Herstory
Introduction
1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
This is my story.
My parents both encouraged me to draw. Mum worked as an artist for Bill Onus in his studio, Aboriginal Enterprises. My happiest memories are of creating things with her and my sister at the kitchen table. Mum had trained to be a tailor and then during WW11 she worked in a factory making uniforms and tents. She later made costumes for JC Williamson's theatre company. She did alterations for wealthy women in fashion salons in Toorak. My father first trained to be an artist, then as a radio technician. Through WW11 he worked as a radio operator on ships carrying munitions. He later hosted people at our home to communicate by radio with their relatives working in Antarctica. Like my father I read and keep a journal. Like my mother I create.
This is my mother's family in Ascotvale, Melbourne, around 1955.
My mother Jean is standing in the back row, far left, next to her brother Hugh. I am sitting on the ground, far left, and Phoebe (Nanna, Mum's mother) is standing in the centre wearing a floral dress. My father Noel is standing in the back row holding a terrier dog. I think the photo was taken in front of the home of Auntie Lucy (far right, holding a child) and Uncle Hugh (beside Mum). As I grew up my mother and cousins told me a storythat our great grandmother Hannah Brown was an Aboriginal woman who lived around Fryerstown, Victoria. The story is later confirmed by cousins Tony and Shane Higgins in Melbourne. They found this website and initiated re-connection between our estranged families. My sister Nadya was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 15 and taken to live the rest of her life as a Ward of the State of Victoria, in institutions that were then called Lunatic Asylums.
This is my father's family in Kallista, Victoria, around 1926.
My great grand parents, Tom Roberts and Lillian Williamson, designed the house and garden in Royle avenue. They called the house Talisman. Tom took this photo in the back garden. My father Noel is sitting far left, beside his father Ca (Caleb). Noel's younger brother Dick is in the centre, held by their mother Nora. Lillie sits beside them all on the right. From age five to nine I lived at Talisman with Mum, Noel and Nadya. The story of the artist Tom Robertsis well known.
