Uncle Gary Wright
My father was born in Nowendoc and my mother at Redfern. We moved to Aberdeen in 1956 for work at the Aberdeen meatworks. We’ve been in Aberdeen ever since.
I went to school in Aberdeen, there was only about five or six Aboriginals. Me, my two brothers and the three Griffith boys, were the only Aboriginals in the class. They used to call us niggers. We were the only Aboriginals in town at the time you know, and they thought that we were lower than them and we weren’t you know, we were just as good.
I worked at the Liddell Power Station for 7 years as a cleaner and trades assistant. I got a few qualifications and then I went to work at the Bayswater coaly, which now is Mount Arthur. I was there for 2 years.
After working with the Pillapai Aboriginal group, I started my own business with my mate Casey. We went up to Ellerston working, spraying, fencing and that. After we finished that up I started working in the community.
I worked for Father Chris Riley out at Kayuga. Father Chris Riley would send young boys out there, so we can look after them on 24-hour shifts. We would take the boys up to Barrington Tops, take them fishing or take them down to Newcastle, just to relax them and make a better person out of them.
We do Red Door, a soup kitchen, every Thursday in Muswellbrook, it’s great, I enjoy it! It’s up the road up here. Our good friend Sheree Gray, the police officer, started it off about 4 years ago.
There are friends out there to be made you know, now the war is over. If people help you, you help them, it’s as simple as that.
“There are friends out there to be made.”
