Bush Mary
'The only Sundays I looked forward to were spent with my beloved Australian nanna Kathleen Mary McCarthy. I would sit with Nanna McC — listening to her stories unwind — and watch her pickle onions and brew ginger beer for Sister Kate’s fête. She always cared for unloved and unwanted orphans. She would send me out to play with them. I didn’t understand that I was playing with stolen children. I used to think Nanna McC was a kind of saint. I knew she was sent into service as a domestic slave, but it was not until that moment I understood that she was a Bush Mary.’ — Teena McCarthy
Teena Mccarthy is is a Barkindji Italian woman who is a descendant of The Stolen Generations. Her work documents her family’s displacement and Aboriginal Australian’s loss of culture and its hidden history. In 2018, she was the inaugural winner of the King & Wood Mallesons Contemporary ATSI Art Award and a finalist in The 65th Blake Prize. Earlier, she was a finalist in the 70th year Mosman Art Prize and finalist in the 2014 and 2015 Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize. This is her first poetry collection.
