âThe woman in this photograph is Annie Hamilton, she is my Grandfatherâs Grandmother, which makes her my Great-Great Grandmother.
The photograph is from a series taken in the late 1800s at Corranderrk Aboriginal Reserve - which is around 50kms north-east of Melbourne.
âGranny Annieâ hailed from the Riverina district near Balranald. She was a fresh water river woman who was dedicated to keeping Aboriginal families strong and connected despite the processes of the British invasion. The British invasion brought warfare and massacres, sickness and death. The expanding frontier imposed a culture that was greedy and selfish, that required Aboriginal people to be rounded up and confined, and often they were removed from their traditional country. Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their families and communities. We lived through an attempted genocide. We survived, thanks to Aboriginal women like our Granny Annie.
Throughout her homelands Granny Annie was famous for visiting many of the white homesteads that had stolen Aboriginal children (many of whom were kept as slaves working as farm hands and domestics) and would demand that the children be allowed to spend time with her. Her requests were rarely rejected. With the children in her care she would take them on slow, meandering paddlesteamer journeys up and down the Murray or the Murrumbidgee so they could visit their parents, families and communities. She would return the kids to the white homesteads, with great heartache Iâd imagine, satisfied that they would at least know who they were and where they belonged. It was her way of keeping Aboriginal families strong and connected despite the inhumane treatment of the British invaders.
Her dedication to keeping Aboriginal families strong was most notable in her role as a midwife. Granny Annie oversaw the births of many Aboriginal babies in her lifetime â which is arguably one of the most effective ways to combat the British and their intent to âsmooth the pillow of the dying raceâ and enact Aboriginal genocide. Granny Annie became so skilled at midwifery she was recognised by the Victorian Midwives Association and became the first Aboriginal woman to be given a qualification recognised by the state.
In her mid-20s Annie fell in love and married and was moved to Corranderk on Wurundjeri country. She was at Corranderk during the government inquiry of 1881, in fact she was a signatory to the petition from residents that gave birth to the inquiry.
Corranderk was where she lived most of her life and I wonder how she coped with the cold and the altitude, as our home on the river is low-lying and flat, and the bush isnât so dense and shaded.
When I first saw this photograph, I thought she was wielding a spear, holding it like a warning, her baby wrapped in the government-issued blanket, safe and protected while she was on-guard, ready to take on the world.
The truth is sheâs holding a canoe pole, which is a symbol of her identity as a woman of the river. A canoe pole isnât a weapon that serves to restrict or guard. A canoe pole is about access. When you stand on a flat bark canoe with a canoe pole as your oar you can glide across gently flowing water or still lakes with ease, you can meander from midden to midden across expansive flooded plains in order to access whatever it is you need.
Even though the photograph is staged and represents the construct of a white male anthropological gaze, she still â to this day - radiates dignity and resilience.
I suspect that this is the oldest photograph in my familyâs collection.
Government records suggest that Annie Hamilton lived until 1935, and so she would have been alive when my Grandfather was born at Cummeragunja.â ~Â Bryan Andy. 8 July 2018.
