Link-Up (Qld) client Christine Doyle gave the following speech at Link-Up (Qld)’s Sorry Day event in 2017.
Listen:
Transcript (auto-generated):
My name is Christine Doyle. I was born in Cloncurry and lived in Dajarra and grew up in Boulia. My mother was from two tribes, East Arrernte in the Northern Territory and Wanggumara on the border of Queensland.
My mother was born at One Mile on the bank of the Burke River in Boulia. She had 12 children. Around the time of the 60s and 70s, Mum took me and some of my siblings back to her country to meet her two sisters, Nancy, Muriel and our brother David, for the first time.
It was here that she told us the story that she had another daughter who was born in between Nancy and Muriel and that her name was Audrey Lyons. Mum spoke often of Audrey to us children. Mum said that Audrey was taken away from her that she didn’t know if she was still living.
She talked to a child welfare mob and told them her story and they said they would try and help her. Mum received a phone call one day and was told that Audrey had passed away. However, Mum didn’t want to believe and kept hoping that one day Audrey would come back home to meet her family.
In the last year of Mum’s life, she still believed that Audrey was around and that she would see her. Sadly, Mum passed away on the 2000 without finding her lost daughter and died of a broken heart. She was 80 years old.
I spoke to Link-Up (Qld) in August 2015. I’d forgotten all about it until the new counsellor rang me last year. Desley gave me some of the information the researchers had found about my sister. In the meantime, I had met one of Audrey’s children, Shannon Booyah.
She was on another reunion organised by the Link-Up South Australia. Not long after that, I’ve got a phone call from Audrey’s son, Anthony, who lived in Sydney. It’s Sydney. Seems like we were being guided to connect.
Audrey was born at an Aboriginal camp reserve at Boulia. At a young age, Audrey was taken while Mum was at work and she was placed in the care of her mother’s employers, Mr. and Mrs. A.R. Clarence of Two Rivers Station.
They later relocated to Sydney and took Audrey with them. Audrey had three children, Anthony, Gillian and Shan. She’d passed away on the 11th of February, 1990 and was buried at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park in Sydney.
Desley started planning a reunion for me and my support person, my sister Corinne, to go to Sydney to visit Audrey’s resting place, to meet two of her children, Anthony and Gillian. In the months leading up to the reunion, there was regular fine contacts with Anthony and Gillian.
Corinne and I were both excited when we left Mount Heiser on the 5th of December. On our journey on the first day we had a family meeting with Anthony and Gillian and I shared our family tree and family information as well as the photos of our mothers and mother and siblings.
We told them that they have over 200 relatives. Anthony and Jill provided photos of Audrey, christening days, wedding days and as a mother and wife of her own family. They told us that the Clarence family gave Audrey a good life and that she was loved and cared for.
They said that their mother knew she had family in Boulia but she’d never made it back there. The following day we went to Satinery Park for breakfast and Anthony and Gill took us to look at the houses where, house where Audrey grew up, saw the church where she got married and the funeral service and her funeral service and the college she attended.
We then visit Audrey’s grave and it started sprinkling and Corinne and I became emotional because the rain is significant to us. Our grandfather was one of the rain makers, he was one of the dancers who made rain.
That was really very emotional with us because most of our family that we buried, we had rain on those days because our mother’s dreaming as the fish, the black bream, will be. I broke down and cried of all my brothers and sisters.
There’s only three of us left today and we never had Audrey’s funeral when she passed away but I saw all my other brothers and sisters first so I’m very emotional about this. I’m very sorry, just keep reading on.
This is the one that we all missed out on. It was wonderful to be with Anthony and Gillian and my sister Corinne and to support each other during this Emotion time. Though it was a sad time, a sense of peace washed over, visited in Audrey’s resting place.
They also visited the Australian National Museum and saw some Aboriginal artefacts from Boulia and the Dajarra there. This was a significant cultural learning experience for Gillian and Anthony and his daughter Jacinta.
Jacinta and Corinne have similar facial features and expressions so there is a strong family resemblance. Plans have started for Anthony and Gillian to visit Boulia to meet the rest of the family. It was so good that Bethel Clay helped us to get started on our journey and then Desley and Chris took us on our reunion.
Many thanks to Link-Up (Qld) and also to Anthony and Gillian. Corinne and I appreciate all the hard work put into this wonderful journey.
Published May 2017.
