Some of the personal names included in this book have been changed or only first names included to protect the privacy of those concerned
To My Family How deprived we would have been if we had been willing to let things stay as they were We would have survived but not as a whole people We would never have known our place
1 SOMEONELIKE ME I was fifteen when I first realised that my family was Aboriginal Until then I had believed Iwas Indian for that waswhat mymotherand Nan mygrandmother hadalways said Iwas the eldest offive children My father died when I was nine years old and my mother wasleft to bring us up Nan my grandmother lived with us as well Helen my youngest sister wasonlyeighteen monthswhen myfather died Myother sister wasJill and Ihad twobrothers David and Billy Our home wasa rented house in a working-classsuburb ofPerth We hada warm Iovlng family allveryclose toone another I shall never forget the day I came home rom school to find Nan sitting at the kitchen table crying I froze in the doorway I'd never seen her cry before Nan what's wrong I asked She liftedup one armandthumped her clenchedfist hard on the table You kids don't want me you want a white grandmother I'm black Do you hear black black black With that she pushed back her chair and hurried to her room I never did find out what had upset her so I think it II
wasall todo with us growing upand not being little kids any longer I remember how I continued to stand in the doorway I could feel the strap ofmy heavyschool-bag cutting into my shoulder but 1was too stunned to remove it For the first time in my fifteen years I was conscious of Nan's colouring She was right she wasn't white Well I thought logically ifshe wasn't white then neither were we what did that make us what did that make me I had never thought of myself as being black before Iwas veryexcited bymy new heritage and ever since that day I had been trying to find out more about our family My mother wouldn't openly admit the fact that we were part Aboriginal until I was at University and then the truth slipped out by accident in the middle of a conversation one day Since then she'd become as eager as I was to find out about our people After I married I still saw my family nearly every day Therewere such strong bonds between us it was impossible to see them Just as well Paul my for me not to want husband was the uncomplaining sort Though in fact he fitted into our familyvery well I had married Paul Morgan in 1971 whileIwasat University Paulwasa teacher He had spent his childhood in the north-west of Western Australia his parents were missionaries When he was thirteen they had moved to Perth to start a hostel for mission children who came to the city to attend high school At that time Paul spoke only pidgin English he'd had a hard time adjusting to his new life at first We now had three children Our daughter Ambelin was born in 1975 and we had two sons Blaze born in 1977 and Zeke born five years later In 1979 I had decided to write a book about our family history My mother was very willing to help me but my grandmother hadalways been very secretiveabout her past She absolutely refused to talk about it I knew I couldn't expect any help from her I had already recorded the remi niscences ofNan's brother myCreat-uncleArthur Corunna He completed his story just before he died I knew that he 12
