The launch of Auntie Dianne O’Brien’s book, Daughter of the River Country, was a joyous occasion attended by over a hundred people at Mingaletta Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation.
It was held to coincide with the delayed celebration of NAIDIOC week, on December 10, 2021 at Umina Beach.
The book was launched by local resident Benny Agius of Echo Publishing.
Aunty Di signed copies for those who purchased her book, and said: “I wrote the book because I wanted my children to understand why I am like I am.”
Aunty Di is a much-admired and respected community leader, especially well known as an elder and a tireless worker and advocate for the Aboriginal community.
The book, co-authored with Sue Williams is written in chronological order, comprising 27 chapters in three parts: Lost, Searching and Found.
Although a gripping read, the subject matter is particularly traumatic. It can be difficult to read so persevere.
Dianne was born in Wagga Wagga on July 3, 1946, and taken at birth from her Aboriginal mother.
She was well cared for by her adoptive family but tragically lost the only mother she knew at 14.
She left school at 15, whilst living in Granville, to work in the nearby Arnott’s biscuit factory.
It is a vivid description both of her life and growing up in the western suburbs of Sydney at that time.
Dianne had her first child, conceived through rape at the age of 15, and was forced to marry in order to keep her child.
Dianne describes this period as an “unending cycle of violence”.
By the age of 25 Dianne O’Brien had six children (three boys and three girls) to four fathers, she had been raped four times, been the victim of domestic violence, moved countless times, and run away so many times it is difficult to keep track.
It was also a period when she searched for her birth parents, and found that she had been stolen, like so many others – it is a harrowing read.
In the lighter third part of the book Aunty Di at the age of thirty-six discovers her Aboriginal heritage as a Yorta Yorta woman, through Link-Up.
She is subsequently connected with her Aboriginal birth mother and finds out about her deceased Aboriginal father, and extended family including her great grandfather, William Cooper, a prominent advocate and founder of NAIDOC.
She then moved to her home with the Yorta Yorta people near Cummera on the banks of the Murray River and worked as an Aboriginal health worker and eventually CEO of the Aboriginal Medical Service in her community hence the sub-title of the book, ‘Daughter of the River country’.
In the early 2000s she moved to Woy Woy and then to Blue Haven and has worked as an Aboriginal Health Worker for the Central Coast Area Health Service, the Medicare Local, and currently with Coast and Country Primary Care, and in an honorary capacity on the Board and volunteering three days a week at Mingaletta.
Daughter of the River Country brings to life the cycles of disadvantage experienced by members of the Stolen Generations.
In doing so Dianne O’Brien inspires us with the unbelievable strength of character and determination that enabled her to triumph over these evils.
As Aunty Di writes:”… yes, I’d been the victim of a great deal of violence but it made me stronger and more resilient, with the confidence to know I could withstand whatever life threw at me.”
Source:
Media release, Jan 6
Dr Stephanie Short and Sue McCarthy