Station+Life+-+Marcia

Marcia Friend

  ** __Introduction __ ** Through a study of station life in the Kimberley our understanding of race relations and the frontier are enhanced. The references chosen are aimed to emphasise the variety of resources available. They were chosen in order to encompass broad perspectives and experiences of station life in the Kimberley, including Indigenous and non-indigenous and to cover a broad time period representing the history and contemporary times.  ** __Non- Indigenous Resources __ ** ** __Interview with Elizabeth Durack __ ** ** Hughes, R. (interviewer), & Durack, E. (interviewee). (1997, September 3) Elizabeth Durack [interview transcript]. Retrieved April 2011 from http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/durack/interview1.html ** An interview of Elizabeth Durack (1915-2000) by the Australian Autobiography project provides a detailed account of her experiences of station life. Elizabeth and her family are of Irish decent and owned and managed many Kimberley stations including Ivanhole, Argyle, Newry, Auvergne and Bullita. Elizabeth grew up frequently visiting these stations so provides a unique account of station life as experienced by a child, and later as a woman. Elizabeth speaks of her past relationships with Aboriginal people and what she learnt about land, culture and art.   There where the red plain stretches to the river And the bank is furrowed by flood and the feet of the herds Where acacias dip to the changing brink of the water And the age-old rocks are the preening place of birds, You had borne and shed the fruit of your countless seasons <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">From fortunate seed to tree of mighty girth <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Where the dream-folk met sometimes for the fore-telling <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">In chanted treasure of a race more bold <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Than they - pale skinned - the conquerors of earth. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">And when we came - we were young then - believing <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Those limitless prospects of the coming years, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Yet time it seemed old tree, the stars of heaven <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Clung to your branches like a fall of tears. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">We saw you as a friendly monument <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">When, with perhaps some dream of future fame, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">(for we were not the travellers come so far  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Like eastern prophets following a star?) - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">We carved into your bark each man his name. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">And so the years passed and one by one <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">We ceased to gather in your ample shade, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">For some had passed into the deeper shadows <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">And some had gone where fortunes might be made. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">So much for hopes we cherished when your blossoms <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Waved on the wind intoxicating sweet <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">til every hardship wore a garment splendid <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">That hangs forlornly now the dream has ended <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Our far horizons shrunk about our feet. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">You would remain - part of that lonely landscape - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">So we believed, though we came back no more <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">And nature with unsentimental fingers <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Strove to efface the names you staunchly bore. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Was it disenchantment you surrendered <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Growth of a thousand seasons fruit and leaf <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">To the embrace of that consuming fire <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Blazing your branches to a funeral pyre, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Leaving a heap of ashes, grey and grief? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">W.A Bush Poets (2010) // The Boab tree. //Retrieved April 2011 from http://www.wabushpoets.com/pastpoets/durack/boabtree.html ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Mary Durack (Elizabeth’s sister) transferred a story from her father into a poem of truth and meaning. Mary flawlessly incorporates Indigenous and non- indigenous differing relationships with the land. Mary also suggests that the pastoralist industry in the Kimberley was not what was hoped by the many non-indigenous people who swarmed to the Kimberley looking for fortune. From this we begin to understand the non indigenous perspectives during the pastoral frontier. ** __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Newspaper Article- // Kimberley Blacks. Work on Stations // __ ** ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Special Representative (1934) Kimberley Blacks. Work on Stations. Western Mail (Thursday 22 Novemeber 1934) Retrieved April 2011 from Australia Trove: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37707665?searchTerm=stations in the kimberley&searchLimits= ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This newspaper article explorers the expanding pastoral industry in the Kimberley in 1934. It provides an insight into the era’s non indigenous perspectives and ideologies in relation to Aboriginal people and the effects of colonisation. Although the perspective is racist and overtly paternalistic, realisations such as the low level of understanding about Aboriginal people was noteworthy. This article, unlike that of Elizabeth and Mary’s doesn’t incorporate experiences or evoke empathy from the reader, it does however represent the broader societies ideologies at the time, held by people who had not had direct experience with Aboriginal people or station life. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> ** __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Indigenous Resources __ ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 8.5pt;"> ** __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Video clip Mervyn Street- // I am an Artist. I come from the bush. // __ ** ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ABC Kimberley (2011) // I am an Artist. I come from the bush //. Retrieved April 2011 from **[|**http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2011/04/06/3184025.htm**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Mervyn Street speaks about his memories growing up on Louisa Downs and how he integrates his history in to his artwork. Mervyn speaks highly of his time spent on the station but does acknowledge the hardships. Mervyn makes clear his strong relationship with the land when speaking of his birthplace but this relationship with his country must have experienced turbulence as the station now is a bare resemblance of the station he so foudly paints and speaks of. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">﻿ // __** // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Blackfe // **** // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">lla- Whitefella  // **** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> by Freddie Timms (1999)  **__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">__﻿__ ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Image retrieved from ** National Gallery of Australia (2010) // Freddie Timms //. Retrieved from ** ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[] ** ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Raft Artspace (2002) Timms Freddie. Retrieved from [|http://www.raftartspace.com.au/freddie.html] **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[|Freddie] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">﻿ ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Taylor, P. (1988) Fitzroy Crossing. In P. Taylor (Eds) // After 200 Years Photographic Essays of Aboriginal and Islander Australia Today // (p. 143- 163) Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This chapter on Fitzroy Crossing provides a detailed recount of the history of the Kimberley. Fitzroy Crossing was a town established during the pastoral frontier and has been directly influenced by it ever since. This photographic essay is a creative way of incorporating history and various Indigenous people’s experiences. The essay also explores the contemporary lives of people who left their home lands as a result of the equal wages grant and decreased available work, who have now reclaimed their traditional lands. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> ** __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Conclusion __ ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This selection of resources captures the essence of station life in the Kimberley through unique resources. Through a comprehensive comparison each source can be seen as valuable to contributing to our understanding.
 * <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> ** __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Mary Durack’s Poem // The Boab Tree // (1935) __ ** ||  ||