8.3 Cissy Gore-Birch, WA Cissy Gore-Birch is a Jaru/Kija woman and the current interim CEO of the Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (BAC). At the time of her interview she was the Chair of the board of the BAC and also employed by Bush Heritage Australia as a Senior Executive Manager, overseeing Aboriginal partnerships across Australia. Cissy is also the founder and Director of Kimberley Cultural Connections. Cissy has five children, three of whom live at home with her and her husband. Cissy grew up in Wyndham and Oombulgurri and has been involved in five different native title claims: Balanggarra, Jaru, Malarngowen, Yurriyangem Taam and the Bungles. Cissy’s first term as Chair of BAC came after she had been living in Melbourne for four years. Cissy returned to her community in 2004 and felt that after living away she was able to bring a different perspective, experiences and understanding. Cissy felt compelled to get involved after attending her first meeting in 2008 in Wyndham, after witnessing the dysfunctions of her community, the family disputes, and frustrations from others. Cissy decided to join Balanggarra to try to help her community progress forward and make positive changes for the Balanggarra people. She was elected Chair and was initially in the role for five years. During her interview, Cissy put her experience working with the land council and others in the native title area in the broader context. She spoke about the additional fight they were facing at that time in the closure of Oombulgurri community.65 The politics of that closure and the associated community disputes and dysfunction weighed heavily on Cissy. She described it as ‘getting uncomfortable and stepping into the deep end’ and a ‘very steep learning curve’ in relation to ‘community politics, community and family disputes and community disfunctions, mismanagement of Oombulgurri matters, ongoing discussions and disagreements with the leading organisations in the closure, and the trauma of elders, women and children.’ At that point in time, Cissy was bombarded by the needs of long-term residents of Oombulgurri: families and Elders becoming homeless, victims fearful of consequences for speaking out or against the perpetrators, the lack of support from Government agencies in helping with addressing some of these matters, and no proper support or resources to address the closure. Cissy spoke passionately about how poorly this matter was dealt with by all people and agencies involved, to the detriment of the community. Cissy told us that there was a small core group of men and women responsible for some of the behaviour that provided the justification for closing Oombulgurri.66 She told us these were the same people wielding power in a ‘bullying’ way on the BAC board. Cissy invested significant time and energy – and procedural and legal knowledge from specialised professionals – in working out how to deal with those ‘bullies’, based on their behaviour and actions. Cissy and the BAC Board spent 18 months writing to the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) requesting support. She finally prevailed and an ORIC staff member came out to the community of Wyndham to see for themselves what was happening. Cissy felt that it wasn’t until they were on the ground that ORIC were able to understand some of the dynamics and who was actually causing the problems. Until then, they had received what appeared to be ‘two sides to the story’. 64 Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024