Book Launch:
My Side of the Bridge. The Story of Veronica Brodie
by Bob Briton The courtyard of the Tauondi Aboriginal College was packed last week with community activists and well-wishers for the launch of a long awaited autobiography. It is now roughly seven years since Mary-Anne Gale first heard Auntie Veronica Brodie tell her story and realised that it simply had to be put in writing. While Auntie Veronica is a gifted orator, the additional skills of this University of South Australia research fellow were needed to enter Veronica's story into the historical record. The result is remarkable. After a year of following Auntie Veronica to her numerous community engagements and conducting many interviews, Mary-Anne set about transcribing piles of audio tapes and editing them. The "remarkable, humorous and at times tragic story" that emerged is told in what is unmistakably Auntie Veronica's voice. Many readers of the book have made this same observation and it is what makes the work so significant. This is because the warmth and strength of Auntie Veronica's personality have an enormous value to a society still struggling with the concept of reconciliation. An overstatement? I recommend that you read the story of this Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri elder, with its not untypical themes of dispossession and marginalisation. When you've finished (and if it's possible), go and meet Auntie Veronica. The invariable warmth of her greeting and her obvious willingness to work with you on the many problems still facing the relationship between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities will inspire you. Veronica was born at Raukkan (formerly known as Port McLeay) in 1941. On her mother's side she was of the Adelaide Plains or Kaurna people and on her father's she was from the Ngarrindjeri that live in the area around the Coorong. Her mother's people had slowly but surely been pushed off their traditional lands around Port Adelaide. Her great-grandmother, Lartelare Rebecca Spender, had been born at the site later taken over for the CSR sugar refinery. Veronica has long wanted this land for an aged people's home for the Aboriginal community. She was only able to return to Adelaide to pursue this issue many years on. She was born onto a mission and under the control of the Aboriginal Protection Board. The Protection Board plays a big part in much of the first half of the book. It dominated the lives of the Aboriginal people in its charge, deciding who they could have contact with, where they lived and if they would work. Veronica believes that the struggle against this overbearing instrument of genocide actually made some people stronger. She trained as a nurse and then a switchboard operator before settling in Adelaide. She met Jim Brodie and had a family. In the process she became a white person! Veronica tells the story with good natured humour, but the concepts behind this chapter in her life are chilling. The situation arose because Jim's father was white. By marrying Jim she became eligible to wear a tag on her chest that would allow her certain privileges, like being served in a hotel. When Jim and Veronica had children, the authorities stepped in again. "They graded my kids when they were born as if they were grading fowl eggs. My first two girls were graded differently -- Colleen was declared one- eighth Aboriginal, while Margaret, the oldest one, was declared one -- sixteenth Aboriginal. You see, Margaret was quite fair, but Colleen was a little bit darker-skinned. They both had the same parents, so it just goes to show how silly the system was." Historical events intervened, and Veronica's later children weren't considered by these senseless measures. The actions of the Dunstan State Government, the Whitlam Federal Government and, of course, the 1967 referendum combined to change the standing of Aboriginal people before the law. Veronica was active in struggling for the rights of her people then and she continues with this battle today. In recent times, she played a crucial role in the resistance to the construction of the Hindmarsh Island bridge. In spite of a number of serious health problems, she is still active in work around Aboriginal housing, the Aboriginal Sobriety Group (Auntie Veronica is quite open about her own struggle with alcohol many years ago) and a number of other groups fighting for social justice. It is not possible, however, to convey what it is that Auntie Veronica brings to the movement by simply listing her many achievements and activities. You will understand a lot more about it after reading her book, but I am convinced that its only when you meet her that you get a full appreciation. The launch of the book last week was an opportunity to see what I mean. A number of people involved in the production of the book and from Tauondi College paid tribute to Veronica. She spoke about her pleasure at its completion and the opportunity its production gave her to reflect on her hard and eventful life. It was a dignified and suitably formal public occasion. Just before the gathering broke up, Auntie Veronica asked for permission to speak again. She proceeded to lead the crowd in the singing of "Happy Birthday" for Emma -- a little girl who was part of a choir from Kaurna Plains Primary School that had entertained the people prior to the formalities. She had just turned six!* * * My Side of the Bridge: Veronica Brodie as told to Mary-Anne Gale,
RRP $24.95 Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2002, Box 2266 Kent Town SA 5071
(08) 8362 8800, Fax (08) 8362 7592, http://www.wakefieldpress.com.au