Reunion Story: Theresa Creed
My mum was taken from Cloncurry to Palm Island, and dad had moved with his mum from Boulia to Palm Island. They then moved to Woorabinda, where I grew up in the Woorabinda Mission, before moving to Townsville.
I have been wanting to learn more about my family and heritage through my paternal great grandmothers’ line, my Great Nana Lucy Fogarty. I contacted Community and Personal Histories back in 2012 but they did not have any departmental records for Great Nana Lucy, although they did have information about my grandfather, William Creed. Link-Up (Qld) was able to give me more details about my family and to my relief, locate my Great Nana Lucy’s grave in Winton.
I flew to Longreach with Link-Up (Qld) staff members Anne Garret and Christine Kanofski, and we then drove onto Winton. When I saw Great Nana’s grave at Winton Cemetery, it was obvious that no one had visited it for a long time. It was an unmarked grave but the cemetery staff had kindly marked out the exact place where she lay. We had our special time there, I decorated the grave with some red flowers and an angel and said a prayer for my Great Nana.
Afterwards we went in to Winton library to research the Aboriginal history of the local area. The librarian suggested that we should talk to a local woman, Pearl Eates. Pearl is my cousin and my countrywoman from Boulia, Pearl holds a lot of family knowledge and she kindly shared stories with me about my family history and stories from Pitta Pitta. We caught up on family news, I found out that another cousin, Great Nana Lucy’s grandson was in the Northern Territory working on a station.
We left Winton the next day and had a safe trip back to Brisbane.
When I got home the old ladies visited me in my dreams and I was settled again.
Yesteryears by Theresa Creed
Old places where you used to stay, make me dream of how it used to be in the yesteryears
I know you lived the hard life
But having your kids around you would have made up for the things you didn’t have
I wished I could have met you and shared some time with you
But I will remember you and visit your resting place so I don’t forget you
May you find peace wherever you are and be in rest
Theresa Creed
Published June 2021.