Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With the permission of her family, I rise to pay my respects to Aunty Buster Turner. Aunty Buster was born Maude Charmaine in 1955 to Kaurna parents who had been removed from their land and sent to the Point Pearce Mission. When she was two years old she contracted whooping cough and was sent to the Adelaide children's hospital. She was immediately fostered out. Her mother and grandmother sat at the hospital for four days before they were told she was gone. They never recovered. She was fostered to a non-Indigenous family living on Kaurna land—so she was brought up on Kaurna land but without connection to her family and community. Her foster family gave her the nickname 'Buster', as she had a habit of busting things as a small child and not being able to fix them.

Aunty Buster's oldest son, Corey, and his family now run the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre in Boothby. When I visited there with the now Minister for Indigenous Australians in 2022, Aunty Buster proudly showed us around. She showed us the scar tree and the oven mounds for megafauna.

Aunty Buster attended the National Apology to the Stolen Generations by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd 15 years ago. Corey tells me it was a very special moment for her.

Aunty Buster died on 12 October 2022. Her favourite song, 'The Rose', was played at her funeral. She is survived by her partner, Greg; her children Corey, Waiatia and Ben; and her grandchildren Tamequa, Isaiah, Tobias, Nasyah, Aaleya, Khalan, Jai, Ayva, Maci, Braxton, Koah and Ariah.