Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence - Doris Pilkington (14 page)

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Molly was trained and employed as a domestic help on Balfour Downs Station where she married Toby Kelly, a stockman. She had two daughters Doris (the author) and Annabelle. On 18 November 1940, after Molly’s discharge from the Royal Perth Hospital where she had undergone surgery for appendicitis, she was transported once again under ministerial warrant to Moore River Native Settlement. Nine months later, Molly received a letter from home advising her of the deaths of members of her family at Jigalong. A niece had died from self-inflicted wounds to the head, a customary action of the distressed and the anguished and a common expression of grief and despair. In this case the lacerations were inflicted when Molly and her children had departed months earlier. Others died from whooping cough.

Permission to return to Balfour Downs was refused. Unable to settle down, Molly absconded on 1 January 1941, taking eighteen-month-old Annabelle (Anna) with her and
leaving Doris behind at the settlement. She and her baby daughter arrived safely at Jigalong months later, following the same route she had taken nine years earlier. She moved back to Balfour Downs Station with her husband Toby and baby Annabelle. Three years later Annabelle was removed and sent south to the Sister Kate’s Children’s Home in Queens Park. Molly has not seen her since. Molly and Toby worked on various stations in the Meekatharra and Newman districts until their retirement in 1972. Toby passed away in October 1973. Molly now lives quietly at Jigalong, although she is still actively involved in community affairs. Under traditional Aboriginal kinship Molly has eighteen grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.

Gracie was captured at Wiluna and was transported back to Moore River Settlement where she was given the surname of Jigalong, later shortened to Long. She completed her education and was sent out to work as domestic help on various farms in the wheatbelt, in institutions in the metropolitan area and on stations in the Murchinson region. While working on a station in the Shark Bay district she married a young station hand named Harry Cross. They had six children: Lucina, Therese, Margaret, Marcia, Celine and Clarence. After their separation, Gracie moved to Geraldton. She passed away in July 1983. Gracie never returned to Jigalong.

After being reunited with her family, Daisy moved with them to the Jimalbar goldfields then to a camp near Lake Naberu, along the rabbit-proof fence south of Jigalong. She trained as a house maid and was later employed on various stations in the district. She married Kadibil, a station hand,
and had four children: Noreena, Elizabeth, Jenny and Margaret. After her husband’s death, Daisy moved to Kalundi Seventh Day Adventist Mission, 25 kilometres north of Meekatharra, where she worked as a cook–housekeeper. She remained there until the mission closed in the 1970s. Daisy is a wonderful storyteller. This book may not have been written had it not been for her skill and love for storytelling, her vivid memory and her zest for life. Daisy now lives with her son and daughters and their families at Jigalong.

*also spelt Mardudjara, Martujara

Since 1988, UQP has built up an international reputation as the largest publisher of books by Indigenous authors in Australia. UQP’s Black Australian Writing series evolved out of the David Unaipon Award, which discovers new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers. Today the series includes Indigenous-authored books ranging from novels, poetry, and life stories to non-fiction and young adult fiction. Through the combined expertise of our authors, cultural advisors and specialist staff, UQP continues its commitment to Indigenous writing as a valued contribution to the literature of a nation.

A fictional account of one woman’s journey to find her family and heritage,
Caprice
is Doris Pilkington Garimara’s first book. Set in the towns, pastoral stations and orphanage-styled institutions of Western Australia, this story brings together three generations of Mardu women. The narrator Kate begins her journey with the story of her grandmother Lucy, a domestic servant, then traces the short and tragic life of her mother Peggy.

This sequel to the film-inspiring
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence
is Doris’ own story. It is told through the eyes of a young Doris who grows up as a ward of Moore River Institution. Later, as a mother with a young family, she searches for her mother and father in the remote Pilbara country where she was born under the wintamarra tree.

In a town with a history of vigilante raids, missing persons and unsolved murders, survival can be all that matters. Powerful and sinister, this is the second book by the brilliant Murri writer whose comedy novel
Bitin’ Back
(2001) won the David Unaipon Award and was shortlisted in the 2002 South Australian Premier’s Award for Fiction.

This is a rollicking comedy novel that blends in nimbly the realities of small town prejudice and racial intolerance. When football-playing Nevil awakens one morning determined to don a frock and ‘eyeshada’ to better understand the late novelist Jean Rhys, his mother’s idle days at the bingo hall are ended forever.

An award-winning story of family, community and tradition on Victoria’s Framlingham Aboriginal Mission.
The Mish
is a charming, humorous memoir of times past, about growing up on western Victoria’s Framlingham Aboriginal Station in the 1950s and 60s. A celebration of the resilient and unified extended family.

A story of homecoming, this absorbing novel opens with a young, city-based lawyer setting out on her first visit to ancestral country. Candice arrives at ‘the place where the rivers meet’, the camp of the Eualeyai where in 1918 her grandmother Garibooli was abducted. As Garibooli takes up the story of Candice’s Aboriginal family, the twentieth century fades away.

This absorbing and personal account of Wik activist Jean George Awumpun offers a rare understanding of Aboriginal identity and traditional land. To illustrate her proud Alngith Wikwaya beginnings, Awumpun’s early history is told through family member and Alngith descendant Fiona Doyle. This ancestral history combines with the story of Awumpun’s struggle in the Wik native title claims, which advanced the earlier Mabo Decision onto mainland Australia.

A celebration of fiction and poetry from UQP’s Black Writing series. The stories and poems in this collection celebrate the flourishing Black Writing list at UQP. Series editors have chosen pieces for their lyrical and storytelling qualities. Each piece illustrates, in language that is notably contemporary and regional, the diverse voices and dynamic, often unfixed, writing styles available in Indigenous literature today.

Sue Wilson, young and Aboriginal, enters ‘the mythic world of Work’ and discovers that the view from behind the bar is less than glamorous, but pays the rent. When she meets Roger the good times begin to roll until she finds herself starring in a feature with medium-level violence.

With direct and gutsy language, Melissa Lucashenko’s first novel makes no apologies.

Roo Glover has two highly desirable talents—he can fight, and he can run like the clappers. In the inner-city’s harsh code there are losers and survivors, and Roo’s a survivor.

From the riotous picnic races to the famous Mt Isa rodeo, from childhood in the yumba to gutsy outback pubs, this novel presents a strikingly original vision of Australia. Re-released in UQP’s Classics list.

The Yumba—an Aboriginal settlement—is home to Herbie, his brothers, sisters, relations and friends on the outskirts of town. From his back door the view of his playground stretches beyond the banks of the Warrego River—as far as the eye can see. In time Herbie takes to the saddle as a stockman, and travels beyond his beloved Yumba.

These poems pulse with the language and images of a mangrove-lined river city, the beckoning highway, the just-glimpsed muse, the tug of childhood and restless ancestors. For the first time, Samuel Wagan Watson’s poetry has been collected into this stunning volume, which includes a final section of all new work.

Told with a vivid, entertaining and authentic voice, this is a unique account of a dormitory girl’s life on the inside, at Queensland’s notorious Cherbourg Aboriginal Mission in the 1930s. Murri elder Ruth Hegarty writes for every stolen child—and in the great cause of Reconciliation.

The long-awaited sequel to the award-winning memoir
Is That You, Ruthie?.
Ruth journeys towards freedom by marrying Joe Hegarty and moving to a nearby settlement. Humour, a supportive circle of family and friends, and Ruth’s own resourcefulness prevail against the food rationing and housing and job shortages in the settlement, and eventually the Hegartys achieve the basics of a home for their growing family.

Vividly imagined, authentic in detail, with a forceful narrative and strong spiritual content, this novel heralds the arrival of an outstanding Australian fiction writer.