Sheila Sampi Sheila Sampi in her garden

Portrait of Sheila Sampi: I born in Marble Bar, Googaligong, that used to be the tin field, people used to work there yandying for tin, that’s where my mother come from, my father from Lombardina. He had two older brothers brought him down here, he came to Marble Bar and that is where I was born in 1943, during that World War. My father took off during wartime; he left his country to go work, so we went to Onslow, all of us, with him. In those days blackfella wasn’t allowed to go north, blackfella wasn’t allowed to go south, we had to have one white man take us through to Onslow. We lived there and my father opened Bindi Bindi. He learned all that reading and writing; he used to teach people because he was well educated. In the stations, we used to work hard, help our mother and father. We had our School of the Air first, my sister and I, about nine o’clock, that lady teaching us all the ABCs. Our father and mother go out on the line, making fences, with a hammer and standard. My mother, she size it up, keep it, “as straight as a needle”, as she says. Every time we get back to look at the line, we can only see one standard, because they are all straight. When me and my brother were old enough to work, he went working self, and I went working self on another station. When I first started, I was only working for a tin of tobacco, clothes and shoes, that’s all. Some of the station people were good, some of them you had to face, we’d get orders what to do, but we’re getting no pay, no money from them, well, I didn’t like it. Cleaning up and washing, bringing the missus tea in bed, look after the fowls, ducks, cats and dogs. I worked on nearly all the stations. We do it all ourselves. It was a bit hard working with some of those whitefellas, they used to be hard with us. Sometimes they don’t want us to be gathered, they split us up, tell us not to talk to each other. But we wake up in the night, we go and chase each other, talk up a yarn.

Portrait of Sheila Sampi in her garden: I born in Marble Bar, Googaligong, that used to be the tin field, people used to work there yandying for tin, that’s where my mother come from, my father from Lombardina. He had two older brothers brought him down here, he came to Marble Bar and that is where I was born in 1943, during that World War. My father took off during wartime; he left his country to go work, so we went to Onslow, all of us, with him. In those days blackfella wasn’t allowed to go north, blackfella wasn’t allowed to go south, we had to have one white man take us through to Onslow. We lived there and my father opened Bindi Bindi. He learned all that reading and writing; he used to teach people because he was well educated. In the stations, we used to work hard, help our mother and father. We had our School of the Air first, my sister and I, about nine o’clock, that lady teaching us all the ABCs. Our father and mother go out on the line, making fences, with a hammer and standard. My mother, she size it up, keep it, “as straight as a needle”, as she says. Every time we get back to look at the line, we can only see one standard, because they are all straight. When me and my brother were old enough to work, he went working self, and I went working self on another station. When I first started, I was only working for a tin of tobacco, clothes and shoes, that’s all. Some of the station people were good, some of them you had to face, we’d get orders what to do, but we’re getting no pay, no money from them, well, I didn’t like it. Cleaning up and washing, bringing the missus tea in bed, look after the fowls, ducks, cats and dogs. I worked on nearly all the stations. We do it all ourselves. It was a bit hard working with some of those whitefellas, they used to be hard with us. Sometimes they don’t want us to be gathered, they split us up, tell us not to talk to each other. But we wake up in the night, we go and chase each other, talk up a yarn.