Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Aboriginal Australians
Part 1:
First Teasers session ’31 –
I just remember crying crying crying… ….too heartbreaking to tell, bloody wicked
INTRO
Radio Netherlands The Sound Fountain presents “Worlds Apart; the Story of the Collard Family”. Produced by Dheera Sujan
Mix down id 6’35
id 4’14 + e taken (2’21) = 6’38
My name is GC… … ….my wh influence had lot to do with how I think I guess
Session- Glynnis taken 4’18 – with water sounds under first bit of clip
I still remember the day that my nana … ....really different thing
SFX – faint echo sound of kids singing, playing
11’30
Glynnis – abuse at SK’s 2’03
I really started hating, hating people from 3… ….hear that for years after
SFX – under next clip –– night sounds
Gl – men abusing 2 1’24
One time one man… ..what you were taught
SFX – kids playing
Glynnis ranaway 1’45
When I walked out from the home…. ..18 years ago now.
(in this sess – when Ellen is talking about “they always knew me, but I didn’t know them” – if not in use somewhere else, put straight after that, Gl “always knew E”
SESSION - First meeting 5’15
Glynnis remembers me through the years… life to go on as it was
SFX – maybe bush sounds under last 2 clips of this session (don trad life and E bush memory)
Why 2 7’28
I don’t know why they did this to aborig… .which isn’t such a bad thing I don’t think
You’ve been listening to “Worlds Apart” – the story of Don and Sylvia Collard and their daughters Glynnis Collard and Ellen Jetta. The programme was produced by Dheera Sujan for The Sound Fountain and was a Radio Netherlands Presentation.
Part 2:
MUSIC – “took the children away” (tr 6) 0’00 – fade around ‘52
Carrier Title “Charcoal Lane” Perf + comp Archie Roach. Aurora Mush32013.2
D1. 1’16
That’s Archie Roach singing “They took the Children away” – a song that’s become the unofficial anthem of Australian aboriginals. It laments the anguish of the Stolen Generation – the uncounted numbers of aboriginal children who were taken away from their families to be either put into institutions where they were taught to be good servants or adopted out to white families.
The Stolen Generation is not a story from Australia’s distant past – many of these people are my age and younger. But we lived parallel lives. My childhood was the proverbial carefree one. It was filled with school activities, going to the pool or to the cinema on Saturdays, or spending long weekend hours lying on my bed immersed in Enid Blyton or Tolkien. But hidden away all around the country, even in suburbs surrounding our house, there were children who were leading a very different kind of life. Children who were hushed by their parents any time a policeman or social worker came near, children who were told to say they were Indian because it was too dangerous to admit to being Aboriginal. Children who were forcefully removed from the arms of their wailing parents only to be taken into orphanages or foster families.
Archie intro ‘37
I don’t have much recollection of… thought that was normal
D2 ‘35
Archie Roach is now a well known singer songwriter in Australia. His four albums were successful both with the critics and the public, and he’s toured Australia and North America with the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Armatrading. Most of his songs draw on his own life’s experiences, the harshness of his early years that saw him taken away from his family, living in foster homes, and finally, inevitably, ending on the streets. Along the way he met the woman who would become his life’s partner as well as his music collaborator, Ruby Hunter, who herself had been taken from her family.
Ruby intro 4’24
At the time I was taken.. for this little girl to move on
8’30
Music – Tr 3 Munjana 0’00 – fade around 1’50 at end of chorus (all tracks have same Buma details as above)
D3 ‘19
It was only with his third foster family that Archie Roach found a home. Today, he calls this family – the Coxes, his saving grace. He was well cared for, but he was kept in the dark about his real family. He only learned the truth about his background when he was 14. And the world that he knew caved in.
10’30
Mother dead, land spiritual 3’00
My sister….spiritual base
MUSIC – native born tr 1 - Part One – fade out around 1’10
D4 ‘10
Country and western music – both American and Australian - has a deep resonance amongst Aboriginal people and its influences can be clearly heard in the music of Archie Roach.
Music and blues 2’42
Music to me……. ..make myself feel better that’s the way it is
18
d5 ‘41
Like so many young lost Aboriginal people, both Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter ended up on the streets for a while. Cut off from their families, they found a new companionship and family amongst the Aboriginal community living on the fringes of society. And that’s where they met. They were 16 years old. Since then they’ve raised 2 sons, 6 grandchildren, and according to Aboriginal tradition, they’ve also taken in various children from other relatives who were not able to bring up their own kids. Ruby told me that at the most recent family gathering at Christmas, there were more than a 100 people who came along.
Perhaps their own lost childhoods have given them even more of a sense of the preciousness of family ties.
How we met 2’35
At the time Archie and I met.. still showing him black fellas hang out(poss cut here)
21’30
d6 1’06
Like many Australians, I had almost no contact with the aboriginal community while I was growing up. They were invisible except in the pockets of the city where they hung out. There was an unspoken feeling that if one did come across an aboriginal it would be better to keep away from them, they may be drunk, possibly violent.
That’s the feeling I remember growing up in Western Australia in the 70’s.
In some respects Australia has come a long way since then. There are Aboriginal crafts shops everywhere, aboriginal paintings hang in the most prestigious galleries and museums. And children are no longer being stolen from their parents. Some years ago, it seemed that the two separate communities in Australia were coming to a new understanding, and the word of the day was reconciliation.
But the mood of the country has changed. Battles over issues such as land rights, and apologies for the past have become rancourous. And as an Australian looking in from the outside, I get the feeling that the new found Aussie pride in Aboriginal culture only goes so far. Ruby Hunter has her own theory.
Black skin 3’02
With reconciliation, there used to.. ..isn’t an aboriginal place
MUSIC – Tr 1 – Native Born Part 2 – start around 2’27 fade around 3’06
D7 ‘27
Going back to Australia from Europe is for me an almost overwhelming sensory experience – it’s the sheer vastness of the horizon, the particular pinkish shade in the afternoon light, the smell of eucalypt, the constant whirr of millions of unseen insects, the flash of colour of a cockatoo as it takes off from the trees. The landscape has been the chief source of inspiration to generations of Australian artists. Archie Roach is no different.
Land always there 1’55
It takes my breath away this country....the land was always there for me
MUSIC –Last verse of Native Born.
D8
You’ve been listening to Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter sharing their music and their stories. I’m Dheera Sujan for Vox Humana, a Radio Netherlands presentation
INTRO
Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter are well known Australian musicians. Their songs are mainly about the pain of their own personal stories – they were part of the stolen generation of aboriginals – as children, they were taken from their families. They come from communities that were taken from their land. Hear their voices in Vox Humana.
