Ngya Bidjara/Birri Gubba Juru marra. My name is Jackie Huggins. I am the mother of John. I am also the daughter of Rita, and Albert and Rose are my grandparents on my mother’s side. My father is Jack Huggins. My grandparents are John Henry Huggins the third, and Fanny: all people from Queensland in Australia.
My father was a free man. He wasn’t under the Aboriginal protection legislation of the state of Queensland, or of the country, in fact. The Aboriginals Protection Act – or Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 – restricted many Aboriginal people in Queensland to remaining wards of the state, controlling their employment and other aspects of their lives.
To be outside this Act meant less restrictions on where you could go, who you could marry, and so on. Your life was not controlled.
