Annie Wonga at Home
Continued from portrait page.
Ann is a ‘Bama’ (rainforest dwelling) woman, brought up in Babinda where her parents were well respected when they were alive. When she and her older siblings were young, Aboriginal People were forbidden to fraternise with their white colonial 'rulers'. They were not even allowed to speak the Madjay language, a dialect of Yidindji. While they were allowed to work in Babinda, a small but prosperous town due to the burgeoning sugar industry, they only received an allowance, doled out by the local police. The five Wonga children, including Annie, never married and consequently became the last of the original descendants of the Madjanydji clan, who were custodians of the Lower Russell River (Mutchero Inlet) and Woolanmarroo south (Russell Heads) to north Bramston Beach. I often wondered why all five siblings never married but I suspect it was the subjugation of Aboriginal people that affected their social life.
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Ann is a ‘Bama’ (rainforest dwelling) woman, brought up in Babinda where her parents were well respected when they were alive. When she and her older siblings were young, Aboriginal People were forbidden to fraternise with their white colonial 'rulers'. They were not even allowed to speak the Madjay language, a dialect of Yidindji. While they were allowed to work in Babinda, a small but prosperous town due to the burgeoning sugar industry, they only received an allowance, doled out by the local police. The five Wonga children, including Annie, never married and consequently became the last of the original descendants of the Madjanydji clan, who were custodians of the Lower Russell River (Mutchero Inlet) and Woolanmarroo south (Russell Heads) to north Bramston Beach. I often wondered why all five siblings never married but I suspect it was the subjugation of Aboriginal people that affected their social life.
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