Dr Glenda Kickett on The Galup Project, deep listening and truth telling

Located beside the Mitchell Freeway between Leederville, Wembley and Glendalough, Galup (previously Lake Monger) is an urban wetland home to rich bird life and used by many thousands of locals and visitors each week but few people know its complex, buried history.

For tens of thousands of years, Lake Monger was a traditional Noongar camping and meeting place known as Galup (Kaarlup): a place of fires and in 1830, it was also the site of a colonial massacre of Noongar people.

Dr Glenda Kickett is a Whadjuk and Ballardong Noongar and leading yorga in the Noongar community, a social worker and CEO of Karla Kuliny Aboriginal Corporation.

Dr Kickett has created systematic change in the community through university lecturing, board roles for Aboriginal organisations and research development and she has been working to change the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child protection system.

She played a large role in 2023’s renaming and recognition of the significance of Galup and ongoing work with The Galup Project.

Pam caught up with Dr Glenda Kickett to discuss The Galup Project, deep listening and truth telling ahead of National Reconciliation Week and the Walk for Reconciliation: Karni Walbirniny Koorliny Walk of Truth and Healing at Galup.