I started doing a course in 2011 first to support my daughter Amy to get back into studies. She was particularly interested in doing an aboriginal course in tourism and guiding.
I was thrilled that she was interested in a cultural course. My only concern was wether I could keep up with attendance. Due to my health issues and poor education.
But Amy encouraged me to give it ago, as I had mentioned that I was interested in doing a short course just to keep myself interest as I loved learning.
I had been involved with a woman named Bonney Djuric for the past 10- years campaigning to develop awareness of the buildings of the Parramatta Female Factory and The first Roman Catholic Orphanage which over time became the old Parramatta Girls Institution, which Bonney and myself spent time in as teenagers.
I personally had spent 3 years of my life in there and also 3 trips to the Hay Institution which was annex to Parramatta Girls. Both these institutions as a teenager had haunted my life as a bad nightmare, therefore I understood the significant of my part of this history.
Bonney and myself Founded The Parramatta Female Factory Prescient and developed a register for the Parragirls. Bonney created a web site and set up an association, and getting in touch with local Members of Parliament, with Bonney writing letters to all officials within Government and the community, and before long were drawing awareness within the local community.
What we aimed for was to have the site memorialised as a place of conscious which would be the first in Australia to recognise and remember the thousands of woman who had been incarcerated there over the past 200- years since early colonisation. Bonney had also asked me to be the campaign Aboriginal Representative which I gladly accepted.
This was my passion working with Bonney campaigning and doing talks about what we wanted to achieve. I still had plenty of free time so when my daughter asks me to join her in the Aboriginal course I finally accepted.
Well I just loved Learning about my culture it was the first time ever that I had the opportunity to really learn every aspect of my culture I felt privileged to be there the teaches where fantastic and they always added their own personal story which I loved.
I recognised how doing this course would befit the campaign so I asked the teaches if all my assignment could be done on the Parramatta site, and they all encouraged me to do so.
Therefore I thrived in learning as much as possible I completed all 4 courses in studies of Aboriginal Tourism and Guiding. And to my amassment I won a Gillis Award in 2013.
This was the very first time in my life that I had ever achieved anything for education. It was the proudest moment in my nearly sixty years of life that I ever experienced. The government of education actually paid for my travel and accommodation to attend this Award night.
My daughter Amy who dropped out of the course much earlier was envious but overwhelmed with pride and my eldest son Ian both attended with me to enjoy a spectacular dinner live entertainment and Awards night Event at The Queen Victoria Building in Sydney it was something that has made a profound affect on each of us.
For me personally to achieve this award says you are never to old to learn.
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| Hay 2007 - Part 1 | Hay 2007 - Part 2 | NSW Apology | Gili Awards - 2013 |
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| Eyes To The Floor | Hay Girls Reunion | Hay Girls Institution | Linnwood Hall Cleansing Ceremony |
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| Save Parramatta Campaign | Parramatta Girls Reunion | Parramatta Girls Christmas | Parramatta Girls Press Releases |
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| Family Photos |
On one of my many trips to Hay in 2005, Bonney Djuric showed one of her films "Asylum" which was a "silent documentary film" based on life in institutions, this being part of her Arts Degree.
The event was open to the local community in the hall of the cell block at The Hay Gaol Museum. The local Community where invited and they all showed a great interest in the film, and discussion over light refreshment. On the day there was Lynette Aitken an ex-Parramatta girl who at this time was working on her PHD on historic analysis based on treatment of (females) juvenile delinquents, and writing her thesis of which I was also contributing. Then there was myself and two other ex-Hay girls present on the day, and we made ourselves available for any questions on the film and our experiences spent at the Hay Girls Institution, in our time there as young girls.
With discussion about a play being created based on the Hay girl's experiences, information was passed on to Bonney. The next day Bonney made contact with the Director of "Out Back Theatre" there in Hay, to discuss the idea and left contact details of Play Writer Alana Valentine with the ending of a great event. As time passed Bonney organized a Hay reunion in March 2007 with around 100 woman attending, and the start of healing for those incarcerated there as teenagers, with Senator Andrew Murray addressing all those attending the Reunion, our group and the local community.
Later that weekend there was a highlight to the performance of "Eyes to the Floor" the play written especially for the Hay girls and directed by Amy Hardingham, this was something no-one would have ever imagined or anticipated but the experience was so over-whelming and a privilege to be part of and honored in this way, performed by local teenagers, who were the age we were when we were incarcerated there.
A Mind Blowing experience, so touching and moving and so many hugs and tears flowed that night in a mist of light healing rain.
I would never have believed we would ever have had a reunion here in Hay, but it happened and brought about revealing the truth the "State Secret" aired on the Stateline channel first in 2004 when I and my sister and two other ex-Hay Girls returned to expose the truth.
That Hay Institution for Girls should never have been a place for further training. It was a place of hell the treatment was far too harsh and unimaginable, for teenage girls as young as 14. It was out in the middle of no-where but open plains wheat fields, cattle and baron land. It still stands like a monument of fear with its solid sandstone walls and rich red brick the Hay Gaol, with its watch-towers and single cell block of 14 cells, with iron doors and small window facing the sky, with the isolation block standing alone and the faint red painted dots barely noticeable only to an ex-Hay girl around the circumference of the compound of the gaol.
Marking the spot where as teenagers we had to stop marking time six feet apart from each other, till told to stop and stand at ease, its open to the public today as a museum and only one cell left as it was in our day. One iron bed, one table and seat bolted to the wall, with a bible on the table. The rest of the cells are filled with artifact from the area and other historical items. But today we have a dedicated Plaque which says "Let no child walk this path again" this was placed during the reunion and I'm proud to have been a survivor and to have been a part of helping in the organizing of the reunion, and of meeting the local people and teenagers living here in the community of Hay.
