,” Anthea said.
“Wyntah is the environmental sustainability captain and as a young Aboriginal woman she’s really stepping into that space and Bailey has just won student of the week for mathematics, perhaps following in the footsteps of noteworthy Aboriginal mathematicians.
“This sense of community can’t be understated. It’s a stunning beautiful rainforest area, but it’s also amazing people.”
She feels connected to people up here who, like her, are also avid learners.”
“I feel I only know about five percent of what I need to know in the Aboriginal space,” she stated.
Anthea’s goal is to extend the facilitation support she’s currently doing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, organisations and people.
“I’m proud of my role in the background and if I can use those skills to help other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses or people that’s success to me, and for my kids,” she said.
