Ration Shed now provides food for thought
One of Sandra Morgan's vivid girlhood memories is her grandmother carefully washing and folding the calico bags that held their flour, rice and split peas, in preparation for the weekly walk to the Ration Shed to get supplies. Today the restored Ration Shed is a museum, healing place and cultural hub in the vibrant Indigenous community of Cherbourg.
As a little girl, Sandra Morgan was part of a large, happy family. Like most little children, she assumed the way she lived was the way everybody lived, and didn't see anything unusual.
Sandra grew up in the Indigenous community of Cherbourg, under the of the rule of the Aboriginals Protection Act. Life in the community was strictly controlled; residents had to ask permission to marry, to get access to their money, to go to town or to go hunting to supplement their rations. These rations, basic dry goods like rice, flour, split peas and tea, were doled out from a hatch in a large timber and tin building known as the Ration Shed.
Now a film about the Ration Shed and life in Cherbourg under the Act, created by Sandra and filmmaker Robyn Hofmeyer, will be shown at Gympie's Heart of Gold film festival.
"Everyone gathered on a Monday morning to get their rations," Sandra remembers. "I used to watch my grandmother prepare all the ration bags leading up to Monday, wash then and fold them."
The rations were basic dried goods, usually split peas, sago, rice, flour sugar and tea. Blankets and clothing were also rationed.
"No one questioned things back then," Sandra recalls. "We just thought these things were being given to us. We didn't understand until the stolen wages were revealed, that our wages were being taken.
"When I was older I was sent out to work on stations, and when I came home I had to go and put my name down that I wanted so much money, but they only approved a certain amount.
"I didn't receive what I wanted at all. Even then, I didn't question it.
"I worked in Brisbane too, when I was still under the Act. I saw nice things in shops, but there was only a certain shop were we could purchase anything, McDonnell and East. We could look around at other stores, but there was this one certain store where we were allowed to shop."
Sandra says life improved dramatically after the referendum in 1967. She says today's young Indigenous people don't realise how many opportunities they have compared to her own childhood.
"They could be right up there. They can be whatever they want.
"We couldn't say we wanted to be a nurse, or this, or that. We were just sent out at an early age to work on stations. They've got it all, the younger generation."
Sandra says those advantages even include things as basic as health care. She used to live over the road from Cherbourg's hospital, and in winter would watch the line of people waiting to see the visiting doctor.
"The doctor came at 9:30, and he'd be finished 50 or more outpatients within a half hour.
"When you went there, you never had time to say whether you had a cough or something. You talk to the older ones today, they'll tell you about this doctor, how quick he was."
Today the Ration Shed has been moved and restored, and along with what used to be the superintendent's office and the boys' dormitory makes up a museum and cultural precinct. Sandra and Robyn's film plays on a large screen in the Ration Shed itself, while the office houses historical documents and the community's IT centre.
It has, as Sandra says in the film, gone from a place which provides food to one which provides food for thought.
"For some, the memories are still painful, but life has to go on.
"I think we drew strength from those times, and that's what made me more determined to share what life was like."
Revelations about life in Cherbourg under the Act are still coming to light, as Sandra and others of her generation find out more about their own pasts.
"Most of the history I know of my grandparents, who were part of the Stolen Generations, I wasn't told by them. I've learned it just recently, through research.
"We were able to get our personal history records, I got mine about five years ago... learning all the little things that were written down about me, that I didn't even know was being recorded."
Sandra says she's had a passion for film and photography since childhood, and the idea for the Ration Shed film grew out of her organisation of Cherbourg's Golden Oldies reunions.
"I started displaying old photos, and saw our old people reminiscing about the past; they cried, they laughed, and I realised we needed a place where we could view this, a meeting place, and a healing place too.
"When our Elders now visit us and they see all this, they feel better. They're letting go of what they've kept inside.
"One of the old guys [we interviewed for] the film was really reluctant to let go of a lot of things. He had a lot of knowledge, and he let go in that film. He didn't live to see the film, but it was good feeling that they went to their graves letting go of some of the hurt they had inside."
The film, and the Ration Shed's new role as a community hub, is also inspiring Cherbourg's young people to take ownership of their community's past.
"With some of our children we've had through, asking questions, it's a good feeling that they're learning too."
The Ration Shed won Best Queensland Film at the 2011 Heart of Gold Film Festival..