Florence Falls

Marjory Doyle

Description

I once heard a talk by Elie Wiesel, a Jewish holocaust survivor, who said, "For the dead and the living I must bear witness". I feel that this has become my task also.
This book of short stories is based on real people and real life experiences, as well as real places. The stories are about First Nations’ people of Australia, especially in locations in and around Queensland’s Gold Coast region.

Sujets

• Aboriginal
• Aborigine
• Short Stories
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press AU
• Date de parution: 19 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781982295639
• Langue: English

Extrait

FLORENCE FALLS
Marjory Doyle



 
Copyright © 2022 Marjory Doyle.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
Balboa Press
A Division of Hay House
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.balboapress.com.au
AU TFN: 1 800 844 925 (Toll Free inside Australia)
AU Local: [phone] ([phone] from outside Australia)
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK.
 
 
 
ISBN: 978-1-9822-9562-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-9822-9563-9 (e)
 
Balboa Press rev. date:  09/09/2022

Contents
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Preface
 
Florence Falls
The Dreaming Place
The River of Dreams
The Quilt
Starting School
Being There
Oh Lord What a Morning
The Sand Garden
Mary Joins the Bowls Club
The Times They Are A’ Changing
A Photograph Long Forgotten
The Colour Of Love
Whatever Is Broken Can Be Fixed
Picking Up the House
Unidentified Flying Min-Min Light
Sharlene
The Past Is Always with Us
Roland’s Dream
Frances
The Angel at the Police Station
Special Treatment
Three Sheets to The Wind
The Mayor of Florence Falls
Setting Sail
The Healing Journey
Maeve
The Tea Trees of Florence Falls

Acknowledgements
Thanks and appreciation to my relative, Kym Yuke for her invaluable insight into our family history, and thanks also to Silvana McKain for her technical advice through every stage of the writing process.

Dedication
To my mother Mibrie Myora Heath
(1915 – 2005)

Preface
This book was written over two years, but really it has been the story I have been waiting to tell my whole life. The stories are about the First Peoples of this land, as we have now come to be known. Many years ago, I heard a talk by the renowned Jewish author, holocaust survivor and anti-genocide campaigner, Mr. Elie Wiesel (1928 to 2016) who wrote
“ For the dead and the living, I must bear witness”.
These words stayed with me, and so I began to write down all the stories of the First People’s I learned about. These stories mostly included my own family stories, told to me by my grandmother and my mother. Other stories are about my own deeply personal experiences with internalised racism, and the book also includes, stories of many other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, all of whom have a unique experience to share. Soon, I could see a pattern emerging. Mostly these are women’s stories, although some are about Aboriginal men.
I like to think my work was informed by Whitney Otto, the American author of “How to Make an American Quilt”, though that might be a stretch, comparing my own work to such a great book, for it too is all about women’s stories.
My book is inhabited by real people. The experiences contained really happened. The places really exist. I have merely taken poetic license where I felt it was needed. People’s names have been changed, and place names have been changed.
It is my purpose to “bear witness” to what we have been through as a people, how we have survived against all the odds, and not only that but we are resilient and have much to teach others about living in this land we all call home. We go back as a people, 60,000 years into deep time. We have always been here.

Florence Falls

After a long absence I have returned home to Florence Falls. This journey back to my country has been a journey back to my past, and perhaps my future as well. My soul is aflame with possibilities and the present is exciting, more than I ever felt possible at my age and each moment is filled with wonder. Perhaps the best is yet to be.
My name is Pearl Miller. Let me tell you a little of Florence Falls and about myself. Florence Falls is a town not far south of Brisbane near the coast of Queensland. It was named after a pioneering woman called Florence McKenzie who settled in the area in the 1860s. There was once a waterfall not far from here, just outside the town near a gorge. Nobody living today can remember when the waterfall last flowed. It is thought that back in the time of Gondwanaland there was thick rainforest all through this region.
Of course, a lot has changed over the years of the town’s history. Barney’s Bait and Tackle where my grandmother once worked is now boarded up and closed. The two hotels are still open for business. My mother first worked at the Angler’s Arms as a girl of thirteen and some my relatives did some serious drinking in their time at the Cecil Hotel. Alice Lee, the proprietor of the Ho-Hum Chinese restaurant is old now, so her son manages it for her. The Lee family history in Florence Falls goes back to the time when old Mr. Lee, Alice’s grandfather, had started a market garden in the town.
Many of my relatives are the backbone of this community, working in the hospitality and fishing industries. Before Florence Falls even existed, my people lived in this place. The area is part of our traditional homeland, our secret history which is just now coming to light. I never learned anything about this fact at school. Today I am proud to say I am a First Nation’s person as we are now called.
As a girl, I never heard any of my relatives talk about these things either; now I understand the reasons for their silence. The Queensland Parliament passed the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 1 and this had disastrous repercussions on all Aboriginal peoples down through the generations.
Like other Australians my relatives just wanted to live in peace in their own country, to be able to earn a living and raise their families. Yet fear of having their children taken from them was a very real possibility. Every Aboriginal person came under ‘the Act’ as it became known. Survival made it necessary to keep quiet about one’s racial origins and cultural identity.
I remember as a child of the 1960s, that television had just come to our home. As a small girl I would watch the old westerns showing Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane and I too wanted to ride across wide open plains on a horse.
Little did I know back in the 1960s that these were archetypes of a dominant culture, one which had almost destroyed the native American populations. I did not know then, that I was part of an ancient lineage going back 60,000 years. I was never taught to be proud of who I was or where I came from.
Even today, in Florence Falls, many people would rather I forget that I am Aboriginal, while others never let me forget. I can laugh about it now, but it can hurt your feelings if you let it. In certain outback regions of Australia, black opal is to be found, the most expensive opal in the world. Sometimes it is mixed with other colours such as fiery reds. The black streak running through it is unmistakable. It resembles obsidian. It is distinctive and unique.
I am named after a precious jewel hewn from the oyster shell. Yet, I like to think that although a pearl, I am also like the black opal, shot through with the thing that makes it unique with its distinctive colour. I too can trace my lineage back 60,000 years on this continent, and at last it is something I can claim with pride. It is a part of who I am.
A different picture is starting to emerge today, than in previous generations, which makes me happy. Of course, there are still voices from the past. Old Mrs. Patterson is descended from the first pioneers who settled in the district. She still espouses the view that the Aboriginal people were lazy, idle people who did not utilise the land properly and were not able to ‘profit’ from it.
Her view was the dominant one shared by most white Australians in the past. Most people have never realised that everyone of us is subject, not only to Australian law, but to the law of the land itself. All across the nation, as droughts, bushfires and floods sometimes threaten all that we hold dear, people are listening to the ancient voices once again, as they inform us how we may work with the land rather than ‘manage’ it.
Mrs. Patterson’s granddaughter, Sally does not agree with the views of her grandmother’s. This young woman represents a different generation and so there is hope for Florence Falls. It is Sally, the part-time craft teacher employed by St. Luke’s Church who encourages local women to meet each week. Sally is also a social worker though sh