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Francis Firebrace

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Turning Point       Travelling Storyteller          Bottom of Page              

Francis Firebrace, Dreamtime Storytellerof the Yorta Yorta people has entertained audiences all over Australia as well as America, Scotland, New Zealand and Asia. He has inspired audiences in Alaska, the Yukon and British Columbia. He has performed with the Sydney Youth Ballet and at the Sydney Opera House. In 1997 Francis appeared at the world renowned Scottish International  Storytelling Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. At the National Storyfest in Sydney he kept audiences spellbound. In January 1997 he was part of the biggest Australia Day Party outside Australia in  Vietnam.

Yet, when he was a boy he was overwhelmed by people in groups of more than ten!

You see Francis was brought up in the bush and it wasn't until he was seven that the family moved to the "big smoke." That is, they moved to the township of Euston with a population of approximately 300. He was born out of wedlock to a white woman. His father was Aboriginal and his mother was still legally married to another man.

My father and mother ran away at midnight in a horse and sulky. They followed the river for around 250 miles. We lived in the bush in a tent until I was around 3, then a house with a dirt floor till I was 6. Then we moved to Euston. At that stage the largest group of people I had ever seen was about 9 or 8, so I was spellbound when I saw all these people in town. I started school when I was 7. I had a hard time because I was one of the only aboriginal kids there. I had to fight a lot. I didn't know any  different so I figured it was pretty normal. I grew up wanting to be white. I'd look in the mirror and cry  because I wasn't fair skinned like everyone else. That was sad but it was part of my learning and it gives me compassion for other people. I left school when I was 14. I was bright, but I wasn't interested much in traditional schooling.

I went droving. (herding Cattle)  My father was a rabbit trapper and we used to catch kangaroos with snares and things. By the time I was 21. I owned my own droving plant. I was also married to a Polynesian/Aboriginal girl and we started a family. We used to travel around in a wagonette. When I was 21, I rode a horse from Gunnedah to Narrabri to join a cattle drive and I went to Queensland. My wife joined me later, with my first daughter Terri. That was a long time ago.

I was a stockman until I was 28. Then I went to Canberra and became a filmmaker. In 1976 I won the International Moomba Film Festival. People did not know I was aboriginal. I used to keep that quiet because it wasn't popular then.

I had five children with my first wife. I lost my daughter, Lorri, when she was 23, to cancer. I stopped the film I was working on. I thought I'd go back to it another time. I never did go back. I sold my house, bought a boat and went to the Whitsunday Islands and became an entertainer.
       
This was a turning point for me, when my daughter died. I let go of my material values and suddenly I found my freedom. By letting go of the past I opened the doors to the future. Living on a boat for 11 years, you learn to look at this incredible society in which we live. I realised I'd been one of those fools chasing monetary gain and possessions. I changed my outlook. I also started telling stories and found the tourists were very interested. When I came down to Sydney I started to tell stories to some kids who were drinking and smoking grass, you know, and they related to them.

The teachers heard me and I was approved by the Education Department of New South Wales to tell stories in NSW Schools and that kicked me off. I've never looked back.

I tell stories to speak the truth in an entertaining way so that people hear it and before they know it the seeds are planted. Story is the most natural, the most powerful, the most spiritual way to connect with people. I can help to make a better world for children and for other people.

The lyrebird story I tell, which comes from the Blue Mountains is about the abuse of power. The lyrebird teaches the frog to sing. The frog got big headed and tried to sing down the moon. Of course the moon ignored him and he sang louder and louder until eventually his voice went. That's why the frog can only croak. But the lyrebird, who was willing to share his power, still has a beautiful voice and still sings in the Australian bush to this very day.

I'm a travelling storyteller. My stories are not just from the Yorta Yorta area and people, I get them from all over, and we swap stories with one   another. I learned some from the tribal people in the Northern Territory when I was droving.. (herding cattle)  Some of my stories are from my father. For instance Jerri Jerri, the Willy Wagtail, my father was always nervous of him. Jerri Jerri is  mischievous and he brings trouble. He gets close as he can, listens to what you are saying and then off he goes, carting yarns (stories)  all over the place. My father would throw something at them to frighten them away, but he wouldn't hurt them. He used to tell me not to hit them because if you do there will be big trouble. All my stories are selected for their meanings and positive messages. The only way to make change is to go out there and give people another view of life. That's what I do through my stories, my paintings and my philosophy.

Aboriginal Celebrity Francis Firebrace

 

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Francis Firebrace

YORTA YORTA Struggle for Justice Continues by Wayne Atkinson

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Although Francis' father was of the Yorta Yorta clan ( Francis' father was taken from his mother at age of 5) Francis has nothing to do or say about the Yorta Yorta land claims as he knows and understands this would be inappropriate, but supports his father's people & the Aboriginal cause as a storyteller and artist and supplies this link for educational purposes.

 

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