2011 - Theses - Flinders University

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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 Oneof lime juice…I am eating a little, mainly soup, a little mutton, and bread and jam. Thecoffee is terrible: mostly I drink hot water.RMS Oruba, At sea, 31st OctoberWe are on our way now after putting in at Colombo. Our cabin’s become a home to a herdof elephants: little black ebony ones we all bought ashore, with tiny white tusks. The darkwood is so smooth when you run your fingers over it, you’d think it stone, only softer.These last days I managed to be up enough to get on with my chores: peeling potatoes,and mountains of them! The ship seems steadier, and people are beginning to smile againand anticipate Crossing the Line!RMS Oruba, At sea, 1st NovemberI must tell you about Divine Service today—All Saints Day—led by Capt. Jenks. Therewere enough hymnbooks amongst the passengers for us all to follow, and the favouritewas one from Sankey’s, ‘The Sweet By and By’. You know it? The words brought tears tomy eyes—perhaps I’m still a bit under the weather.‘There’s a land that is fairer than dayAnd by faith we can see it afar.For the Father waits over the way (we sang ‘waves’!)To prepare us a dwelling place there.In the sweet by and byWe shall meet on that beautiful shore.In the sweet by and byWe shall meet on that beautiful shore.’ 39Then someone wanted ‘O Come all ye Faithful’, which reminded us of Christmas, and ithas been a happy day ever since.RMS Oruba, At sea 4th NovemberWe ‘Crossed the Line’, as they say, and now the world is upside down. It started with avery funny play: two of our men from third—young Ralph Wittinall the bootmaker was gotup as ‘Young England in the Bush’ and showing us his pockets stuffed with coins.Meanwhile George Butt was ‘Old England, back home, starving’ in rags and emptypockets! 40 All the food is starting to smell the same, and gone hard, and if you walk pastthe door leading into the refrigerators you can feel quite light headed…RMS Oruba, At sea, 14th NovemberThere have been sports on deck, tug of war and the like, and some of us have even triedskipping with that great heavy rope they use! If I’d missed my turn it would have cut me intwo, I swear. 41 Lucky for me I’m only little, and still have strength to skip to a hundred!30
Our cabin is getting up a play called ‘Black Justice’ but I was shocked when the ladswere all for flogging the black even though the convict commits the dastardly deed. 42There are those on board who say Aborigines are vermin in Queensland and tell aboutmanhunts, and the Breelong murderers, saying that no white woman is safe outside thetowns from the violent blacks in Queensland. 43 One of the lads had an old paper hisfriends had sent out, and he gave me a clipping. It says:The nigger is a treacherous, lying, double-dealing, thieving black brute with no sensewhatever of honour, gratitude or fair play ... The writer never held a man guilty ofmurder who wiped out a nigger. They should be classed with the black snake and deathadder and be treated accordingly. 44 Queensland Herald, February 1907.I think some of the lads must be teasing me, because word of my ‘ambition’ has gotaround.RMS Oruba, At sea, 16th November…When I finish cutting the eyes and bruises out of the spuds, I volunteer for other choresin the kitchen, just to keep myself busy...I walk on the deck at evening to see the stars andtheir reflection in the water. I never saw them much before, only when the clouds partedand the barges on the Thames were still. It’s different: I haven’t seen the North star for afortnight, and the stars look all scattered without the constellations we learned at home.There is one the crew showed us that I can see now. It is called the Southern Cross, andthere’s two bright stars pointing to it. It is nice to think that a cross might hang overAustralia, like the spire of St Mary-le-Bow watched over the streets of the City of London.Like God watching over us, even if you do have to twist your head around to see it like aCross instead of a kite that’s crashed to the ground, because the constellation is somewhattilted. Strange: I’ll have no winter this year. I wonder if it ever seems like winter inAustralia?RMS Oruba, At sea 20th NovemberWe can see Fremantle, and the buildings look so close and pretty and pale like a child’sdrawing. We have been teasing each other in the cabin: we all heard, of course, thatAustralia is full of men wanting to marry, and tomorrow we shall have a look at some ofthem!RMS Oruba, Port of Fremantle, 22nd NovemberWe are back on board, after a glorious day in Fremantle! The lads disappeared in to thestreets to find the pubs, and we just walked about and watched the day begin, listening tothe strange accents in the shops, harsh, like a raven. I did hear a bird laughing, notsinging, and there really were black swans on the river, not white. I didn’t see anykangaroos, though, or any black faces amongst the hats and beards in the streets.…But don’t suppose it was like home, with all this talk of shops and pubs. Behind everybuilding and at the end of each street there was nothing, just open space all the way to thehills, or up the river, or out over the ocean, or up the beaches to the coast. One strangetree had thin leaves like saws and red flowers like hairbrushes!31
Page 1 and 2: 2011Thesis Title:White Lives in a B
Page 3 and 4: Section A Part 1: IntroductionRefer
Page 5 and 6: South Australia, fenced about by ra
Page 7 and 8: ‘That’s Rebecca, Rebecca Forbes
Page 9 and 10: isected Copley, where once everyone
Page 11 and 12: ackground while we talked and ignor
Page 13 and 14: from the Aborigines Act in 1950 and
Page 15 and 16: and Mum used to answer her back for
Page 18: White Lives in a Black Community: T
Page 21 and 22: Each record of the family tucked aw
Page 23 and 24: Pankhurst: it’s a slur on us, whe
Page 25 and 26: Acknowledgement to John Oxley Libra
Page 27 and 28: Becky reads the small notice again:
Page 29: take on for her. From the deck, she
Page 33 and 34: I have bitten my nails very short a
Page 35: Section B: IdentityRefer to Book 2
Page 39 and 40: ‘You hear of them Howells? Mrs Ho
Page 41 and 42: depending on the height of the rive
Page 43 and 44: horse, he looks past Edie, and Beck
Page 45 and 46: Winbar Station, 1913Sometimes, when
Page 47 and 48: They were married 17 January 1914 a
Page 49 and 50: …That’s what she was supposed t
Page 51 and 52: Reproduced from ‘Challenging the
Page 53 and 54: Aborigines suggesting he be commiss
Page 55 and 56: His is somewhere aware that others
Page 57 and 58: she has said. With uncharacteristic
Page 59 and 60: The organ, and Iris playing it, are
Page 61 and 62: He led me towards the hillsAnd the
Page 63 and 64: There is less reportage of what Ann
Page 65 and 66: Section D: MeetingsRefer to Book 2
Page 67 and 68: out of a dream and he says “Arra
Page 69 and 70: the dark serge of her shirt, her ar
Page 71 and 72: Nepabunna, Flinders Ranges, 2001On
Page 73 and 74: …they had a big story about that.
Page 75 and 76: Jim Page is on his way to Copley. S
Page 77 and 78: hurting yourself. Instead I say we
Page 79 and 80: and that bogey monster!’ He shive
Page 81 and 82:
‘Mrs Jack bloody Forbes, she call
Page 83 and 84:
‘That’s the track you want. Hun
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eginning or end. The land has swall
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Becky hears him, though. Not words,
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‘You’ll see. I’ll tell the ot
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‘Fred, Fred McKenzie. You’d be
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Jean giggles. ‘I’ll be too fast
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The missionaries came to us with no
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Section E: TransculturationsRefer t
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‘This would provide work for seve
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Before leaving the lectern, Duguid
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‘Well, it appears that this is an
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lamp, but makes his way in the dimn
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‘Hey, yaka! Not me, I’m too old
Page 109 and 110:
his faith was such that he kept his
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‘I’ve got a job on, Ted. Chief
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proceeds? Have you? Did you? Why? I
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eath away. 177 They said the eagle
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speak directly to him, she had know
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the fire with them, and their blast
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whose home this mission station has
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Photograph courtesy of Mary Woods.
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Nepabunna, December 20th 1935‘Mr
Page 127 and 128:
tomorrow,’ and he places a set of
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….Dad talked about that Mr. Page
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their way back when they got to Pat
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‘Nyanga nyanga. Nyanga: oh we did
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a number of half-castes outside the
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Signed by MC Rosewall, and CH Downe
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Mr Wyld said that on one occasion t
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Photograph courtesy of Tracy Spence
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liquid on the side of the pot, and
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Clara nods, feeling the old woman
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Gerard’s UAM(SA) Inc. , and cease
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I presume you know that the applica
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eturns to her hut to mourn in her d
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indeed. It will take all of Samuels
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wanting to attract their attention.
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his plans for the future etc. I kno
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…I think the people felt that whe
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Forbes became the exile, living bey
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the church, ‘Where I can keep an
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was good enough to send up the more
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The wedding between Bessie and Fred
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Nepabunna General cemetery, with co
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But now the wood stove is as cold a
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Forbes’s lips are moving, and she
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Hawker, 2003Sylvia Brady told me ab
Page 177 and 178:
at Copley for a quandong pie from t
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ealise, and imagine for a moment al
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together in Australia. You can’t
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Charlie JacksonMona JacksonRoger Jo
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College, Sydney Missionary Bible. "
Page 187 and 188:
Lewis, Eileen. Transcript of an Int
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Adnyamathanha people of the Flinder
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15 correspondents, 'Correspondence
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56 “…[Becky] was probably livin
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91 Williams, A Song in the Desert.
Page 197 and 198:
131 AP Elkin, ' Series 2 Box 9', Fi
Page 199 and 200:
172 Page, Correspondence to the Chi
Page 201 and 202:
213 Geary, M. (1950). Correspondenc
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2011 - Theses - Flinders University

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