PAULINE Bartholomew was visibly moved when she stood to receive the inaugural Aunt May Yarrowyck award at the NAIDOC awards presentation on Tuesday.
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Inverell Family and Youth Support Services sponsored the award, which recognises the outstanding achievement in all aspects of commitment and dedication in the community, both personal and professional.
Jacinta Marsh of IFYSS said she had phoned all the nominees for the award before the presentations to make sure they attended. She said Pauline was speechless when she was told she was in the running.
Winning the award, Pauline, aged 81, seemed at first at a loss as she accepted her trophy and received hugs and congratulations.
“I didn’t expect this,” she said with a tear glistening in her eye.
“It’s really something to think that I’m awarded this from a lady who did it all and I don’t know, back in those days, if she could have done it, we should have been able to do it, too.”
She looked out across the gathering and encouraged young people to achieve.
“They could do it back then. You can do everything today, if you put your mind to it.
“And thank you very much for this. You don’t know how much, or how big, this has made me feel,” she faltered, holding back her emotions.
Before the award was announced, Greg Livermore, CEO of Anaiwan Local Aboriginal Land Council, gave a biographical account of Aunt May, who may have been the first Aboriginal woman who trained as a nurse in Sydney.
“Auntie May was an Aboriginal woman. She was the daughter of Peg, who was an Aboriginal woman from the Yarrowyk mob, and Martin Kelly, who was the the son of the family who owned Stoney Creek, or Mooki at the time,” Greg said.
“We seem to think she might be the first Aboriginal Australian to actually gain a qualification in nursing,” Greg said.
He said Aunt May returned to the district as a midwife.
She delivered countless babies, travelling on horseback around the region.
Greg said there are also records of Aunt May working on the coast and throughout NSW. She passed away at Tingha on April 17, 1949 and is buried at Bundarra cemetery beside her father.
“There’s a lot of people out there, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal that owe their life to Auntie May, because in those days, people didn’t get run off to hospitals to have babies, it was midwives,” Greg said.
“I said to the committee, it would be a great way to remember Auntie May, so the person that actually wins this award is recognised in our community as someone that does a lot and is really deserving of this award.”
Pauline was at a loss as to why she received the award. She assists people throughout the community, no matter what the task or the request, and doesn’t draw lines when it comes to helping out.
“I just do what I do,” she said simply.
Her friend, Sandra Allen has known Pauline for decades.
“She does things for other people and she doesn’t expect anything in return. She treats everyone the same.
“If everyone was like her, this country would be a lot better place,” Sandra said.
The roots of her altruism eluded Pauline, but she said historically, giving was a quality throughout the community.
“Aboriginals had that thing about them years ago. I mean, if one had something, the other had it, they were sharing.
“And I think that’s why this NAIDOC Week is a good thing, ‘cause it brings everybody together.
“I’d like to give thanks to the NAIDOC Committee, and to all the people who worked there on the stalls and through the day.
Pauline said years ago, she and a woman named Mrs Brown began a kind of NAIDOC event, inviting people across the community for a day of games and food.
“Mrs Brown and I, we went to Ashford, we went to Tingha and we thought, it would be a nice thing to get everyone together for a day.”
They gathered donations for prizes and organised races from bygone days like man and wife two-legged races.
“All the old things that they don’t do now. It was good times.”
Pauline was also behind the beginnings of Armajun Medical Centre and sits on the board today. She admits to a streak of activism, and will not stay silent if she sees an injustice.
With an eye on world, national current affairs and politics, she rues the fact she didn’t enter politics herself.
“I just can’t sit back and let something happen. I couldn’t; and I still can’t today. If I see something that’s not right, I will say something about it,” she said.
A life of giving that gave back with gratitude was unexpected for a woman who seems entirely selfless.
“I thought it was one of the most humbling things that I’ve ever had; to think that that NAIDOC committee thought I was worthy of that. I just do what I do” she reiterated.
“And as I always tell my kids, ‘If you can’t do something good, don’t do nothin’ bad’. And you can’t always expect an award for doing things, because that was the shock of my life, getting that award.”
