Giving voice to the voiceless oral history collection

Donna Elliot, born in 1959, was part of the Stolen Generation. She was removed from her mother at age 2 and was later fostered to a Dutch family who had immigrated to Australia in 1953. She was told her biological mother no longer wanted her. She stayed with this family throughout her childhood and has great fondness for her foster mother. She married and when pregnant with her first child became aware of a kidney problem which led her to seek her biological mother. This was difficult for Donna and she only sought medical information at this point. As her kidneys deteriorated, she developed a new understanding about the stolen generation. This led her initiate new contact with her biological mother and slowly a positive relationship developed. Donna now has a sense of belonging to both her biological family and her Aboriginal culture (Campbell Clan, traditional owners, Kempsey region). She is still in regular contact with both her mothers.

Mem Spackman was born in a small village in north east Thailand that contained her entire family. It was an environment where bike riding could take you wherever you needed and where you helped the family at home or at the family farm during school lunch breaks and outside of school hours. After finishing high school, she moved to Bangkok and worked in a factory enjoying the change in lifestyle. She stayed there until she met her husband, then moved out of the city to her husband’s small village which was very similar to her own. She had two children before returning to Bangkok to work. She immigrated to Cairns, Australia, ca. 2001, and moved straight to Julatten where her husband’s parents were located. The biggest barriers she found were language, understanding and communicating English and the isolation, being unable to drive, as she was too far away from Cairns to bike.

Ted Thorburn’s mother was a Torres Strait Islander, his father Caucasian. He lost most of his sight in the late 1990s when resources for vision impaired people in Far North Queensland regional areas were stretched with no blind or vision impaired organisation north of Townsville apart from the Guide Dogs Association until ca. 2002. Since then has spent a lot of time working towards Aboriginal and community needs. Projects and plans for 2009 include being involved with the Access and Equity Committee, Cairns Regional Council and contributing to Vision Australia through voluntary work with vision impaired people teaching them how to use speech programs on computers.  

Letizia De Rosa was born in Australia to Italian parents. Her parents immigrated to Australia separately before meeting ca. 1950/1951. Her father was hard working driven by a desire to not be poor again and built part-time one of the first boarding houses in Cairns, the De Rosa building, on 33 Grafton St. Her father had more difficulty putting down roots then her mother who was perhaps “buffered” by her siblings who immigrated with her. At school Letizia was perceived as being different with a darker skin tone, foreign name and different lunches etc. During the interview Letizia talks about the “never to return home syndrome” suffered by many migrants and the feelings of displacement felt by many Australian born children of immigrants.  

Upasana Papadopoulos was born in Australia to Greek/Cypriot parents. Her parents immigrated to Australia separately in the 1950s and settled in Melbourne. Her mother had more trouble finding her feet than her father who was more adventurous and entrepreneurial. Life in Australia was difficult for her parents as they felt that they didn’t really belong to Cyprus anymore yet didn’t really belong to Australia and Upasana suffered racism at school. Upasana talks about her father’s travel agency, her parent’s feelings as they watched their culture disappear and about how she left home to attend university, a decision which was made without the initial support of her father.

Clara Ogilvie is a Kuku-yalanji Aboriginal elder who was born in Daintree and is a rare albino aboriginal. She lived the first 2-3 years with her people and in ca. 1942-1943 at age ca. 2-3 was placed in a girl’s dormitory. One of 33 other girls she felt ostracised and bullied by the other Aboriginal girls. When the dormitory closed she was sent to live with her parents. She had an unhappy life there as her parents disliked her and was afraid to talk to white people. She has since got over this fear and has contributed to the community. She has taught herself to play the guitar and write songs some of which are available to listen to in the interview.  

Elizabeth Lang lived in a small village in southern Germany before moving to the city of Frankfurt ca. 1957. After finishing school, she undertook an apprenticeship at a large pharmaceutical company learning office and marketing skills. Following this she found employment at several different places including the American Express Travel Office in the American Military Office Rhein-Main Air Base, Scandinavian Airlines, Varig Brazillian Airlines and Argentine Airlines. She fell in love with an Australian doctor and immigrated to Townsville, Australia in 1995. She has since remarried and is currently working as an assistant in nursing at the Aged Care Facility, Mossman Hospital.  

Waluway Lyttle is a Torres Strait Islander born in a small village close to the Torres Strait in what is now Papua New Guinea. She moved to Mossman following high school, married and had children. She was interested in social work and initially started working with youth and young offenders in Adelaide before changing direction slightly and working with families. Since then she has worked on many different projects including setting up a health service in Cooper Pedy to serve the nearby Aboriginal community which became a model that was used nationwide to educate indigenous health workers.  

Alex Lyall was a Kuku-yalanji Aboriginal born in Daintree and raised on his father’s dairy farm there. At age 13 he left school to work briefly on his father’s farm before to work at a station in Mount Molloy for 2 ½ years. His dreams were to ride horses and chase cattle and he achieved this working with stock in a variety of places.  He was not fond of big towns and cities preferring the bush. He talks about his experiences droving and his trip to The Royal Brisbane Show (The EKKA) in 1955. Alex Lyall has since passed away.