BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder

Subject: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: hilda fish
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 06:16 PM

Today, Australia Day, 26th January, (ironic) my tribal mother Ruby Langford Ginibi celebrates her 72nd birthday. She is a Bundjalung Elder, survivor, traditional keeper, awarded author, educator, historian. She has birthed 12 children, raised 18 and buried three who she still grieves for. She has lived in the back blocks in tents building fences and raising the kids. She has had to duff sheep to feed the family. She has had to work day and night in order to survive. She has starved, grieved, been treated worse than a drovers dog, and still all she can give is love. She overcame a 12 year drinking binge and wrote her first book in 1988 "Don't Take Your Love To Town" which has become not only a multi-award winning book but a referenced text on contemporary Aboriginality. Ruby says her story is the story of every Indigenous person trying to survive in the white mans world. She continues to be generous of her love and her spirit, caring and sharing with all humanity. A mighty force and a mighty person.   Happy Birthday my Mother. I honour you and revere you and love you with all my heart. My respect for you has lifted my life as it has lifted all of us who have the privilege of you as a mum. I put your name out into the world and into history as a person among us all who matters in ways counted and uncounted.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 06:20 PM

Happy birthday, Ruby.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: Emma B
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 06:24 PM

My late mothers name too ......
Keep surviving Ruby my wishes to you and yours

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 06:36 PM

Lovely tribute, hilda fish. We are honored that you share this woman and your love for her, with us.

Happy birthday, woman of power and love!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 06:39 PM

Happy birhday all the way from Scotland Ruby, that Emu daughter of yours is a credit to your people.
Giok.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: JennieG
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 07:10 PM

Hilda,
Best wishes to your mother on her birthday! I haven't met Ruby but know her to be a great woman.

Cheers
JennieG......out in the western suburbs!

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: freda underhill
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 07:18 PM

Happy birthday to Ruby from me, HF.

best wishes

fred (back in syd)

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: Morticia
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 07:29 PM

Happy Birthday Ruby, I don't usually write in Birthday threads to people I haven't met but you sound like someone I would very much like to meet.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 07:43 PM

Hilda, so beautifully told...I love to learn of other Wise Women.

Happy Birthday, Ruby. May you continue to grace this planet and all with whom you come in contact, for your wisdom travels far and lasts forever.

Mitakuye Oyasin (We are all related)

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: Alba
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 08:22 PM

Ruby,
Blessings to You on Your Birth Day. May Your Year ahead bring You all You need in Life to be content and Happy.

Wisdom, I believe, is a Gift which can be shared over and over again. For once someone has received the gift of Wisdom their supply will never run dry. Love is a Gift that works that way too:>)
May you share your Gifts for many Years to come Ruby.
Thank you Hilda for a wonderful and touching tribute to your Mother.

Light, Peace and Love
Jude

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: JennyO
Date: 25 Jan 06 - 10:52 PM

Ruby sounds like an extraordinary person, and it is very appropriate that you should share her story with us today, hilda fish.

Happy Birthday to her, and warm thoughts to you too!

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Jan 06 - 08:51 AM

Well, I'd like to add my wishes for a happy and joyful birthday, and may she have many more.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: SINSULL
Date: 26 Jan 06 - 09:11 AM

Celebrate your day, Ruby! Thank you, Hilda, for sharing her with us!
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Jan 06 - 12:30 PM

Clones: The preceding post is the "duplicate"-- the already-submitted and now deleted, corrected post is below.

~S~

======================================

hilda fish, let me try to say this, however imperfectly--

When you "put [her] name out into the world and into history as a person among us all who matters in ways counted and uncounted," you make more concrete our experience of those people we know or encounter in our own lives, with similar life stories.... you help make accessible to us not only those who have overcome, as you describe in Ruby's spirit and successes, but those whose spirits are as yet struggling to overcome.

And perhaps, even, those who seem, to us, to not even be making the struggle at all.


And... to those of us who have struggled-- you bring a healing rain of tears. The thought that you can SEE such.

Thank you for seeing.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Jan 06 - 03:23 PM

May her old age be rich and fulfilling and all those around her be filled with her spirit.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: frogprince
Date: 26 Jan 06 - 03:41 PM

Belated good wishes from the American midwest.
       Dean Elkins

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday to a Bundjalung Elder
From: Helen
Date: 27 Jan 06 - 03:39 PM

hilda fish, my 2005 Secret Santa,

I am totally amazed. About 15 years ago, give or take a few years, I had the privilege of hearing your mother speak at a small gathering at Maitland City Library. When I saw her name here and saw that she is your mother I was overwhelmed, and transported instantly back to that event. In my mind I see a woman, who on the outside just looks like anybody's Mum, but who, when she opens her mouth to speak, opens up a whole new world in people's heads, a new way of looking at life and of relating to other people.

I couldn't tell you the exact words she spoke on that evening but I can tell you that I can still feel her love, and her strength and her endurance, and above all her determination to find the good in everyone, everything and life in general.

Hearing your mother speak has been a highlight of my life, even though it was only for an hour or so.   

Thank you, hilda fish, for sharing your thoughts on your mother with us, and please thank your mother, Ruby, for being who she is and sharing that with others.

Helen