Summary

This item is one of our 50 Treasures: Celebrating 50 years of James Cook University.

John Page and Susan Page answer the question 'Why is this significant?'

This book, constructed around fragments of broken crockery collected from Karoola Station (outside Winton), is significant as its stories articulate a cultural interface between the non-Indigenous upper class and their domestic staff, through the voice of the Indigenous domestic worker. It follows a series of first-hand recollections of our Aboriginal grandmother, Gerty Page, as she examines these fractured shards, tracing her life from her arrival at Karoola in 1936 to her departure almost 40 years later.

The book delicately and respectfully breathes new life into these broken and discarded things. The stories woven around each piece of crockery reveal intimate details of everyday life on the station. Striking images of daily life on a pastoral station are invoked through the sometimes frustrated, often hilarious insights of an Aboriginal woman who formed strong bonds with her employers. This book also shines a light on the fascinating connection between the north Queensland community and the family of Australia's first Prime Minister.

The ways in which this book breathes new life into broken things have surprising layers of complexity. The torn nature of Rochelle Knarston's delicate, hand-painted etchings bring a tactile depth to these discarded crockery pieces, mirroring their broken state. The words on the page are fashioned from pieces of lead type, painstakingly recovered by Ron McBurnie and Tate Adams at Lyrebird Press from small, disestablished printeries across the north and west of Queensland. Indeed, the Karoola homestead at the heart of the recollections was itself originally situated in Charters Towers, and was dismantled, removed and reconstructed at Karoola before the 1920s. Images and words, fragments reproduced anew resuscitating and rejuvenating the mundane as remarkable.

Life on the frontier was harsh, as the story about washday attests. Arcane practices, not yet relinquished from the mother country persisted as Gerty indicates through her story of initiation in the proper way to wait table. Gerty's sanguine outlook and steadfastness shine through each story.

Beyond the broader context, the stories in the book have deep significance for our family. We collected the crockery from the rubbish dump adjacent to the burnt out original homestead on a visit to Karoola while attending a family reunion in Winton. The book breathes life into the precious memories of our father Jeffrey and our grandmother Gerty - including how Dad learned to ride on those goats, and why Gerty braved sunburn and blisters to feed sheep in times of drought.

Perhaps there is a lesson for us all in the new (and unexpected) life that a sharp mind and clear memory can breathe into broken and discarded things.