Aboriginal story a highlight for CWA

A talk by aboriginal author Marjorie Woodrow was the highlight of the Umina Beach branch of the Country Women's Association's 52nd Birthday and Cultural Day on Wednesday, April 9.

Mrs Woodrow told her story as one of "The Lost Generation".

"Marjorie spoke in a quiet and dignified manner to a very attentive and appreciative audience," said branch publicity officer Ms Clare Wren.

"She called her story 'Long Time Coming Home', the story of her search for her mother and members of her family."

Marjorie was taken from her mother in 1925 at the age of two.

She did not see her mother until 1993, 68 years later.

Marjorie recalled meeting her mother: "It was pouring rain when Dawn Johnson, a Health Worker from Queanbeyan, and I arrived at the Aboriginal community of Murrin Bridge on May 22, 1993.

"The sky was leaden grey and while my heart should have been gloriously happy, I felt mainly fearful and apprehensive.

"It was sixty-eight years since we had parted,-would she accept me?

"Would she really be my mother who I had been told was dead all those years ago.

"We were met by a man I found to be a nephew, Alan Johnson.

"He went up to an old, blue painted fibro house shouting: 'Aunty Ethel, your daughter's here.'

"She said: 'Come in out of the rain, boy. Don't stand out there in the rain'.

"As we walked into the house and into the main room he announced 'This is your daughter'.

"A tiny, very dark, slight, elderly woman with no shoes on sat on a little steel chair in front of the window close by the sink.

"She had a piece of old grey Government blanket across her knees.

"I later found she kept this piece of blanket as a constant reminder over the years of her lost children.

"'Come over here, girlie, don't be shy.'

"I was over 70 years old and this old lady must have been in her 90s.

"Then I asked 'Are you sure we're mother and daughter?'

"'Yes, we're mother and daughter'.

"Ethel was sure, but to satisfy herself even more she asked to look at my chest after the others had withdrawn to leave us alone.

"Sure enough there was the mark she and a friend had put on me when I was a baby, and the tiny scar still showed.

"She had done this because it was very common for Aboriginal children, especially those with lighter coloured skins to be taken away."

Marjorie's mother was Ethel Johnson, also known as Wyman.

Of her three brothers and one sister, she only ever met her younger brother Peter, known as Gooley Man.

Marjorie has published two books "The Lost Generation" and "Long Time Coming Home".

Clare Wren, April 30