Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
Untold stories of long forgotten women,
their journeys, and the pursuit of gold.
The stories about my great grandmother Kate Herry, passed down to me by my mother and grandmother were incredible. I thought: What an amazing woman!
After months of searching online, and at the Public Records Office, and travelling to the places the family lived…the Buchland Valley near Bright, and Coopers Creek near Walhalla, I discovered many more stories, some deeply shocking.
One was about the attempted rape of Kate, aged 9, in 1871. At the PRO, I copied the actual notes from the rape trial held in the Sale Courthouse, which was presided over by Judge Edmund Barry.
And Annie [O’Donnell] Handforth, Kate’s mother, was jailed for insanity in 1882! Annie had sailed from Ireland to Melbourne at the age of 17 to help her Aunt [and her 4 children], whose husband had died on arrival in Melbourne.
After marrying goldminer James Handforth in the Buchland, Annie and James [with 3year old Kate and Martha, aged 1] walked approx. 350km to Coopers Creek in Gippsland. Annie had a baby at Woods Point on the way. Before Annie had been jailed, 5 of her 10 children had died. A few months after the funeral for their 14 year old daughter and 4 year old son, who both died of diphtheria, her husband James was declared bankrupt. Annie died of ‘insanity, refusal to eat’ at the age of 52.
I was proud to discover my great grandmother Kate’s signature on the 1891 Women’s Suffrage Petition. She lived until she was 92. She was a strong, determined and caring woman who worked hard all her life and helped many people.
So many pioneering women’s stories have been forgotten, or ignored. I decided to paint about my women ancestors and their families.
I’ve been painting this series of 24 large works for more than 3 years, and they will be exhibited in June 2017 at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.
Although the paintings are about my family, they are also representative of the struggle and hardship that many pioneering women endured – birthing and raising children in difficult circumstances and environments, the walking and travelling; and being tied to their husband’s ambitions.
I want to place these stories at the front of my own history.