WRITER, historian, and social justice activist, Dr Jackie Huggins AM believes Australian churches have a key role in “truth telling” – an essential part of reconciliation in which the history of Australia’s First Nations peoples is told.
The Bidjara / Birri-Gubba Juru woman from central and north Queensland, shared her family history – a story of shattered lives including forced removal from traditional lands and child servitude – at the first Laurel Blow Speaker Series for 2022, a joint event facilitated by ACU and Evangelisation Brisbane.
“My mother was rounded up on the back of a cattle truck,” Dr Huggins told an audience at ACU’s Banyo campus, referring to the forced removal of aborigines under the terms of the past Aboriginal Protection Act.
“It’s not unique, she wasn’t the only one.
“There are so many truths that we need to talk about.”
Since 2020 Dr Huggins has co-chaired the Eminent Panel advising the Queensland Government on truth telling and leading all Queenslanders on the next stage of establishing treaties with indigenous peoples.
Her presentation at ACU included projections of family photos and an oral family history – part of a truth telling process that the Brisbane Archdiocese has committed to under its 2020-2022 Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
Dr Huggins told how her mother, Rita Huggins, was one of 14 children removed by government officers from her traditional Bidjara-Pitiara lands that are today known as Carnarvon Gorge.
According to assimilation policies that existed in the 1920s her mother was classified as a ‘half-caste’ and taken to the Barambah Aboriginal Settlement (later renamed Cherbourg), while ‘full-bloods’ were removed to the Woorabinda Aboriginal Settlement.
At the age of 14, Rita Huggins was sent to western Queensland to work as a domestic servant in the houses of town officials and on cattle stations.
“So you can imagine how the families were shattered. Women of that generation were forced to work in slave labour,” Dr Huggins said.
On the other hand, Ms Huggins said her father, Jack, an indigenous man from Ayr in North Queensland, grew up as “a free man”.
“In fact they lived a life of white fellas – they had a house, a car, and privileges including going to school,” she said.
Her father was a lifesaver, excelled as a rugby league player and later a coach, and was well accepted by the local community.
However, many of his indigenous friends grew up in town camps on the outskirts of Ayr.
“People from the bush were put into town camps, that were holding places for the removal of our people to missions and reserves,” Dr Huggins said.
She said indigenous people from the town camps of Ayr were sent to Cherbourg, Yarrabah or Palm Island.
Dr Huggins said her father reconnected with many of his indigenous friends when they served together as soldiers during WWII.
Together with her sister Ngaire Jarro, Dr Huggins wrote the wartime story of her father, who spent three years as a Japanese prisoner of war and was forced to work along with around 13,000 others on the Burma-Thailand railway.
The book, entitled ‘Jack of Hearts: QX11594’, was published this year.
She said indigenous soldiers received little recognition for their war service and were mostly treated as “second-class citizens” on their return.
However, her father Jack Huggins was treated differently. Back from the war and living in Ayr he became the first aboriginal man to work for Australia Post.
“Our father was quite the exception – he could go to the RSL for a beer or two. He was allowed in to hotels, people knew him as a local identity and he did not experience the type of treatment that our aboriginal soldiers received when they returned from war,” she said.
Dr Huggins told the ACU audience that a referendum on introducing an indigenous voice to parliament was a “golden opportunity” to address past injustices and a “catalyst” to help close the gap in the many areas of life that indigenous Australians lag behind the rest of the community.
“I think there is an absolute groundswell of support. Being enshrined in the constitution is a great thing,” she said.
“I do believe that a voice to government would provide structural reform in systems such as child protection… homelessness, all those areas where we suffer greatly.”
Dr Huggins presentation was part of a Brisbane archdiocese RAP commitment to healing wounds through truth telling – by providing an accurate view of history.
The recent Plenary Council second assembly in Sydney also supported truth telling through a motion that stated: “Say sorry to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in and beyond the Church for the part played by the Church in the harms they have suffered; and to implement the [Uluru Statement From the Heart], including local, regional and national truth-telling efforts.”
