



Backyard memories linger, but I focus on the now and when


Jill Ker Conway

Jill Ker Conway by Sarah Belchetz-Swenson, 1987, oil on canvas.

Jill Ker Conway by Sarah Belchetz-Swenson, 1987, oil on canvas. Photo: NGA

People often ask me ''How does it feel to be back in Oz?'' It's a question that's asked with a subtext: ''You've been away so long, you must feel something of a stranger.'' I explain that we carry memories and feelings of childhood forever, so that like Antaeus we draw strength from our native roots.

This deep affiliation is always symbolised for me by the debates of expatriates about where their bones should come to rest. My Australian and Canadian families have their instructions down pat. ''Half Aunt Jill's ashes to be scattered by the big tree beside the roadway into the house at Coorain''. The Canadians are responsible for the North American home of the other half which will come to rest in a tiny private cemetery along with some of my husband's ashes, very close by our beloved house and garden in Western Massachusetts. Nothing could be more symbolic of intense bonds with place and people.

So when people ask me ''what does it feel like to be honoured in the country that you left?'' My answer is, ''Some part of me never left.'' Sydney is, in many ways, unrecognisable from the city of my childhood, but the bush never changes and even though the western division of NSW has some pesky invasive species growing vigorously, the vast horizon, symbol of the smallness of mankind, is still there. So is the dazzling night sky, the scent of eucalyptus, the sound of galahs at sunset, and the ubiquitous dust, always a reminder of mortality. So this wonderful and unexpected honour, a Companion of the Order of Australia, is a source of joy, pride, and gratitude, a glorious coda to a long life with deep roots in this country.

Professor Jill Ker Conway has been appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

Professor Jill Ker Conway has been appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC). Photo: Tamara Voninski

But, along with the rootedness, and the wonderful particularity of the places where we are born and nourished, there are also universals which govern our adult lives. For me the important universal is the responsibility we all bear to improve the lot of women and children wherever they are oppressed, and to ensure respect and dignity for women of achievement. This is the cause which kept me in the United States where the scale and wealth of the society allows for great diversity of institutions and private endeavours.

The women's universities of the United States are few in number but influential far beyond their size. Smith College, where I served as president for a decade, educated both Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, both path-breaking feminists. Recently it has opened a school of engineering exclusively for women students. Here the goal is to encourage women shapers of material culture, and return them to a rate of innovation which existed in the mid 19th century, but which ceased when engineering became an exclusively male field.

Currently a consortium, American Women's Colleges, is raising the money and the faculty to establish an Asian University for Women in Malaysia along with funding to adopt the American system of financial aid which would enable gifted women students from low-income families the same opportunity for education as those who can afford to pay. These opportunities for institution building have been deeply fulfilling.

But now, as I approach 79, I am like most ageing people, reliving many parts of my life. The most vivid memories often focus on life on the family sheep station during the World War II. Then I learnt to think globally, studying the maps of the conflict in all its global dimensions. Every night at 6 o'clock we gathered by the ancient Stromberg Carlson wireless to listen to Big Ben chime and announce the evening news.

This voice from the other side of the planet made me think globally and aspire to understand the causes of this mammoth conflict. Then we thought our natural resources limited, no oil, very limited coal deposits, and there was a perpetual struggle to maintain the value of the Australian currency, only sustained by rural products. Today Australia is rich in resources and part of the dynamic Asia Pacific market and its financial institutions are global players. But today my rural world is in decline even though we know that there will be a serious problem of feeding the world's population within several generations. So my hope is for a political climate a little more focused on the future, and a little less comfortable with the wealth that comes from feeding the carbon economy.



  • It is good to hear news of Jill Kerr Conway, whose books "The Road from Coorain" and "True North" I greatly enjoyed reading some years ago. Her wisdom is worth listening to, especially the last sentence in the article above.

    Date and time
    June 10, 2013, 6:02AM
    • Agree it is to hear of Jill Kerr Conway and the honour bestowed on her. My 92 year old mother urged me to read 'The Road to Coorain' when I was busy studying after raising a family. Did not get to read it until after mum died but loved it's quintessential Australian feel. Could almost smell the wet country after rain, and the calling of galahs. She had a strong sense of the struggle women experienced in their lives in 20th century Australia. Why are we so obsessed with wealth and not valuing our country for the unmeasurable richness that rural families contribute to us all?

      Date and time
      June 10, 2013, 7:11AM
      • Clare
        Ëver since the dawn of communication "rural families " in Australia ,have traditionally been not just valued, but held up as models of virtue etc regardless of the reality.
        The truth is "Rural people" are no more heroic, ultristic,, martyred or noble than the rest of us.
        They, "rural families" and communities just get better publicity.
        BTW : I was raised and still live rural, ( Sydney is where the work is) so I know first hand, and have no delusions about the mythical wonderfulness that rural people are meant to naturally exude, when compared to "city folk".
        The bush isn't really like Wandin Valley , or McClouds Daughters.
        Sorry if that upsets some people.

        Cydnee based bush boy.
        Date and time
        June 10, 2013, 8:15AM
    • as someone who grew up in a farming district - if you ask me what evokes Australia - I immediately think of waking up in some country caravan park on the New England highway to the cool clean fresh air, the brilliant blue sky, the gum trees and the morning magpies warbling above.

      Oz trailer
      Date and time
      June 10, 2013, 8:59AM
      • I too was warmed when I learned above of Jill Ker Conway' being honoured with The Companion of the Order of Australia. I truly can't think of a more deserving recipient. It was thus a delight to read her own words on her views now and since we saw her last.Bravo.

        Green Valleys
        Date and time
        June 10, 2013, 9:19AM
        • How good a Queen's Birthday Honours List is this?

          Not one - count 'em - not one - pollie amongst them ( ! know, I know, there's a former mayor of the Gold Coast there but he has other achievements that got him a gong).

          I know what it's like to wake up to clear skies, fresh rainwater in the tank, the maggies coming in for breakfast, the warm sun and a great community.

          Rob Emanuel
          Country NSW
          Date and time
          June 10, 2013, 9:22AM
          • Could the ABC schedule the Movie of "The Road From Coorain"? Anyone? Please!

            Nostalgia Like Backbone Like Country
            Date and time
            June 10, 2013, 9:24AM
            • There is no doubt that Prof. Conway is a remarkable person and academic. However, I am quite lost as to why an Australia who has not lived in Australia for nearly 40 years receives this country's top honour; and AC. I could name a whole list of Australians that are as equally deserving of an AC, yet live here and have done so all their lives, thereby, contributing far more to Australia and Australian society.

              Shane F
              Date and time
              June 10, 2013, 9:34AM
              • I agree with the comments about the not so wonderful aspects of country life. I love the book Road to Corain. It's not too rosy about rural life. Yes the bush is wonderful and it's great to be out there but remember it is implied that her Dad drowns himself. Suicide is an ever present risk in the rural experience. At my boarding school in rural Queensland there were frequent stories of Dads dying while "cleaning their guns" and other inexplicable accidents. As an adult I have found out about how the isolation has wrecked many marriages too. Less than idyllic. Mind you there's not much inner city Chardonnay sippers have to complain about.

                Apart from that I wonder why Jill Ker Conway wasn't gonged sooner. She's a great Australian and example to all of us.

                Date and time
                June 10, 2013, 1:17PM
                • I declare "rootedness" the word of the day.

                  Date and time
                  June 10, 2013, 7:03PM
                  Comments are now closed
                  Featured advertisers