Roy and Beryl Kennedy [interview]

Roy and Beryl Kennedy – 16 November 2017, Mildura, VIC

Roy Kennedy is a Ngiyampaa man. Beryl Kennedy (nee Murray) is a Ngiyampaa woman.

In the interview Roy speaks at length about his life and early childhood spent living on Marfield station, a property about 30 kilometres from Ivanhoe, NSW. He describes the effects of having to carry a Certificate of Exemption card - which the Australian government issued for Aborigines from the 1940s. He was a very active player in the work to see Mungo Man returned home to country. Beryl was drawn into the discussion when Roy talked about the time he met his wife to be at Wilcannia. Roy concluded the interview with a song he wrote about the Murrumbidgee River.

This interview was part of a collaboration between Louise Darmody and the State Library of New South Wales. The interviews were conducted by Louise Darmody, journalist, oral historian, producer, and founder of Sound Memories an oral history and documentary-making firm established in 2003.

These oral history recordings document the personal stories behind the Mungo Man historic repatriation process which took place on the 16-19th November 2017. After 43 years the Traditional Custodians brought Mungo Man and other internationally significant ancestral remains home to Mungo National Park within the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage area in New South Wales.

The full catalogue record is online at http://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110616052

Part of this interview has been transcribed and is available in Amplify at https://amplify.gov.au/transcripts/Roy_Beryl_Kennedy_interview_20171116