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Wanamurraganya: The story of Jack McPhee
Book by Morgan, Sally
196 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
2 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
About the author
Sally Morgan
415 books138 followersSally Morgan is recognised as one of Australia's best known Aboriginal artists and writers. She is one of a number of successful urban Aboriginal artists.
Sally was born in Perth in 1951, the eldest of five children. As a child she found school difficult because of questions from other students about her appearance and family background. She understood from her mother that she and her family were from India. However, when Sally was fifteen she learnt that she and her sister were in fact of Aboriginal descent, from the Palku people of the Pilbara.
This experience of her hidden origins, and subsequent quest for identity, was the stimulus for her first book My Place published in 1987. It tells the story of her self discovery through reconnection with her Aboriginal culture and community. The book was an immediate success and has since sold over half a million copies in Australia. It has also been published in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Her second book Wanamurraganya was published in 1989. It is the biography of her grandfather, Jack McPhee. She has also written five books for children.
As well as writing, Sally Morgan has established an international reputation as an artist. She has works in numerous private and public collections in Australia and the United States, including the Australian National Gallery and the Dobell Foundation collection. Her work is particularly popular in the United States. Her work as an artist is excellently described and illustrated in the book Art of Sally Morgan.
She has received many awards, including from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission. As a part of the celebration in 1993 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, her print Outback was selected by international art historians as one of 30 paintings and sculptures for reproduction on a stamp representing an article of the Declaration.
My Place remains her most influential work, not only because of its very wide popularity but also because it provided a new model for other writers, particularly those of indigenous background.
She is currently Director of the Centre for Indigenous History and Arts at The University of Western Australia.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Sally was born in Perth in 1951, the eldest of five children. As a child she found school difficult because of questions from other students about her appearance and family background. She understood from her mother that she and her family were from India. However, when Sally was fifteen she learnt that she and her sister were in fact of Aboriginal descent, from the Palku people of the Pilbara.
This experience of her hidden origins, and subsequent quest for identity, was the stimulus for her first book My Place published in 1987. It tells the story of her self discovery through reconnection with her Aboriginal culture and community. The book was an immediate success and has since sold over half a million copies in Australia. It has also been published in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Her second book Wanamurraganya was published in 1989. It is the biography of her grandfather, Jack McPhee. She has also written five books for children.
As well as writing, Sally Morgan has established an international reputation as an artist. She has works in numerous private and public collections in Australia and the United States, including the Australian National Gallery and the Dobell Foundation collection. Her work is particularly popular in the United States. Her work as an artist is excellently described and illustrated in the book Art of Sally Morgan.
She has received many awards, including from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission. As a part of the celebration in 1993 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, her print Outback was selected by international art historians as one of 30 paintings and sculptures for reproduction on a stamp representing an article of the Declaration.
My Place remains her most influential work, not only because of its very wide popularity but also because it provided a new model for other writers, particularly those of indigenous background.
She is currently Director of the Centre for Indigenous History and Arts at The University of Western Australia.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 8, 2012
Although I knew about taking away of aborigine children to raise in schools away from their culture, I have never heard the voices of any of them directly. Wanamurraganya (Jack McPhee) was the son of an aborigine mother and a white father, whom he never knew. These children were known as mardamarda. He was raised as an aborigine, but as an adult tried to get ahead for his family by working on stations and other jobs in the white world. He married an aborigine woman and struggled to support his children. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, but was never a rebel, and had to live with the system, where aborigine men were exploited for their labor, and women for their work and sex. To get an Exemption certificate for certain kinds of work, he had to agree not to associate with aborigines, even though he had a strong sense of family. His story was recorded by Sally Morgan, whose mardamarda grandmother was known to him. It is wonderful to hear the voice of a such a person, who struggled with a rough life in a hard land, but never lost his sense of his own identity.
May 6, 2024
This detailed account of an aboriginal man's life was truly eye opening. To go through all the hoops the white man set: the laws about not mixing with other natives, not being paid for hours of work, or being paid but it's half of what everyone else was getting, to then be constantly rejected by the white man! A life of struggle and pain, this book showed me a different point of view that I haven't seen before, just a man trying to get by and provide for his family.
March 8, 2013
This is a great great book. McPhee's recollections are so detailed and compelling. So many great stories about writing letters to AO Neville, station life, getting his "exemption" and all the really intense jobs he had over the years. I didn't know indigenous people could apply for "citizenship" in the 40s and 50s or that they jokingly called them their dog papers. And I sure didn't know much about life in the Pilbarra which I loved hearing about.
January 23, 2024
Such an amazing story. My eyes were torn right open. Every Australian needs to read this book just to even get a glimpse of Aboriginal history in the Pilbara
August 21, 2012
A beautiful biography of Wanamurraganya an Aboriginal man. Totally engaging and empowering.
November 2, 2023
3.5 stars.
I had this book on my radar after reading Sally Morgan’s My Place years ago. So finding this book was a pleasant surprise.
As a biography I cannot rate it the same as a work of fiction. It has been well written and researched and gives the reader a good picture of how life of an Aboriginal man was in the 1930s until the late 1990s.
From the experiences of Jack we can see how blackfellas were often treated as low class citizens, often called to work only for food and shelter, in some cases not eating with white workers. Until the times of labour shortage during the war, they were passed over in job selection. They had v limited access to medical services and education.
However many white men had casual sexual relations with aboriginal women, and did not support the children born. These children were brought up within the aboriginal communities but often taken away to schools later on.
What struck me as totally ironic is how Jack had to apply for a Certificate for Exemption and later for Citizenship in order to get rights to mine, to own property and to buy alcohol but would have conform to the ‘ living like a white man’ and not live or join in activities with other blackfellas, including his family members. The aboriginal people had to apply for citizenship in their own country up until 1963!
I wonder if this was the case with natives in other countries of the world.
Now I’m looking out for Sister Heart also by Sally Morgan.
I had this book on my radar after reading Sally Morgan’s My Place years ago. So finding this book was a pleasant surprise.
As a biography I cannot rate it the same as a work of fiction. It has been well written and researched and gives the reader a good picture of how life of an Aboriginal man was in the 1930s until the late 1990s.
From the experiences of Jack we can see how blackfellas were often treated as low class citizens, often called to work only for food and shelter, in some cases not eating with white workers. Until the times of labour shortage during the war, they were passed over in job selection. They had v limited access to medical services and education.
However many white men had casual sexual relations with aboriginal women, and did not support the children born. These children were brought up within the aboriginal communities but often taken away to schools later on.
What struck me as totally ironic is how Jack had to apply for a Certificate for Exemption and later for Citizenship in order to get rights to mine, to own property and to buy alcohol but would have conform to the ‘ living like a white man’ and not live or join in activities with other blackfellas, including his family members. The aboriginal people had to apply for citizenship in their own country up until 1963!
I wonder if this was the case with natives in other countries of the world.
Now I’m looking out for Sister Heart also by Sally Morgan.
August 19, 2021
1989
Sally Morgan did a great job putting this book together, based on many hours and days of interviewing and listening to 80-year-old Jack McPhee.
McPhee must have a phenomenal memory, in view of the detailed stories about his childhood and younger years.
He was born around 1905, raised Aboriginal with his mother and community [his white father was not around and he didn't even know who he was for quite a while].
At an early age he started going to work on ranches [stations] and had to learn fast to work really hard under often very bad conditions.
As an Aboriginal [tho only half] he had no rights to wages or to humane treatment by employers, often got too little food to eat, no place to sleep, was overworked terribly.
Pilbara is his region, Port Headland the town where he worked a lot and where he lived in retirement.
Marble Bar is the Aboriginal settlement where he often met up with family.
Fascinating to me is how those who know the land can find places where they can dig down into the ground a foot or so and make a so-called SOAK, where water comes up and is very clear and good to drink. [Europeans and others who do not know the land think there is no water in that area.]
A map in the book helpfully shows location of the various large ranches McPhee worked on. They are lined up pretty much along the Great Northern Hiway as far south as Meekatharra.
The Rabbit Proof Fence runs parallel to this Highway just to the east.
Even in his 60s, McPhee remained too trusting -- he would take on a contract [verbal, of course] to work for a rancher for say 3 months, and the guy would keep not paying him and keep making excuses, and finally he would get nothing at all for his work. [This is later on, when it started to be customary to pay some wages to Aboriginals]
Fortunately, he often had 'good' white bosses who did pay him and treated him better.
He managed OK, supporting his wife and several children, but they would go thru very difficult periods, since the ranching work was seasonal and not year-round.
I will want to read Sally Morgan's story of her own childhood, published 2 years earlier, 1987, MY PLACE. Marlene has a copy.
Sally Morgan did a great job putting this book together, based on many hours and days of interviewing and listening to 80-year-old Jack McPhee.
McPhee must have a phenomenal memory, in view of the detailed stories about his childhood and younger years.
He was born around 1905, raised Aboriginal with his mother and community [his white father was not around and he didn't even know who he was for quite a while].
At an early age he started going to work on ranches [stations] and had to learn fast to work really hard under often very bad conditions.
As an Aboriginal [tho only half] he had no rights to wages or to humane treatment by employers, often got too little food to eat, no place to sleep, was overworked terribly.
Pilbara is his region, Port Headland the town where he worked a lot and where he lived in retirement.
Marble Bar is the Aboriginal settlement where he often met up with family.
Fascinating to me is how those who know the land can find places where they can dig down into the ground a foot or so and make a so-called SOAK, where water comes up and is very clear and good to drink. [Europeans and others who do not know the land think there is no water in that area.]
A map in the book helpfully shows location of the various large ranches McPhee worked on. They are lined up pretty much along the Great Northern Hiway as far south as Meekatharra.
The Rabbit Proof Fence runs parallel to this Highway just to the east.
Even in his 60s, McPhee remained too trusting -- he would take on a contract [verbal, of course] to work for a rancher for say 3 months, and the guy would keep not paying him and keep making excuses, and finally he would get nothing at all for his work. [This is later on, when it started to be customary to pay some wages to Aboriginals]
Fortunately, he often had 'good' white bosses who did pay him and treated him better.
He managed OK, supporting his wife and several children, but they would go thru very difficult periods, since the ranching work was seasonal and not year-round.
I will want to read Sally Morgan's story of her own childhood, published 2 years earlier, 1987, MY PLACE. Marlene has a copy.
August 5, 2018
I read this book many years ago, actually so long ago that it was from this book that I first learned of the "Stolen Generation" which has become an important part of the Australian psyche and is at the forefront of Aboriginal people's reconciliation with the newer peoples our Great Southern Land. A beautifully written, honest, magical, heartfelt story about the author's grandfather which all this time later still lingers with me. I plan to reread this book and I urge anyone with any interest in the traditional landowners of Australia, or simply the history of a people, to engage with this story... written in such a way as to engage younger readers, it remains a powerful tome for mature bibliophiles as well!
July 4, 2018
Leider muss ich zugeben, dass mir erst dieses Buch die Augen öffnete, in Bezug auf die Geschichte und Ausbeutung der Aborigines. Aber zugleich zogen mich die Erzählungen über das harte Leben von Jack McPhee, die Maori Kultur ( Korroboris; Verwandtschaftlichen Beziehungsgrade, die zu Verstehen wir Weissen nicht in der Lage sind) und Einleitung der Schriftstellerin Sally Morgan in ihren Bann.
Sehr empfehlenswert.
Sehr empfehlenswert.
July 14, 2018
Factual account of an indigenous man's life, paints a clear picture of how challenging his and many others lives were. He was a hard working man who struggled most of his life to provide for his family.
February 23, 2016
Good diary of the guys life, as told to Sally. Pretty mild in terms of actual writing style.
April 3, 2019
This was a story that needs to be told, the way that Indigenous Australians were treated for so many years, and the ways in which Australia and it's myths of self-sufficiency are built on such exploitation need to be exposed, and the humanity of the people exploited shown in detail.
My only issue was the misogyny in much of the book, his wife was nothing but a baby making machine until very near the end. Her alcoholism near the end is seen as a product of bad choices and bad friends without any reflexivity of how hard and isolated her life has been (not that we've glimpsed her much in the plot up to then). It's dismissed as not really a problem because she still cooked and cleaned and looked after children. Susie is thus condemned to her narrow role (no wonder she took to drink, I would too). There is quite a lot of sexist talk casually sprinkled through the book and too little about women's sides of things.
Nevertheless this is a significant book when thinking about things like race or labour and seeking to make an Australia that is actually built on a "fair go" not just a parody of one. It was interesting that even though the system was stacked against them, some individuals gave Jack a break (although he had to work really hard and prove himself and was always still underpaid) and that even in the worst scenario individual acts of kindness (or otherwise) mattered to him and his family.
Sally Morgan has done well to draw Jack McPhee's thoughts together into a coherent whole which sounds like it is written by him.
My only issue was the misogyny in much of the book, his wife was nothing but a baby making machine until very near the end. Her alcoholism near the end is seen as a product of bad choices and bad friends without any reflexivity of how hard and isolated her life has been (not that we've glimpsed her much in the plot up to then). It's dismissed as not really a problem because she still cooked and cleaned and looked after children. Susie is thus condemned to her narrow role (no wonder she took to drink, I would too). There is quite a lot of sexist talk casually sprinkled through the book and too little about women's sides of things.
Nevertheless this is a significant book when thinking about things like race or labour and seeking to make an Australia that is actually built on a "fair go" not just a parody of one. It was interesting that even though the system was stacked against them, some individuals gave Jack a break (although he had to work really hard and prove himself and was always still underpaid) and that even in the worst scenario individual acts of kindness (or otherwise) mattered to him and his family.
Sally Morgan has done well to draw Jack McPhee's thoughts together into a coherent whole which sounds like it is written by him.
November 3, 2023
I learned so much from this book. The writing is simple and straightforward as Jack McPhee tells his story. His analysis doesn’t enter much into it, except to say “I could fight it so I had to walk away” after many an unjust incident.
He doesn’t get much into personal relationships either. His memory is amazing, he recounts a long series of station work and mining jobs and moves throughout his life. I can see how readers want more, but in its own way the stark series of facts about his life events paint a picture of Australian history that can perhaps only be told in this way.
In the end he does express some opinions, main among them to not judge a whole group together. He doesn’t do that with the white people in his book- some of them are fair, some of them terribly racist.
If you’re remotely interested in Aboriginal or Australian history I would say this is worth your time. It’s quick. I think a lot of people compare it to the apparently very famous My Place and feel that it suffers in comparison. Maybe it does. But the first- person aboriginal view of much of the 20th century has a lot to offer.
He doesn’t get much into personal relationships either. His memory is amazing, he recounts a long series of station work and mining jobs and moves throughout his life. I can see how readers want more, but in its own way the stark series of facts about his life events paint a picture of Australian history that can perhaps only be told in this way.
In the end he does express some opinions, main among them to not judge a whole group together. He doesn’t do that with the white people in his book- some of them are fair, some of them terribly racist.
If you’re remotely interested in Aboriginal or Australian history I would say this is worth your time. It’s quick. I think a lot of people compare it to the apparently very famous My Place and feel that it suffers in comparison. Maybe it does. But the first- person aboriginal view of much of the 20th century has a lot to offer.
October 31, 2021
C'est un témoignage absolument important. Je trouve extrêmement triste le comportement des gouvernements colonialistes des derniers siècles. Une fois de plus, nous avons ici un témoignage des atrocités et injustices que les descendants européens établis dans les anciennes colonies ont pu commettre.
En Australie et Tasmanie, on a exterminé les Aborigènes et il en reste peu. En Amérique, on a fait la même chose avec les Indiens. Et c'est seulement au 21ème siècle que certains gouvernements ont présenté des excuses!
En Australie et Tasmanie, on a exterminé les Aborigènes et il en reste peu. En Amérique, on a fait la même chose avec les Indiens. Et c'est seulement au 21ème siècle que certains gouvernements ont présenté des excuses!
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January 24, 2021The story of Jack McPhee, her grandfather. Vivid picture of a hard life in the Pilbara. Described once as an aboriginal Albert Facey (A Fortunate Life) but not as detailed nor as good. Jack did better than many, it seems, but it sure was a hard road. Having traveled through this part of Australia, the realities of Jack's life were more readily envisioned . . .
January 28, 2022
Sally Morgan author of My Place tells the story of Jack McPhee, who like many seems to be trapped between two worlds, this book has some interest, sand the titular character is of interest, it is not My Place to be sure but is worth reading and reflecting on how wrong the many white Governments and people in general were to the indigenous people of Australia.
October 19, 2024
Great story, even better because it's true. I was semi-planning to write something similar for my stepfather, but unfortunately he passed away before getting enough of his memories together for a book. It's nice to hear these stories of the "old" days, especially for us older folks who were around for a large part of the period the book covers.
December 22, 2020
Recommended reading for contemporary politicians before they pass judgement on Black Lives Matter protests in Australia. A very important book, documenting a part of Australian history not usually discussed.
August 17, 2025
Thank you Jack McPhee for sharing your story. As an adult I am keen to learn about Australia's real history and I found your story an important one in my education. The facts don't mean as much until they are viewed from someone's lived experience.
April 28, 2019
Jack McPhee's story is moving and he tells it in a such a humble and matter-of-fact way. Thank you, Sally Morgan, for putting his life into written words.
November 27, 2023
Definitely worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews