Lucy McGinness - Alyandabu*

Lucy McGinness drifted
up and down Vestey Hill, Darwin.
She smiled - said hullo
to everyone.
        Lucy's family and most of her tribe
        the Khungarakung were
        massacred by the whites.
        As part of their rations they were
        given arsenic in flour and if that
        didn't work they were shot.
        Lucy, a child was one of
        only four survivors.

Lucy didn't hate the whites.
She married Stephen McGinness an
Irishman - had five children
proud of their Aboriginal/Irish
heritage. After her husband's
untimely death Lucy was legally
classified as an alien
in her own country.

Under the Aboriginal Ward Act
the authorities took her
children from her.
Tried to break her spirit -
her mind.
She challenged them
and won.

Walking up and down
Vestey Hill, Darwin,
Lucy smiled, said hullo
to everyone.
Lucy didn't hate the whites
but sometimes I do.

*Based on a true story as told by Ted Egan in Alice Springs in 1987