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Hilda Jarman Muir Hilda Jarman Muir i(A81274 works by)
Born: Established: ca. 1920 Northern Territory, ;
Gender: Female
Heritage: Aboriginal Yanyuwa / Yanuwa ; Aboriginal
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Works By

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1 Tracy Sarah Cathcart , Nicola Fearn , Hilda Jarman Muir , Samantha Chalmers , 2008 single work drama

'Gulf Country in the 1920's - there is a murder on Vanderlin Island, the witnesses are rounded up. Eight-year-old Hilda and three other girls are taken with them. They ride 500kms to Darwin where the girls are put into Kahlin Compound, the home for half-castes.

'Devon UK in the 1970's: the family manor house is locked up by bailiffs. The family sneak back in and live in secret in the servant's quarters but are discovered. They flee to Australia on the ten-pound-passage arriving in Darwin in November 1974.

'Two families from very different backgrounds come to call Darwin home. Then cyclone Tracy hits, devastating the city on Christmas eve 1974.

'"Tracy" is based on the extraordinary family stories of Yanyuwa woman Samantha Chalmers, Nicola Fearn and survivors of Cyclone Tracy.

'Through storytelling, movement, music, exquisite puppetry and mask, Tracy intertwines the lives of two very different women. '

Source: www.blackbirdproductions.com.au/ (Sighted 05/12/2008).

1 5 y separately published work icon Very Big Journey : My Life as I Remember It Very Big Journey Hilda Jarman Muir , Canberra : Aboriginal Studies Press , 2004 Z1106985 2004 single work autobiography

'Hilda Muir was born on the very frontier of modern Australia, near the outback town of Borroloola in the Northern Territory in about 1920.

'Her early life was spent roaming the Gulf Country on foot, hunting and gathering with her family. Her mother was a Yanyuwa person, and so was Hilda. Known to the clan as 'Jarman', it mattered little that her father was an unknown white man. This small girl had a name, a loving family, and a secure Aboriginal identity.

'Very Big Journey tells of Hilda's bush childhood, and her forced removal from a loving family to the rigours of life in the Kahlin Home...

'In 1995, Hilda Muir was one of those chosen to present a writ to the High Court on behalf of her fellow stolen-generation, asserting that the removals were illegal as well as immoral...Today Hilda Muir, her Aboriginal children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are living reminders that governments cannot always shape human lives in ways they might wish.' Source: Publisher's blurb

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