Lorraine McGee Sippel

A Yorta-Yorta woman poet who started writing poetry about 6 years ago. She writes in response to the pain she feels from not knowing her family and true Aboriginal cultural identity. Lorraine has a diploma in Koori Education and is a member of Link-up and currently on the NSW Stolen Generations Working Group, formed to ensure that government bodies comply with the recommendations from the Stolen Generations Inquiry. Lorraine notes that despite those recommendations the removal of Aboriginal children still happens today, under the guise of Juvenile Justice.

I would like to thank the organisers of today’s event and also like to thank everyone for coming here today to share with us, I would also like to acknowledge and pay respects to the Eora people the traditional owners of this land. Sebang that was a pretty hard act to follow you know we all express ourselves in different ways and as one of the stolen children I do mine through poetry and when Isabel Coe was speaking I was thinking because for a long time I used to feel guilty I wasn’t there part of the struggle but I was struggling to find out who I was because I didn’t fit the stereotypes, I didn’t look Aboriginal some people thought and I didn’t know it was awful being lost. I am a Yorta Yorta woman and that is down along the Murray River out at Deniliquin, Echuca, Shepperton and all those places there.

I would like to start off by reading a poem called "Belonging Where" because it is so important to know who we are and where we belong.

Belonging Where

Caught in an abyss

Belonging Where

Thousands of children heartache despair,

stolen,

separated leaving mothers behind

lost to our culture music dance and art

lost to ourselves our families our hearts as a child wondering what did I do wrong

who the hell am I

a feeling so strong

the taunts of a childhood all a whirl

half caste half caste

a little black girl

Italiano Greek Mauri or what

some of the questions asked

a lot too black to be white

too white to be black

caught in the middle

belonging nowhere

And that’s how it feels at times I still feel like I don’t belong anywhere and the policies that allowed this to happen were assimilation policies so when I found out about what had happened that there were thousands of other people like me I wrote this poem and it’s called assimilation.

assimilation

assimilation a melting pot

attempting to make a people something they are not,

why did it happen,

what was the cause

total disregard of us and our laws

Assimilate Integrate no sirre

through to our bones we are Aborigine

Looking the way I do which perhaps doesn’t fit some of these images for some people I wrote another poem called stereotype images and it goes like this

stereotype images

Black is beautiful but what do you see

blond blue eyed white constantly

on tabloid TV the portrayal of Koories

nearly always the same stereotypical negative images

we shoulder the blame

you don’t look Aboriginal is often the cry

reminiscent of anthropologists in years gone by

we too have changed

just like you

varying shades many hues

curly hair some straight

what diff does it make

blue eyes brown eyes and some green ones too

Koori in spirit Koori at heart

these are the things that set us apart

I went to University as a mature age student in the early nineties and trying to catch up with my Aboriginality because I went home to my family in the early eighties but it was a number of years before I allowed myself to be Aboriginal. I didn’t think I had a right to be Aboriginal because I hadn’t suffered but this friend put me straight at University - he is a Kamelleroi man and I wrote this poem for him because he told me who I was and said you know how much hurt can you have being a stolen child isn’t that enough pain haven’t you earnt it and I dedicate this to my friend.

Kamelleroi man

you helped me through UTS in 92

tough times of study doing Koori Ed and feeling blue

when I got lost in 93

not trying to be smart just trying to be me

identity crisis one after the other

you said mate you’re Koori too so don’t forget it

you didn’t judge me or turn me away

you were a true friend then as you are today

 

I’d like to tell you about my sister Lorraine which was quite a discovery because we were very much alike and it’s through Lorraine that I started writing poetry we had a history of close family deaths starting with Lorraine who younger than me and I call it

Sister Lorraine

As storm clouds gather in the sky again

I think of you my sister my friend

the time that we had was ever so short

there was no say in what destiny brought

another Christmas has just passed on by

a collection of memories at times I cry

most times however I remember our bond

it was pretty unique

your twin my twin I hear you speak

remember the night we sat up till four thirty

comparing our scars we were ever so naughty

and the times we went out dressed almost the same

as you chuckled away I also laughed till I pained

what you and I shared cannot be taken away

cause in my heart is where you will stay

so much richness so much pleasure

these were but a few things we shared together

I’d like to finish off with Native Title seeing as it is so much in the news today thanks to John Howard. I’d like to dedicate this to my Grandmother and my country Yorta Yorta.

I call it Nan’s country and it took a long time to get down there and when I did I was welcomed with open arms as a Yorta Yorta woman

Nan’s country

I am of the Yorta Yorta

it’s music to my ears

it took so long to get there

where my spirit lives

down along the Murray

and where the Edward river does flow

Munaculaburm and Cunamungara too

ah - the names of a few

Nan’s country my country