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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'This extraordinary and heartfelt story chronicles the lives of the Rodriguez family of Debesa Station in the West Kimberley; their livelihood through difficult times, love of family, place and culture, and the challenges of day-to-day living on a small sheep station amid huge pastoral properties.
'Spanning four generations from the 1880s when the author’s maternal great-grandfather, Indian deckhand, Jimmy Casim, met and lived with Nigena woman, Lucy Muninga on Yeeda Station near Derby, Debesa centres on the unlikely partnership of Cindy’s parents: Frank Rodriguez, once a Benedictine novice monk from Spain, and Katie Fraser, who had been a novitiate in a very different sort of abbey – a convent for ‘black’ women at Beagle Bay Mission, 130 kilometres north of Broome.
'Together, Frank and Katie Rodriguez established Debesa, where Cindy and her three siblings grew up with the rich cultural heritage of their Spanish, Nigena and English ancestors.'
Source : publisher's blurb
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
[Review] Debesa : The Story of Frank and Katie Rodriguez by Cindy Solonec
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Aboriginal History Journal , no. 46 2022;
— Review of Debesa 2021 single work biography Debesa is an inspiring and wondrous Australian story – arguably family history at
its best. Based firmly in region, it takes place in the world of the West Kimberley,
on the sheep and cattle stations around Derby. It is also a global story. We meet
the seafaring Indian great-grandfather who sailed into Fremantle in the 1880s, then
promptly jumped ship. We learn how he met the beautiful Nigena woman, Muninga.
The narrative evolves to become a transgenerational story of interconnected Indian,
Spanish, European and Nigena families.' (Introduction)
-
[Review] Debesa : The Story of Frank and Katie Rodriguez by Cindy Solonec
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Aboriginal History Journal , no. 46 2022;
— Review of Debesa 2021 single work biography Debesa is an inspiring and wondrous Australian story – arguably family history at
its best. Based firmly in region, it takes place in the world of the West Kimberley,
on the sheep and cattle stations around Derby. It is also a global story. We meet
the seafaring Indian great-grandfather who sailed into Fremantle in the 1880s, then
promptly jumped ship. We learn how he met the beautiful Nigena woman, Muninga.
The narrative evolves to become a transgenerational story of interconnected Indian,
Spanish, European and Nigena families.' (Introduction)
Awards
- West Kimberley,
