Australian Society of Archivists
1999 Conference

My Experience with Accessing Queensland Government Records

Loris Williams

I would first like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the Aboriginal group, who belong to the land on which this building stands.

My name is Loris Williams and I have strong family links to two Aboriginal groups, the Mulinjali of Beaudesert in South East Queensland, through my father, and the Birri Gubba people of Ayr in North Queensland through my mother.

I have always known that I belonged to the Mulinjali Aboriginal group because my father spoke often about his homeland of Beaudesert and of his family who came from that area. However, my mother rarely spoke about Cherbourg, the Aboriginal settlement that she was born and raised on, and as children we did not question her. We knew the names of her parents and her brothers and assumed they had always been at Cherbourg.

It was not until about fifteen years ago, when my sister commenced a university course with an Aboriginal Studies Unit that we began to fully understand the true history of the Queensland Aboriginal people. We learned about the legislations that governed the lives of the Aboriginal people, how they were removed from their traditional homelands and placed on these specially formed Aboriginal settlements.

We questioned our mother about her history. However, my mother was not able to give us much more information other than what we already knew. My mother had a vague knowledge of the fact that her mother and father had actually been born somewhere else and bought to Cherbourg with their families as children.

It was about this time that a cousin who had only recently returned from a visit to South Australia told us that she had seen something about Mum and her family at the Museum in Adelaide. At that stage we gave no thought to going to South Australia and did not even consider that we could have written and found out the information. Our quest for family history was pushed into the backgroud and left idle for a couple of years.

In the early 1990’s another cousin who was working for a Queensland government department at the time told us that Family Services Department was giving Aboriginal people access to records about themselves and their families. My sister and I talked our very reluctant mother into going in to look at her records. My mother bought home a small package of information that contained copies of a personal file and some cards which I later learned were a Social History Card and an Identification card. The information we gained from the cards only confirmed what we already knew, which was the names of her parents and siblings and that my mother was born at Cherbourg. The personal file gave us an insight into what my mother’s life was like from when she was sent out to work at age 14 until she married at age 23 at which time she received her exemption from the policies associated with the Aboriginal Protection and Preservation Act of 1934. However, there was no specific information about our grandparents. My mother became visibly upset at what she was reading as it obviously bought back very painful memories and she asked us not to go looking for any more information. So once again our family history research lapsed.

About 12 months later I commenced work as the Resource Officer with the Indigenous Unit at the State Library of Queenland. The main task of the Resource Officer was to co-ordinate the distribution of copies of the Queensland component of the Tindale Geneological collection to the relevant families

Finally, I had access to the records that we had heard about several years earlier as being held by the South Australian Museum. We now had a family tree showing the names of my grandparents, great grandparents and on one side out great great grandparents. The family tree depicted where my mother’s family had come from, her mother from Ayr, North Queensland, her father from Croydon. We discovered that her maternal grandfather was a Malayan man and her maternal grandmother an Aboriginal woman from Townsville who belonged to an Aboriginal group called the Wulgurua. It also told us that her Granny Polly actually came from Camooweal and that her paternal grandfather was a white station owner of Croydon who originally came from Ireland.

My interest in tracing family history increased and I wanted to find out more about both sides of the family. The Tindale material did not fill us in on the backgroud as to why my mother’s family were sent to Cherbourg, nor did it give us much information on my father’s side other than the fact my grandfather had another child, prior to his marriage to my grandmother. We needed to search further afield.

By this stage I had become aware that there were records held at the Queensland State Archives which would be of some help. Unfortunately, my mother was still not interested in pursuing other records. She did at one stage go along as a support person for her younger half sister who was keen to research the family history of their shared father.

My father retired in the mid 1980’s and became interested in finding out more about his mother’s side of the family. He knew all about his father’s side as it had been handed down orally, but he had no idea where his mother had been born or who were her parents. By the early 1990’s this interest had become an obsession. At one stage he wrote to the Departmental Minister to seek help, because he felt that his inability to locate records was due to the fact that they were being kept from him

He knew his mother had been under the Protection Act and had lived at Deebing Creek mission before being sent out to domestic service, but had no other knowledge about her history. The Deebing Creek settlement was controlled by the Salvation Army and he was told by them that their records relating to Deebing Creek had been destroyed in a fire. Records located for him at the State Archives revealed that in 1897, his mother at 8 years of age, had been charged as being a “neglected child”, and was removed from Burketown in the Gulf country of Queensland and sent to Deebing Creek Industrial and Reformatory School in the south east of Queensland. Futher attempts revealed very little other than her name being on the Deebing Creek School Register in the early 1900’s. At the time, Kathy Frankland was located at the Queensland State Archives involved in the production of a Guide to Indigenous Records. Kathy was aware of my father’s quest and was always on the lookout for records relating to his mother. Unfortunately, very little was found.

During this time I had only visited the State Archives twice, once to attend a workshop and the other time with my brother as a researcher. At the workshop I became aware of the hugh number of records available. It was several months before I made my next visit, this time as a researcher with a brother. Unfortunately, by this time anything that I had learned at the workshop had become a dim memory. Neither my brother nor I had any real idea what to do. We had one reference number which someone had given us which related to my maternal grandfather. After lodging our request, we waited about half an hour to receive our bundle. It was a very large bundle and it took us about an hour to search through the correspondence until we finally found what we were looking for. We then had a look around at some of the documentation that was in the reading room but did not really understand what we were looking at. The actual reading room seemed cold and unfriendly. and we believed that the staff would be able to tell us what records we would need. Unfotunately, Community & Personal Histories position had not been set up at the Archives at this point and Kathy was not there that day. We left the Archives feeling very let down and my brother never returned and I did not go back until two years later when I commenced work with the Community & Personal Histories Section in 1998.

A major role with this section is to conduct research at the State Archives on a regular basis for Indigenous clients. Fifteen months down the track I feel I have gained a sound knowledge of the records available but it is far from comprehensive.

I believe that the initiatives that were put in place to assist Aboriginal people to access their family records as a result of the recommendation from the Blacks Deaths in Custody report i.e.

• The setting up of the Community & Personal Histories Section within the Department of Family Services in 1990 staffed predominately by Aboriginal people
• The basing of an Archivist position for Community & Personal Histories at the Queensland State Archives.

have been major steps in the road to Reconciliation. The next step is to have qualified Indigenous staff in the archives and keeping records sector. The ASA is to be commended for their commitment to encouring Indigenous employment by aligning with ALIA in the Indigenous Recruitment & Career Development Strategy.

An important aspect that must be considered is the emotional side of the process. The joy of discovery is often overshadowed by the pain experienced by people who are being forced to again confront the often painful experiences of the past.

I was fortuate enough to grow up in a strong family unit but the emotional aspect has not escaped me. I saw both my mother and father experience emotional turmoil over the records, my mother because of what she was reading in the records and my father from the lack of records. On a personal level since beginning work at Community & Personal Histories and having close contact with the records and clients, my emotions have been a rollercoaster. I have alternated between being happy for my client that they were establishing an identity which connected them to a particular Aboriginal group and traditional homeland and anger and sadness at the treatment my people received.

The information in these records provides Indigenous peoples with an Identity. Who we are and Where we come from are vital components of our culture. Whether we be Native Title claimants, members of the Stolen Generation or simply people having a need to feel comfortable with their Aboriginality. Access to this information needs to be as simplified as possible through indexing and the development of guides. Over the past few days I have become aware of the good work that is being done in this area. However, I am also hearing about the number of records that still need indexing, and I certainly take your point about funding constraints. My request to you, the custodians of these records, is please keep the processing of Indigenous records as a high priority on your list of things to do, please refrain from putting it into the too hard basket, so that not too many more of my people go to their final resting place not knowing Who they were and Where they came from.

I would now like to introduce Sonia Smallacombe. Sonia is a member of the Maramanindji people from the Daly river region of the Northern Territory.

Sonia has a master’s degree in Political Science and her major interests are in Stolen Generation issues and intellectual and cultural property rights for Indigenous peoples.

In June of this year Sonia resigned from her position as a lecturer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Studies and Australian Politics at Melbourne University. She is currently pursuing other interests and will soon commence a PhD at Melbourne University.

The name of her paper is Without Consent; records relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Please make her welcome as I invite her to the podium.

I would now like to introduce Paul McPherson. Paul is currently the Director, Accessibility projects in the National Archives of Australia where, among other things, he is responsible for the Archives’ Bringing Them Home indexing project

His previous occupations have been many and varied. They include:

• Policy Officer in the University Library at the Australian National University,
• Consultant and management trainer in private practice
• Senior Curator, Senior Adviser and Assistant Director at the Australian War Memorial
• Manuscripts Librarian and Deputy La Trobe Librarian in the State Library of Victoria.

His publications include “Records of National Significance: Indigenous Australians” and he is the content provider for the Archives of Australia website’s Archival resources relating to Indigenous Australians page.

The name of his paper is Bringing Them Home: a general overview of the National Archives of Australia’s experience.

Please make him welcome as I invite him to the podium.

I would now like to introduce the final speaker in this session Kathy Frankland. Kathy is currently the Senior Policy Officer with Community & Personal Histories which is under the umbrella of Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy Development Queensland. This section is dedicated to assisting Indigenous peoples to access the government archival records relevant to their family and community histories.

Kathy’s formal qualifications include a BA (hons) in Australian Archaeology from the University of Queensland and a post-graduate diploma in Archives Administration from the University of New South Wales.

Between 1989 and 1994 Kathy worked as an archivist in the John Oxley Library at the State Library of Queensland. During her time at the library Kathy along with Colin Sheehan the then Manager of John Oxley Library were catalysts behind the formation of the Indigenous Resource Unit at the John Oxley Library.

In 1994 Kathy was seconded to Community and Personal Histories and was responsible for the development of a series of guides to the records of the Departments relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Kathy took up her current position in 1995, however, still maintains her links to the State Library through her participation on the Indigenous Advisory Committe to the Library Board.

The name of her paper is “Bringing Them Home : a Queensland perspective”

Please make her welcome as I invite her to the podium.

EMOTIONAL ASPECTS

Unfortunately, in our excitment we did not heed the effect it was having on our Mum. Mum, instead of becoming happy and excited about learning about where her family had come from became visibly unhappy and even more loath to talk about her life on the Aboriginal mission. What we failed to take into account was here was a woman of 60 years of age reliving a past she had spent years burying and finding out that she did not really belong to a place that she had always called home.

As I learned more about the records relating to Indigenous peoples held at the State Archives my emotions became changeable. I would alternate between being happy for my people that they were finding their identity to being angry at the treatment they received. It has taken me twelve months to get past most of my anger but I think that as long as I work with the records I will still experience sadness for my people.