She lived
in a small hut,
over the hill,
by the creek,
in the little mission settlement
where my parents worked -
Rebecca Forbes.
She’d come from England
as a young woman,
working first in Sydney
then out “Back O’ Bourke”
where she met and married
Jack Forbes,
a horse-breaker.
They continued to work
on isolated stations
until age and family
favored settling down
in a small
indigenous community
that later became a mission.
Jack died in mid-life,
but Rebecca lived on,
into her eighties,
a valued and respected
member of the community,
never losing
her strong Cockney accent.
She is buried there now
in a little cemetery
on a rocky hill
overlooking the settlement
and the surrounding range –
a place of stark,
arid beauty.
I have a photograph
of myself and my sister,
visiting her,
a little old woman,
sitting outside her hut,
nursing her cat –
Rebecca.
Aug 10, 2023
Aug 10, 2023 at 12:48 AM UTC
She lived
in a small hut,
over the hill,
by the creek,
in the little mission settlement
where my parents worked -
Rebecca Forbes.
She’d come from England
as a young woman,
working first in Sydney
then out “Back O’ Bourke”
where she met and married
Jack Forbes,
a horse-breaker.
They continued to work
on isolated stations
until age and family
favored settling down
in a small
indigenous community
that later became a mission.
Jack died in mid-life,
but Rebecca lived on,
into her eighties,
a valued and respected
member of the community,
never losing
her strong Cockney accent.
She is buried there now
in a little cemetery
on a rocky hill
overlooking the settlement
and the surrounding range –
a place of stark,
arid beauty.
I have a photograph
of myself and my sister,
visiting her,
a little old woman,
sitting outside her hut,
nursing her cat –
Rebecca.
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