For years, Justin Hodges’ biggest regret was not looking into his family history. Hodges grew up in Cairns. As an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander man, he was always aware of his heritage, but unlike friends who were “strong in culture [and] could speak language” it was something he didn’t know too much about.
His 16-year stint as an NRL rugby league player, he says, eclipsed his Indigenous identity, and he eventually found himself raising children who asked questions about their heritage that he couldn’t answer.
“Colonisation hit every family differently,” he says. “When I look back on my childhood now, I realise we never had that connection to country and sense of belonging, and a lot of our older people weren’t allowed to talk about it.”
Sully is incredibly proud of her family and looks forward to watching her episode with them.
Rediscovering his roots as one of eight high-profile Australians on season 13 of SBS series Who Do You Think You Are? has enabled him to find some purpose, and he’s now determined to spend more time immersing his children in the creeks and waterways of some of their ancestral lands to give them the cultural upbringing that he missed out on before the program opened his eyes to the intricacies of his family story.
The show takes viewers on fascinating journeys, tracing the ancestry of well-known Australians. In the new season, we catch a glimpse into the lives of Hodges, Simon Baker, Myf Warhurst, Dr Chris Brown, Paula Duncan, Matt Moran, Liz Ellis and Sandra Sully.
Hodges says he is still amazed at what he discovered.
“There were three big things, [but] one of them was this mind-blowing spiritual connection that I had never had in my life just walking around an island,” he says. “I had no idea why we were there, but I would get goosebumps on that island; I just had this feeling that I belonged. When I got told that my great-great-grandmother’s umbilical cord was buried in the sand there … it’s hard to put that feeling into words.”
Hodges says he feels better equipped to raise his children in the aftermath of the experience, some of which, he says, was sad and emotional.
“It was the hardest thing doing it alone, but the most rewarding thing is that we will all be gathered to watch it when it airs and have a proper conversation and dig into our story,” he says. “For me as a parent it gives me a sense of pride that I am doing right by my kids, [and viewers] can get a sense of me as a man, and a better understanding of my family’s struggle and how it has changed through colonisation.”
That sense of giving back to family was one of the driving forces behind 10 News First presenter Sandra Sully’s appearance on the show. She says she was both “chuffed” and “humbled” to be part of the show that filled in “the holes in the family story”.
“I spoke at length with my parents, and it’s one of the greatest gifts I can give them at this stage of their life, to help them understand where they’ve come from, and their family jigsaw that they didn’t know about,” she says. “It was a way of giving something back: something small but profound and meaningful.”
Sully says she is incredibly proud of her family and the parents, who were born and raised in the era of profound hardship, characterised by the Depression and the second world war. She looks forward to watching it in person with them when it airs.
“My family just assumed I went to England because of our Scottish heritage so it’s going to be quite the surprise,” she says, of the trip that was a mystery to her too.
“You get the ticket at the airport, and every single day you have no idea what you’re about to learn and who you are going to meet,” she says. “You follow the crew around like a lost puppy. You just don’t have a clue. And that made it fun and exciting, but every day there was an interview and reflection on what you discovered. It takes you back to your childhood and the sacrifices your parents made for you. It gets me emotional thinking about it.”
In the this season, we catch a glimpse into the lives of Justin Hodges, Simon Baker, Myf Warhurst, Dr Chris Brown, Paula Duncan, Matt Moran, Liz Ellis and Sandra Sully.
She encourages people contemplating researching their ancestry to “be really open to the journey and the exploration”.
“I would encourage anyone who gets the opportunity, to jump at the chance. It doesn’t matter what you find. What might be rabbit holes might be fantastic and enlightening trips down memory lane, exploring details that you don’t often have the capacity to explore.”
Sully says she found “a string of indiscretions, a bit of cheekiness, a bit of street-smart naughtiness”.
“That doesn’t surprise me, knowing my parents,” she says. “I keep assuring my mum that there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We never came from royalty; we’re a working-class family through and through. It’s quite enlightening to understand where some of the family traits come from.”
