Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about Minnie Daley, who is on my granddaughter Charlee's side. Charlee is a direct descendant of Minnie Daley. Minnie Daley was born on Sturt Creek station in the Kimberley. If you were to look at the history of Sturt Creek station, you would see it was part of what was described as the 'killing times'. There were massacres there. We've not got to the bottom of that yet, but certainly that was part of Minnie's family experience. At some point in her young life, Minnie Daley was stolen from Sturt Creek station, taken from her family, from her mother, along with her brother, Owen, and her sister, Peggy. Minnie also spent time at the Swan Native and Half Caste Mission, in Middle Swan. She stayed there until she reached the age of 18.

Today I was speaking with Nola Gregory, one of Charlee's grannies, and Nola told me that Minnie died and is buried in a pauper's grave in Karrakatta. That's absolutely shameful, because what we know is that the records of First Nations people in Western Australia, under native protector Neville, are immaculate. So I'm sure it was written in the record books exactly who Minnie Daley was. Nevertheless, she was buried in a pauper's grave and the family weren't notified. Last year the family took Minnie and gave her a proper burial in their adopted home of Geraldton. But Nola, despite being fourth generation, some 60 years later tells me that that pain is still real. It is real, it's passed on, and it's real pain for Charlee.

When former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the apology, I stood on the lawns outside and I knew that there were women here from Geraldton and Morawa. Nola told me to look out for them and that they were wearing T-shirts. One of the things about Nola Gregory is she's an incredibly clever woman and she writes the most amazing poetry, some of which has been published, and other poems are about to be published. Her poems are always incredibly meaningful. Nola wrote a poem for the apology, and those women wore it on their T-shirts, so it was pretty easy for me to track them down and introduce myself. I asked Nola today if I had permission to read her Stolen Generation, her recognition of Sorry Day, to the parliament, and Nola gave me that permission, so I'm going to do that today. This is a poem that Nola Gregory wrote on 5 February 2008:

In silence you have suffered

Your pain locked deep inside

You fought so long for this

And still you kept your pride

The tears of all the mothers

For their children they did cry

Their broken hearts a memory

Etched in the children's eyes

Born of a strong proud people

Never would you forget

The anguish and the burdens

Now your life had been all set

But the yearning was still a part of you

You just did not feel right

Something here was missing

You knew you had to fight

And fight you did throughout the years

To parliaments, pollies and all

How could you make them listen

Would they heed your heartfelt calls

All you wanted was an apology

Not thinking it would take so long

And sorry was just one little word

Was asking for this so wrong

A flood of overwhelming emotions

Will be felt on this memorable day

And those who have gone before us

In spirit will lead the way

The stolen generations

Will stand with hands on hearts

Today the tears flow freely

And this is just only the start