Before her friend passed, Graziher writer Amanda Ducker promised her two things

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this article contains images, the voice and name of a deceased person.

Hobart-based journalist Amanda Ducker regularly writes for Graziher (take a look at her latest feature, on artist Selena de Carvalho’s Elsewhere Sauna). She has a knack for capturing the ins and outs of other people’s lives, but her latest project — a book and documentary — has Amanda sharing her own important story.

It begins with a pact she made with Latenzia Nappanangka Grant, a family friend 20 years her junior. Shortly before Latenzia passed, at just 30 years old, she asked Amanda to tell the world what life is really like for an Aboriginal woman living in remote Australia — the good and the bad. Her second ask was that Amanda raise her young daughter, Zenaida, in Hobart.

Here, Amanda talks about the promises she made and why she’s committed to telling Latenzia’s story.

Above The “sizzle reel” for Amanda’s documentary, The Pledge.

So Latenzia left Jurnkkurakurr/Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory to live with you?
She came down to Tassie when Naida was one and they stayed for four years. My mum looked after us both, as well as our children — Mum was still kind of the queen. I think for both of us, Latenzia and I, it was some of the happiest years of our lives. She loved Hobart and she loved the cold weather.

But she returned to Tennant Creek. Why do you think she did that?
From what I know of Latenzia’s longings — and it’s pretty typical, from what I understand of Aboriginal cultures — is that leaving home isn’t something that can be done easily. In saying that, I think we all feel splintered and somewhat confused when we’re away from home — leaving New England is something that’s troubled me a lot over the years.

In the end, she’d missed too much sorry business — the ceremony around family members passing. It ate away at her. She also wanted to live with her sisters again, to see her mum and be with her cousins. I didn’t want her to go. I begged her not to leave.

Then Zenaida came to live with you?
Yeah, I’ve had Zenaida down here with me since she was seven. And for the last three years, I’ve had her cousin from Tennant Creek as well, Leslie. He’s also 13. I’ve got four kids at home at the moment.

We were planning to reunite the family, but Latenzia had been having a tough time. Two years passed by the time we got there and then she died in a car accident while we were there. That left me both with the story to tell and her daughter to raise.

And what’s your relationship with Zenaida today?
She’s my daughter now. In her culture, it’s very normal to have second mothers — Zenaida calls her mother’s sisters Mama Libby and Mama Lexine, and her mother understood me as a second mother.

She and Leslie are with me in Hobart with the blessing of their families and, really importantly, the blessing of all their grandmothers. They want the best for their beloved little ones and that includes allowing them to live with me in Hobart.

And how do you maintain those cultural connections?
Well, thank goodness for technology. The children FaceTime with their families a lot and we do Warumungu language at home. We’re planning to go up this winter and I’m actually going to try and get them into a very little remote school for a while.

They’ll also spend time with their grandmothers on Country. One of their cultural grandmothers is a senior ranger with the Northern Land Council, so she’ll take them out to learn about all the bush medicines and plants. Leslie will probably attend boys’ business in another year or so, but there’s no equivalent for girls.

Why do you think Latenzia was so determined to tell her story?
There’s always going to be an unknowability to it now, because we didn’t get to do it together. But she felt the stories she’d seen or heard didn’t really resonate with her own experience. She had this incredible attachment to her home and her family, and yet it was also a really destructive environment in some crucial ways. It was that terrible tussle of you can’t stay and you can’t leave.

In April 2021, we were working with executive producer Sue Clothier and had applied for proof-of-concept financing from Screen Tasmania. Then Latenzia died in July — just before I found out we’d been successful.

And where are you at with the documentary now?
We are going into main production with our filmmaking partner Mint Pictures this winter, with Indigenous director Daniel King and various cultural consultants on board. We’ll go back to Tennant Creek to see everybody and do some more filming. We’ve received a substantial donation — actually, $100,000 — from Shark Island Foundation, which is the philanthropic wing of a company run by filmmaker Ian Darling and his team.

Now it’s beholden on us to raise more money to help get our broadcast licence. There’s an expectation in the industry — and with state and national screen-funding bodies — that you raise part of the money through philanthropy. We’ve got to get $100,000 by June 30 [2025].

And what can Graziher readers do to get the film off the ground? Is a $20 donation helpful?
Everything is welcome, whether it’s 20 bucks, 50 bucks or 5,000 bucks. And please share the story on social media. That will help get us over the line — and help me keep my promise to Latenzia.

Donations for Amanda’s film, The Pledge, are fully tax-deductible. To donate, go to Documentary Australia.

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