Rove McManus’s wife Tasma Walton opens up on family secret that changed her life
Despite her success as an actress, her marriage to Rove McManus and her beautiful daughter, Tasma Walton felt like something was missing because of the mystery surrounding her family heritage.
"Pieces in the puzzle were missing," Tasma said in an interview with TV WEEK.
Tasma was raised by her mother in Geraldton, Western Australia, and explained that there were many questions around her heritage.
Drawn by the curiosity about her identity, Tasma did a DNA blood test while living in the US with her TV presenter husband.
Unfortunately, the test failed to give her any further answers as the results showed that her background was 93 per cent British and seven per cent unknown.
However, over the past five years, members of her family have been researching their ancestors’ history and Tasma has since learnt more about her family’s past.
"It took me a long time to discover my Indigenous heritage," the 44-year-old said.
"On my mum's side, my ancestors were taken from their clan and brought over to Western Australia.
"They were completely separated and isolated from their families. They were made to become white, relinquish cultural ties and fit into a colonised world."
Since finding out about her family’s past, Tasma has passionately dedicated herself to championing Indigenous stories. She has appeared in ABC’s Cleverman and the 2013 film Mystery Road, which has been turned into a series.
“The more I understand my Aboriginal heritage, the more it makes complete sense to me," Tasma said.
"My bloodline has been on this land for tens of thousands of years. So the more I learnt about myself and my family, the more yearning I felt to tell these stories.
"I can't help but feel proud and want to explore that and tell the world about that."
While filming Mystery Road, Tasma was able to return to Western Australia but found it difficult to be apart from her four-year-old daughter, Ruby.
"It was hard," Tasma revealed. "But it often plays out like that with Rove and I. We have these chunks of time where we're single-parenting."
Tasma said the distance is made easier by calling her husband and daughter on Skype.
"Ruby has become very used to Skype," Tasma laughed. "But we just make it work. And sometimes it's nice to actually immerse yourself in the work, free from the duty and obligation of parenting."