Tracing Their Footsteps: Roy Gray’s reunion story
My name is Roy Gray and I was born in 1944 at Yarrabah Mission Community. I went to school at Yarrabah until Grade 6 when I was sent out by the superintendent to work in a couple of sheep stations, one was at Winton and another at Julia Creek for a year each. In about 1962 or 1963, I applied for my exemption from the Act and when the documentation come through I left Yarrabah and come to Cairns where I met my wife Colleen. We have been together since – I’ve been married for 54 years to the same girl.
When Colleen and I got married we lived a short time in Sydney where Colleen did her nursing training at Liverpool hospital and I worked in an iron factory. At times I was working two jobs, in the factory at night and then working during the day doing fencing. When we came back to Cairns in the late 1970’s Colleen got a job as a matron at Yarrabah Hospital. We managed to raise 3 kids and adopted another 3-4 kids; our daughter is now a solicitor over in England and our 2 boys Roy and Colin are working in the mines.
After moving back to Yarrabah I got involved with politics and at that time it was Micky Miller and Joe McGuiness and that crew. We were trying to get equal rights for the Aboriginal people, fighting for award wages for our people and we managed to win some arguments there.
After that I settled down in Yarrabah and worked for the council, including as the museum caretaker, encouraging people to do artwork and stuff like that. I was instrumental in getting the dedicated trust for our community and other Queensland Aboriginal communities. The Arts Museum at Yarrabah is still operating, though I’ve been retired since 2013.
My education was limited as it was just a mission school, but I have learnt a lot since leaving Yarrabah and joining in with Link-Up (Qld) and other Aboriginal organisations and just learning from other people.
I was still interested in finding out who I really was, so I first contacted Link-Up (Qld) some time ago. They researched the background of my mother’s family and I got a complete record. As I didn’t know who dad’s family was, I approached Link-Up (Qld) again to do some background searches but there wasn’t a lot of information other than that he was in an orphanage as a child, living in Brisbane as a young man and coming up to wartime, then marrying mum up here in the 1940s.
Today I’m happy that I joined up with Link-Up (Qld) because they have proven some information about my father’s family and his ancestry. During the research they were able to locate information about dad’s mother, Agnes Gray. She’s from Dubbo but died in Brisbane in 1932. Link-Up (Qld) were able to locate the unmarked paupers grave where she was buried in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane. Cemetery staff marked the exact location for us and during my reunion we cemented in a cross to mark the site where dad’s mother Agnes was buried. That was my highlight of the research about dad’s family.
His ancestors come from the Dubbo area but before that I think the original Gray was a descendant from Scotland so that’s a little a bit about my people.
Leading up to the reunion I was feeling confident that Link-Up (Qld) were helping me with the fact of who I was and who my family were. During November when the reunion happened, Link-Up (Qld) staff were so encouraging, so helpful and so respectful in what they were doing for me. They were assisting me with travel and to record the reunion so it could be there for future reference for my kids.
The records are there now forever and ever for my children to look at and I say it’s a good thing to have these records. They are also there now for Link-Up (Qld) to use to help other people.
I took my younger brother Alfred on my reunion with me. He was a good support, and because he is a family member it was important that he was a part of this reunion. The support was there anyway from the staff of Link-Up (Qld), there was nothing but support from everybody involved.
My reunion turned out to be not only a graveside reunion but it was also about discovering that there was more family to find in the future. We found another family that we didn’t know about.
The graveside reunion benefited dad’s side of family – myself and my family and then another part of the Gray clan that joined us in the reunion, the family of my grandmother’s sister Ada. It was a big discovery as we didn’t even know that they existed, but now we are in contact with them for good.
My feeling during the reunion was satisfaction that we have come this far with the help of Link-Up (Qld) and staff. Now it’s only the beginning… and we are finding out the rest and finding who we need to find that has the connection with dad. After the reunion I felt that we were helped and I also think that Alfred felt that we were helped.
It was a good experience and we left with a good feeling. We now have more knowledge of who we are and who we are connected to.
I don’t think we need to make any plans about going back or reconnecting again because the process has already started – we are already connecting up with members of the Gray family on dad’s side. The other people that we are connecting to – we will find out who they are, we will connect up or they will connect up and it’s a natural process. So there are no plans to concentrate on because that will be a distraction, you just got to let things happen.
Every single Link-Up (Qld) staff member that I came in contact with showed me not only respect, it was love. I felt I was loved by all of the Link-Up (Qld) staff, I can’t say anything bad about any of the staff. When I got to meet the Brisbane staff, their hearts were all open to helping me in the journey.
I would like to thank all the staff at the Link-Up (Qld) office at Cairns, the two Joshes – Josh Williams and Josh Thompson with Sylvia and Tahnee, thank you very much Cairns office. In Brisbane we’ve got our fearless leader there Mrs Thompson and Ruth Loli and Michelle thank you for putting in your time on my behalf. All the other staff I just don’t know their names but they are very supportive of me. I felt nothing but love.
Roy Gray
Published March 2021.