| Transcript (page 2 of 10) |
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| Frank Heimans: What do you remember about your grandfather, what other things? |
| Ruby Langford Ginibi:
He always said, Cmon Goodfulla, cmon Goodfulla, and he had these hot peppermint lollies, he used to have them in his shirt pocket, Good for your colds hed be saying. And you know even today, and Im a 66-year-old woman, I got bloody peppermints now, and I love them, you know, the peppermints. So, you know, these old habits, hey. But, yeah, he was a good man. I seen him play a game of cricket, and I wrote about this in my books, with his three sons, Dad being the eldest and Uncle Sam, because there was a young Sam too, and Uncle Bob, on Cabbage Tree Island Mission when I was only, I think I was about 13. I went there for Christmas when I was Casino High School for the only two years that I had in high school, you know, and I saw this old fella play, and I think he was in his sixties then, play his three sons, and he done them like a dinner, and he stood there throwing to them. They chucked the bat in and they wouldnt play with him any more, they walked off, had the huffs with him, but hes standing there throwing the ball up like to say, Cmon Goodfulla, come and play your dad cricket, a big cheeky grin on his face. And hes been an inspiration to me all my life, that old man, you know. He was a legend on the north coast of New South Wales. Theres two books that are written about him and his cricketing powers. They reckon he scored over a hundred centuries. Ive got so much documentation there about his averages, batting averages, and that there, you know. The only reason why he didnt wear the green and gold of Australian cricket was because he was a black man. They brought him down to Sydney here to teach the young students from Sydney University how to play cricket in the early years, in the early 1900s, in a game at Redfern, I think at the oval there somewhere where they were playing. As soon as they found out that he was a black man they walked off and wouldnt play with him, you know. |
| Frank Heimans: When was this, in which year about? |
| Ruby Langford Ginibi: In the early 1900s. Ive got all that stuff documented there, I can give you the exact times and stuff like that there. Ill show it to you afterwards. I should have brought them out to show you before. But theres just so much history of all this Aboriginal achievement thats never ever been acknowledged in this country ever, you know, and even today. Weve got all the so-called experts out in this country that know everything about Aboriginal people and some of these people, and theyre writing about us, the media and everything there and the stereotypes of what they do when they speak about us. You know, some of these people have never even met an Aboriginal person, wouldnt know one if they bloody well fell over them. Its ridiculous, you know. Were the first people of this land and, if youll pardon the expression, were counted as shit in our own country. Thats wrong, morally wrong. |
| Frank Heimans: Who did Grandfather Sam marry; was it a tribal woman? |
| Ruby Langford Ginibi: Yes, Granny Mabel. She was full-blood. Grandfather in those old days, he was classed as a half-caste, although today youre not allowed by law to say that youre any degree of cast - youre either Aboriginal or white, whichever you identify as in the community, you know, and are accepted as such. On mums side, mums father was an Italian banana plantation owner who raped my tribal grandmother and thats how my mother came to be. He never reared my mother, my grandmother did, and I never knew what my grandmothers name was because our mother run away and left us when I was only a kid, you know, I was only six when mum left. I did research and found out, I went and tracked it all down, and her tribal name was Babundi and her name was Nellie Solomon. So with Mother Nell being named Nell, its no wonder I was very partial to Nellies, hey, you know, that dear old name. |
| Frank Heimans: Its a Victorian name. |
| Ruby Langford Ginibi: What do they say in that song, Its a grand old name. |
| Frank Heimans: And your father then, can you tell me something about your father? |
| Ruby Langford Ginibi: Well, dad was the first born, dad was the eldest, and they all worked for the property owners, the Yabsleys. Everybody from the little mission where I was born worked and built up those big cattle hierarchies, and I counted six different homesteads what these people owned, and they wouldnt have had these places, because that place where Im talking about was known as the big scrub, you know, and mustering the cattle and that. So there were stockmen and women, housemaids and servants, my people. They were the first pioneers in fact. Then again, you wont find that in any white history books in this country either, you see. |
| Frank Heimans: Is that the Yabsley family of which Michael Yabsley is a descendent? |
| Ruby Langford Ginibi: Oh, yeah, oh yeah. As a matter of fact, I interviewed his mother - oh, I forget her name. She married Bob Yabsley and then when Bob Yabsley died she married Erle Cardow, and Erle Cardow was the grandson of Cunningham Henderson who was the first squatter that had a place called Main Camp Homestead at Raphville outside of Casino. |