ROUND THE PIANO
With many of the stories Vince told me, his memories were detailed and vivid. We knew straightaway they’d be in the book. Others we went over a few times, and as Vince recalled more details, we knew they’d make it in too. Sometimes though, Vince would recall only a fragment, not enough for a story.
One fragment that has stayed with me is a memory Vince’s wife Brenda shared with him years before, from when she was a child. If you’ve read The Wonder of Little Things, you’ll know that Brenda’s parents, Alice and Ken Thomas, owned a farm near Curramulka on the east side of the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. On the other side of the narrow peninsula, a little way to the north, was the Point Pearce Aboriginal Mission, where Vince lived with his family at different times when he was a child.
A tidy version of a rough map I made of Yorke Peninsula to help me picture the main towns Vince spent time in. I stuck it on the wall next to my computer and often glanced at it as I transcribed Vince’s stories from my audio recorder.
Brenda remembered that on Sundays she, her parents and her sisters would drive over to the mission. They’d meet up with Vince’s maternal grandparents, Joe and Maisie Edwards, at their home. In the Edwards’ lounge room, all the adults would gather round the piano and sing. Vince thought the pianist was probably his Auntie Doris Graham, who was the sister of his mum Katie. Auntie Doris was well known on the Peninsula for her playing.
Vince with his Auntie Hilda Wilson (left) and Auntie Doris Graham (right). [Copley family collection]
Vince also thought his mum might have been there too, although he wasn’t sure how old she would have been at the time. ‘I don’t have a memory of it,’ he told me. ‘So I might not have been born yet, or I could have been pretty young and outside running around with my cousins.’
Given Brenda remembered being there and she was six years younger than Vince, Vince would have been around eight or older, and by then living in Adelaide. But Vince's mum, Katie, returned to the mission with her children from time to time, so it’s possible Vince and Brenda did come across each other as children.
One day not long after Vince died, I was talking to Brenda’s sister Marlene and asked if she had a memory of the singalongs. She did. As well as the singing, she remembers they had to leave Point Pearce by 6pm because there was a curfew on visitors. Here was yet another example of the control government and other authorities had over the lives of Vince’s family and friends.
These two memory fragments from Brenda and Marlene give a glimpse of life on the Yorke Peninsula in the 1930s and 1940s, where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people found enjoyable ways to work around the restrictive laws. The fragments also show that Vince and Brenda’s family connections went back a long way.
If you’re interested in finding out more about life at the Point Pearce Aboriginal Mission, here’s two excellent books written by people who lived there and knew it well.
As We’ve Known It: 1911 to the Present, by Doris and Cecil Graham (that’s Vince’s Aunty Doris)
Point Pearce: Past and Present, edited by Eileen Wanganeen and researched by the Narrunga Community College.
Both were published in 1987 by the South Australian College of Advanced Education Aboriginal Studies and Teacher Education Centre. While they’re not in print any more, many libraries can track them down for you.
© 2024 This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Acknowledgement: Vince’s continuing legacy has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.