Cherbourg elder Frank Malone spoke at the community’s truth-telling and healing session on 18 November 2024.
This is about healing, about making us feel better; getting off our chests what we have been carrying for many years.
Sadly, up in our cemetery there are other people, elders who have passed on who couldn’t tell their stories, who went to their graves with sad eyes.
Growing up in Cherbourg I thought it was a normal life.
It was only when I was 40 years old that I learned the history of how we were treated.
For me now, I’m working in education. I’ve been working at the Cherbourg State School for 24 years – but not once have we talked about our history. Yes, we learn about Captain Cook, the gold rush, Ned Kelly – yet our history is here, with us.
A lot of us old people, we’ve carried this burden for a long time. For us to be able to share our stories, not just to other people but to our families, our children, our grandchildren. They will understand why this place was established.
Waiting for my mates in the dormitory to come along and walk to school. They were dressed in different uniforms, they were treated differently. When the school was finished, they would walk past and go ‘home’ to the dormitory. To see families up on the corner of this hospital waiting for their children, but they never came to them. Children had to get permits to visit their families in the community.
When Covid came here, and they had the roadblocks so we couldn’t get out, the younger generations were talking about why they were keeping us here. I said that history was being repeated – and they were going to understand how we felt when we weren’t allowed to leave this place.
I look back on the past – they say don’t look back on the past – but the past gives me strength, because of what our elders and ancestors achieved. They achieved one thing: they never gave up.
The way they were treated, the way they had to work, the way they had to live. We lived that part of being controlled.
Our old people were denied education, they only went to Year 4 then they were sent out to work.
Our young people had to sit an exam to be accepted into a high school, but when the referendum came along they had to abolish that. We’ve always had challenges and barriers put in front of us.
We are telling the truth, and the truth is about healing. And if the government can’t understand, and they won’t support us, they still think they have the authority to control us.
We will always be second-class citizens in this wonderful country of ours. For us to come together, work together, walk together, this is where it starts. If we want to be all one mob, these politicians have to take us into consideration.
Come to our communities, come to hear the real stories of how we were treated. That’s where it really happens.
