Eileen (Susie) Williams says she was a perfect student, she did what she was told. They had the cane then and she didn’t want to get it. She attended Menindee School during the years 1957 to 1966.
She never missed school unless it was raining. Her family lived on the reserve over the railway bridge. It was on the black soil which became impassable when wet. If it was raining the children couldn’t go to school. If it began to rain during school hours then the principal would ring the police, who would arrive and drive the children home in the police van.
There were lots of kids who came to school from the reserve. Susie remembers six from her family, six or seven from the Sloane family, three Jones, three from another Williams family, two Duttons and some from the Whyman family. All the kids walked to school over the old road/railway bridge.
Susie’s favourite classes were sewing, music and arithmetic. She liked music and was good with her hands. “I could read but was not too good at spelling” she says. The school supplied all books pencils and learning materials.
Around 5th or 6th class her favourite teacher was Mrs Ferguson.
“She lived in town and we used to go up to her block and get fruit. She was a lovely person and treated us well.”
Her family couldn’t always afford to buy white bread. Her mum always gave them baked beans or spaghetti sandwiches when they had bread. Susie hated baked beans and always tried to talk her mum into making the spaghetti sandwiches instead.
When there was no bread she and other Aboriginal children were given ‘Johnny cakes’, a type of damper. Most of the kids were ashamed to let the white kids see them eating these, so they would congregate around a big tree at the front of the school away from the others. It was only much later that Susie learned that her eldest brother used to trade his Johnny cakes with the white kids for their meat sandwiches.
“We had to go to Broken Hill For a sports day. We had to stay overnight. Because we didn’t have much money we had to raise money for the train trip in. It was decided to hold a cake stall to raise the money. My mum made lamingtons for me to take in. All the teachers knew that we lived in a tin humpy on the riverbank with no electricity and not much stuff. They asked me where I got the lamingtons from. I told them that my mum made them. They asked how she could have done that. I told them she cooked them in the camp oven over the open fire. We were selling the lamingtons for threepence, so I sold them to the teachers for sixpence. They took them and ate them. They brought the money down to the classroom. They told me they were the best lamingtons they had ever had. We raised enough money for the train trip. We caught the Midnight Special into Broken Hill on the Thursday. We played sports on Friday and arrived back in Menindee midnight on Friday.”
When Susie’s mum was expecting a child, she would go to Murrin Bridge to Susie’s grandmother’s place. While there Susie and the other children would attend the Murrin Bridge School.
“I got caned at that school and it wasn’t my fault either. It was because of my class. They were running around instead of sitting in their seat. I was the only one sitting in the seats and he lined the whole class up for the cane. He got the ruler and we had to hold our hands out palm up. He hit us on the way down and then again on the way up. All my fingernails went black and broke because it was so hard.”
She ran home to her mum, who came back to angrily complain to the teacher. Susie had the rest of the day off.
After school one day Susie, her sister, Jennifer, the Jones girl and Tub picked fruit from a tree in an uninhabited house in Yartla Street. John Whyman and John Kelly saw them and wanted some. The girls told them to go and get their own. When the boys went, there was only green fruit remaining, so they picked some and used them to pelt at the girls. They hit Susie on the ear. This infuriated Susie who chased John Kelly and gave him a belting. He thought twice before taking her on again!
