transforming tindale a museum story in a library setting by michael aird adjunct associate lecturer...

“To me the Aboriginals of my early youth were no more than the people of the day, their numbers were in hundreds in our towns, their ways and living nothing to dwell upon. Today, to my children, they are a wonder and a mystery” (Thomas Welsby).

Edward Street, BrisbanePhoto by Thomas Bevan, 1860sCourtesy Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland

Kirwallie and Sarah with othersEdward Street, BrisbanePhoto by Thomas Bevan, 1860sCourtesy British Museum

Queen Street, Brisbane, 1867Photo by John WatsonNational Library of Australia Collection

Nudla Crowe, Nikki, Tundarum, Weerum, Buckner, Lucy, Nancy and Maria

Photo by William KnightGeorge Street, Brisbane, c.1862Courtesy British Museum

George Street, Brisbane, c.1862Photo by William KnightCourtesy Anthropology MuseumUniversity of Queensland

George Street, Brisbane, c.1862Photo by William KnightCourtesy British Museum

Edward Street, Brisbane, 1860sPhoto by Thomas BevanCourtesy Anthropology Museum University of Queensland

Kirwallie Sandy and othersPhoto by Thomas BevanEdward Street, Brisbane, 1860sCourtesy British Msueum

Kirwallie SandyGeorge Street, Brisbane, 1860sPhoto by Daniel MarquisCourtesy State Library of Queensland

Topsy and PeterGeorge Street, Brisbane, 1860sPhoto by Daniel MarquisCourtesy State Library of Queensland

Photo by Daniel MarquisGeorge Street, Brisbane, c.1870Courtesy National Gallery of Australia

Photo by Daniel Marquis82 George Street, Brisbane, 1866-70

Berliner Gesellschaft Collection

Photo by Daniel Marquis82 George Street, Brisbane, 1866-69Archer Family AlbumState Library of Queensland Collection

Maryborough, c.1900Photo Tosca StudioCourtesy Queensland Museum

Margaret BrownQueen Street, Brisbane, 1900-1910Courtesy Queensland Museum

Oscar Fristrom and othersBrisbane, c.1893Courtesy Queensland Museum

Jackey JackeyBeenleigh, 1893Photo by Will StarkCourtesy State Library of Queensland

William Williams, Emily Jackey and others. Hillview, 1907.Photo by Will Stark Courtesy State Library of Queensland

MaryClara Lilly Katie JohnClaude

EvaTed William HenryCecilia Eliza

“They shouldn’t of taken the photo because he was sick that day. We said to Dad, you shouldn’t get your photo taken ‘cause you are sick, but they wouldn’t listen to him and they made him sit there and took his photo. But Dad said, ‘doesn’t matter we will never see it again’. And we never, this is the first time I’ve seen it. We didn’t want Tindale to take this photo, but he went ahead. They took us all down to the sawmill, and they took the photos down there” (Rose Grogan, Daughter of Harry Grogan, Kowrowa, 12 June 2012).

“I was the last one born, so when I saw that year ’38, I said it can only be one fella and that is me, 1938 at Mona Mona. I was born on the 12th of September, eight days after this photo”

(Earl Levers, son of Lucy levers, Mareeba, 13 June 2012).

“They took all these pictures of people. They put their name down and like Dad, he came in single file, then another old brother came in single file, then other relations”

(Dudley Bostock, son of Dick Bostock 11 April 2012).

“When I first saw this photo of my Mum, I had never seen a photo of her young before. I could see the sadness in her. When I looked I could see suffering in those eyes and I cried and cried. I saw the pain”

(Jean Mosby, daughter of Topsy Warren, Aloomba, 13 June 2012).

“I first saw this photo in the 1990s, it was just a little tiny photo”

(Jennifer Cannon, daughter of Archie Fraser, Palm Island, 15 June 2012).

“My Auntie Rose Grogan, she was Rose Maytown and my mum was Doris Maytown, they were sisters. When they were taken away by the troopers from the Palmer River, Aunty Rose was in a tree and one of the troopers grabbed her and hit her in the side of the face with the butt of a rifle and she was taken to Mona Mona. My mum was shot in the right leg by the troopers of that time. So she limped her whole life.

She told me a couple of times. All the family that came with her told us the same story. But she had a limp, she had a big limp. Everybody knew about her limp from the wound that she had. She never dwelled on it. She told people, but she never dwelled on it. Rose her sister was in the tree, Mum was running, this is what she told us, she was running to save her younger brother Peter, but he was shot and their mother was shot. My grandmother, Mary Palmer was shot and killed and Peter was killed.  When they took them away, they took them in different lots. The eldest ones went first, then the second group and Mum was part of the third group. Mum arrived in Yarrabah wearing just a little white singlet, she was about five years old. She was still wounded when she arrived. She had to walk from Maytown to Cooktown, that’s what she told us. Then they put them on a mission boat to Cairns. When she arrived at Yarrabah she went straight into the dormitory” (Flo Watson, daughter of Doris Choikee, Brisbane, 3 July 2012).  

“Willie Goodchap he was a really nice old man, he was very quite. I never heard him raise his voice. He was just a really nice man. He was a lot older than Aunty Elsie, he was just a terrific old bloke. Tom Conlon was the same, very un-assuming, Granny Conlon used to boss him around… Oh I could tell you a lot about the old lady” (Chad Morgan. great-grandson of Annie Conlon, Brisbane, 28 June 2012).

The Tindale Symposium