ShelterAn Oral History of Marjorie Oke Rooming House for Women Rhonda Wilson This subtle social history tells the lives of the people. It is precious because it truly paints a picture of the times we live in. Joyce Cribb, Voiceprint |
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Book Description
What’s
great about the Pokies are the pretty pictures and the music, The Black
Rhino or Wild Africa and the Cougar one, they’ve got
beautiful
animals on them.
Ann
Rhonda Wilson introducing Shelter argues: ‘Oral history is important because it records the unofficial or subtle history of the world as distinct from received official history, which is largely the history of men’s power struggles and men’s wars. Whereas this subtle history tells the lives of the people. It is precious because it truly paints a picture of the times we live in: the traditions, the culture. It fosters respect for the way people speak: the rhythms, the colloquialisms, the turns of phrase that characterise a particular people at a particular time.’
So
this group of pregnant young women would walk down the main road, down
to the shops in Fairfield. We must have looked like quite a circus
show, it was very embarrassing, very shaming.
Janet
Shelter, An Oral History of Marjorie Oke Rooming House for Women, tells in their own words those women’s stories which we would prefer kept hidden.
Published 2007
304 pgs
Shelter book sample
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Introduction
The Central Mission Girls Memorial Home
Dorothy
Janet
Georgina House
Michelle
Jane
Marjorie Oke Rooming House for Women
Marj
Sue
Cheryl
Sandy
Ann
Kate
Lucy
Lisa
Helen
Judy
Bev
Sally
Merrilee
Endnote
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SHELTER
Joyce Cribb
Voiceprint (Newsletter of the NSW Branch of the Oral History Association of Australia), No. 39, October 2008
There is a big red brick house in Station St in Fairfield, Victoria. It used to be owned by MacPherson Robertson who made his fame and fortune in chocolates. It is strange that a house built on so much sweet sugar and cocoa would over time house so much sadness and pain.
This oral history of MarjorieOke Rooming House for Women shines a light on individual lives but also shows us society's changing attitudes between the 1950s and the present, from a time when single women had their newborn babies taken away from them for adoption to a time when even the most marginalized women are offered support and shelter in a comfortable rooming house.
This subtle social history tells the lives of the people. It is precious because it truly paints a picture of the times we live in: the traditions, the culture. It fosters respect for the way people speak: the rhythms, the colloquialisms,the turns of phrase that characterise a particular people at a particular time.
An actor, theatre director and teacher, Rhonda Wilson’s earlier oral history, Good Talk, The Extraordinary Lives Of Ten Ordinary Australian Women, was nominated for the Victorian Premier’s Prize in Australian Studies.
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Joyce Cribb
Voiceprint (Newsletter of the NSW Branch of the Oral History Association of Australia), No. 39, October 2008
There is a big red brick house in Station St in Fairfield, Victoria. It used to be owned by MacPherson Robertson who made his fame and fortune in chocolates. It is strange that a house built on so much sweet sugar and cocoa would over time house so much sadness and pain.
This oral history of MarjorieOke Rooming House for Women shines a light on individual lives but also shows us society's changing attitudes between the 1950s and the present, from a time when single women had their newborn babies taken away from them for adoption to a time when even the most marginalized women are offered support and shelter in a comfortable rooming house.
This subtle social history tells the lives of the people. It is precious because it truly paints a picture of the times we live in: the traditions, the culture. It fosters respect for the way people speak: the rhythms, the colloquialisms,the turns of phrase that characterise a particular people at a particular time.
An actor, theatre director and teacher, Rhonda Wilson’s earlier oral history, Good Talk, The Extraordinary Lives Of Ten Ordinary Australian Women, was nominated for the Victorian Premier’s Prize in Australian Studies.
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