Riggs explained to the Cartwrights.
“We understand,” said Mrs Cartwright, “we’ll see you when you’re in the district. Have a safe trip home.”
“Thank you. I’d better get going,” he said. “The women must have finished their breakfast by now, so I’ll go down and pick them up. Thanks again for your hospitality.”
Grace’s mother, old Granny Frinda and other relations in the camp began to wail and cry.
“Worrah, Worrah! He take ’em way, my grannies [granddaughters], wailed the old lady, as she bent down with great difficulty and picked up a billy can and brought it down heavily on her head. She and the rest of the women began to wail louder, their hearts now burdened with sadness of the girls’ departure and the uncertainty of ever seeing them again. The girls were also weeping. The wailing grew louder as the vehicle that was taking them away headed towards the gate. Each girl felt the pain of being torn from their mothers’ and grandmothers’ arms.”
As the car disappeared down the road, old Granny Frinda lay crumpled on the red dirt calling for her granddaughters and cursing the people responsible for their abduction. In their grief the women asked why their children should be taken from them. Their anguished cries echoed across the flats, carried by the wind. But no one listened to them, no one heard them.
A couple of hours after the three girls had been driven away, Gracie’s mother, distraught and angry, was still sitting on the ground rocking back and forth. Maude and her brother-in-law had ridden over in a horse and cart to discuss the distressing news and stayed to comfort and support each other. Some time later, she calmed down enough to hurl a mouth full of abuse at Alf Fields, Gracie’s white father, who was standing silently near the galvanised irontank. She screamed at him in Aboriginal English and Mardu wangku, and beat his chest with her small fists.
“Why didn’t you stop them?” she cried out in anger and frustration.
“I couldn’t stop them taking my daughter—yes, she is my daughter too,” he said sadly. He was so proud of his beautiful black-haired daughter whom he had named after his idol, English singer Gracie Fields.
He tried to explain to her mother that the patrol officer was a government representative and an officer of the Crown. Had he interfered or tried to stop the man he would have been arrested and put in gaol and charged with obstructing the course of justice. Gracie’s mother didn’t listen.
“You are a white man too, they will listen to you. Go and talk to them,” she pleaded softly.
“I am sorry but I can’t do anything to stop them taking our daughter away from us,” he said finally.
She couldn’t accept his excuse or forgive him for just standing by and doing nothing to prevent their daughter from being taken away from them. She packed up and moved to Wiluna.
6
The Journey South
The three girls were not used to rising before dawn so they settled down in the car and fell asleep. When they opened their eyes they realised that they had slept longer than they expected. They had passed through Ethel Creek and Roy Hill stations and were on the main road to Nullagine, which was an unsealed dirt track, full of pot holes and fine red bull dust that seemed to fill the car.
They were so exhausted they couldn’t cry anymore and they spoke only in whispers and sign language.
Except for a curt, “You girls awright back there!” the policeman didn’t speak to them or tell the girls where he was taking them. All they knew was that they were going to the settlement to go to school. The rain clouds were gathering and by the time they reached the bend where large grey boulders loomed above on either side of the road, the sky was black with rain clouds. Riggs glanced up at the dark clouds, while his passengers in the back sat silently watching the landscape change as they passed through it. They paid no attention to the beautiful scenery or the
“We understand,” said Mrs Cartwright, “we’ll see you when you’re in the district. Have a safe trip home.”
“Thank you. I’d better get going,” he said. “The women must have finished their breakfast by now, so I’ll go down and pick them up. Thanks again for your hospitality.”
Grace’s mother, old Granny Frinda and other relations in the camp began to wail and cry.
“Worrah, Worrah! He take ’em way, my grannies [granddaughters], wailed the old lady, as she bent down with great difficulty and picked up a billy can and brought it down heavily on her head. She and the rest of the women began to wail louder, their hearts now burdened with sadness of the girls’ departure and the uncertainty of ever seeing them again. The girls were also weeping. The wailing grew louder as the vehicle that was taking them away headed towards the gate. Each girl felt the pain of being torn from their mothers’ and grandmothers’ arms.”
As the car disappeared down the road, old Granny Frinda lay crumpled on the red dirt calling for her granddaughters and cursing the people responsible for their abduction. In their grief the women asked why their children should be taken from them. Their anguished cries echoed across the flats, carried by the wind. But no one listened to them, no one heard them.
A couple of hours after the three girls had been driven away, Gracie’s mother, distraught and angry, was still sitting on the ground rocking back and forth. Maude and her brother-in-law had ridden over in a horse and cart to discuss the distressing news and stayed to comfort and support each other. Some time later, she calmed down enough to hurl a mouth full of abuse at Alf Fields, Gracie’s white father, who was standing silently near the galvanised irontank. She screamed at him in Aboriginal English and Mardu wangku, and beat his chest with her small fists.
“Why didn’t you stop them?” she cried out in anger and frustration.
“I couldn’t stop them taking my daughter—yes, she is my daughter too,” he said sadly. He was so proud of his beautiful black-haired daughter whom he had named after his idol, English singer Gracie Fields.
He tried to explain to her mother that the patrol officer was a government representative and an officer of the Crown. Had he interfered or tried to stop the man he would have been arrested and put in gaol and charged with obstructing the course of justice. Gracie’s mother didn’t listen.
“You are a white man too, they will listen to you. Go and talk to them,” she pleaded softly.
“I am sorry but I can’t do anything to stop them taking our daughter away from us,” he said finally.
She couldn’t accept his excuse or forgive him for just standing by and doing nothing to prevent their daughter from being taken away from them. She packed up and moved to Wiluna.
6
The Journey South
The three girls were not used to rising before dawn so they settled down in the car and fell asleep. When they opened their eyes they realised that they had slept longer than they expected. They had passed through Ethel Creek and Roy Hill stations and were on the main road to Nullagine, which was an unsealed dirt track, full of pot holes and fine red bull dust that seemed to fill the car.
They were so exhausted they couldn’t cry anymore and they spoke only in whispers and sign language.
Except for a curt, “You girls awright back there!” the policeman didn’t speak to them or tell the girls where he was taking them. All they knew was that they were going to the settlement to go to school. The rain clouds were gathering and by the time they reached the bend where large grey boulders loomed above on either side of the road, the sky was black with rain clouds. Riggs glanced up at the dark clouds, while his passengers in the back sat silently watching the landscape change as they passed through it. They paid no attention to the beautiful scenery or the
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