KANE BRUNJES
Old Tongy Station

2022
acrylic on canvas
92 x 46cm

To the left of the piece is reference to a tree from around the area of Old Tongy Station. The tree holds a scar, allowing a view into a time when family were taken from their country. This is the country my great Nan, Eileen South and her mother Minnie Roberts were born.

“One day towards the end of 1913, the police were escorting a group of Blacks and they stopped at Tongy Station. They were coming from the Cunnamulla area. Later that afternoon two little girls were playing and doing what children did in those days. The police grabbed these two girls and locked them in a shed overnight, just in the clothes they were wearing.”

The next morning Nan Eileen, her younger sister Dora, along with her eldest sister Katie, her husband and their family were removed from Tongy Station.

I’d like to acknowledge and thank Uncle Jim South, for keeping/sharing these stories of family and country. This following story has come from his book, Law, Lore, Accountability and Responsibility.