2011 - Theses - Flinders University

White Lives in a Black Community: The lives of Jim Page and Rebecca Forbes in the Adnyamathanha communityTracy SpencerVolume One Creative Writing Component: Excerpted Chapters from Volume Three Appendix OneAt about 11am on this date, Mr Page came to me and said, ‘I am going away this morningand I want you to take charge of the Mission, also, I want you to issue the people here withthe ‘Christmas Shout’ of rations tomorrow.’ Mr Page then handed me the keys of thestoreroom, also a glass jar containing money, but he did not say how much money was injar (Money counted and found to be $14.0.6)I said to Mr Page, ‘I won’t say goodbye, Mr Page, because I hope that you will soon comeback to the Mission.’Mr Page kept repeating, ‘I can’t go down; The Lord has left me and my spirit has gone.’At times, Mr Page did not seem right in his head.I do not associate with the other people here, and I do not know if Mr Page was veryfriendly with the young girls or not.When I visited Mr Page for rations, I always took someone else with me.THOMAS ROSEWALL:- Mounted Constable, stationed at Beltana, states:-In consequence of a report received from George Lewis at Copley, on this date, incompany of Sister Trevilion and Yourself (Coroner) I proceeded to Copley, thenaccompanied by yourself, I proceeded to the three roomed cottage of James Page atNepabunna Mission, which mission is about 62 miles distant from Beltana. At about 7pm,in your presence I entered the above mentioned cottage, and found the dead body of amiddle-aged man, dressed in trousers, shirt and boots, with arms folded across chest, and ablood soaked bandage around throat.The dead body was lying on the flag stoned floor of the kitchen of the above cottage, andthere was also an open blood stained razor lying on a table quite close to corpse. Therewas also a large pool of blood on floor near corpse. Not any of the furniture in room wasdisarranged, neither was their any sign of a struggle having taking place in any of the threerooms. I removed the bandage on throat sufficiently to see a gaping wound about fourinches long across front of throat, which showed that the wind pipe had been severed.There were no other marks of violence to be seen on the body of the deceased. In yourpresence I searched the body of the deceased, also the three rooms where the body wasfound, but was not able to find any evidence that would show the reason for deceased tocommit suicide, neither was I able to find any person who actually saw James Page cut histhroat. Money to the value of $15.0.0 was found in bedroom of deceased. I questionedNellie Driver but was not able to elicit any information from her, except that ‘Mr Page wasvery friendly with the big girls at Nepabunna Mission.’ I have attached a letter datedAugust 1935, signed by VE Turner, and concerning the deceased, such letter having beenfound in bedroom of deceased on this date.136