Salima (Sally) Ethel Ah Mat



Dau. of Jane Hunkin & Pablo Ah Mat

Salima (Sally) Ethel Ah Mat
Born 26.1.1909 at Badu Island, Torres Strait, Australia
Marr. (1st) Reuben Cooper
Died 21st June 1994 at Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin, Northern Territory


Children

Ruby
Reuben
Lorna Lydia
Adla Josephine
Ronald
Dawn Lilian


Marr. (2nd) Ernest Koosney


NOTE

1917- Along with her parents & siblings, Sally moved from Thursday Island to Darwin, Australia on a boat called the "Mantorra." Sally started her schooling in Cavenaugh Street and from an early age, helped her mother with washing and cooking. She and her brothers, the well known footballers: William, John, Ali, and Ankin Ah Mat, and sisters fished and hunted for cockles in the mangroves at Dinah Beach.The family then moved to Police Paddock (now Stuart Park). It was there she met Rueben Cooper, who became a legend in Australian Rules Football.

Sally's life was full of hard work: searched for seed pearls, collected and cured trepang, helped Rueben at three different sawmills in Arnhemland where the family lived in tents and make-shift shacks made of paper bark. Sally had her first two children during this time of her life. Sally not only looked after the family, but also physically assissted the Aboriginal men clear away trees and branches to make the roadways to the the timber to the mill. She cooked for her family as well as for the workers at the camp. She taught the Aboriginal women domestic chores and Aboriginal culture. She educated Aboriginal men in the trade and taught them arithmetic and the language. She had four more children during this time. This part of her life ended when Rueben Cooper died and the family evacuated to South Australia in 1942 while Darwin, Australia was being bombed. Sally later married Ernest Koosney and her family moved back to Darwin after the war. She was very involved with the Darwin Buffaloes Football Club and was awarded Life Membership!

Badu Island: A west-central Torres Strait Island which, along with near neighbours on Mabuiag and Moa, once had a feared reputation as an island of headhunters. Warfare, turtle and dugong hunting were the main occupations of Badu men until the 1870s. Pearlers established bases on the island during the 1870s and by the early 1880s the islanders were becoming dependent on wages earned as lugger crew. At the same time, the first missionaries arrived at the people's request. At the peak of the shell industry in the late 1950s, the Badu fleet of 13 boats employed a workforce of 200 providing work for many men, even from other islands as well. However, once the shell trade declined, many people moved to the mainland for work. (Lakena Yan Lan)


Thank you to Lakena Yan Lan for her help with this family.

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