Moonachullah
Margaret Tucker, whose daughter Mollie Dyer was the founder of the first Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agency (AICCA), recounts the personal resistance of her mother in attempting to rescue her children after they were removed:
"I heard years later how after watching us go out of her life, she wandered away from the police station three miles along the road leading out of the town to Moonahculla. She was worn out, with no food or money, her apron still on. She wandered off the road to rest in the long grass under a tree. That is where old Uncle and Aunt found her the next day ... They found our mother still moaning and crying. They heard the sounds and thought it was an animal in pain ... Mother was half-demented and ill. They gave her water and tried to feed her, but she couldn't eat. She was not interested in anything for weeks, and wouldn't let Geraldine out of her sight. She slowly got better, but I believe for months after, at the sight of the policeman's white helmet coming round the bend of the river, she would grab her little girl and escape into the bush, as did all the Aboriginal people who had children."
Linda Briskman, The Black Grapevine: Aboriginal Activism and the Stolen Generations (The Federation Press, 2003), 12.
Margaret Tucker