other[wize]
We
can’t know this woman or her story simply by looking at
a photograph of her – the story isn’t made apparent
in other[wize]. We must interrogate this picture and try to
make some sense of it by reaching into what we might know about
the history of this country. Fraser, having heard the stories
of her extended family, explains that her Granny Clark was a
midwife who bore 15 children of her own – “She
smoked a pipe…She had a lot of “useful” skills,
like sewing because she grew up on Tamrookum Station. She worked
on stations for her whole life and helped a lot of people cause
she was a midwife. She delivered Aboriginal babies and other
babies as well.” The know-how of Aboriginal people
in these remote situations kept those stations in operation
and kept those white settlers alive. Having moved around from
station to station, Fraser’s Granny Clark also never lost
sight of her homeland or the fact that she was Yugambeh.