In 2017, Know Your Nation put a callout to former and current York residents to share their recollections of growing up and living in York. 24 people volunteered their stories for the exhibition York Conversations which was presented at the 2017 York Festival.
Gwen: We went to the same primary and junior high school. I can remember Rob at school, but not as vividly as he can remember me, apparently. We were four years apart. Rob was blonde and shy. Robin: I remember Gwen in her very nicely made and designed school uniform – white shirt, tie, blazer, pleated skirt, black shoes, white socks or stockings. Gwen was always very neat, trim and upstanding, though I probably never even spoke to her during our school days due to the four year difference.
We had two or three Aboriginal children in my class, who we treated as friends. At seven or eight years old, a group of Aboriginals would come onto our farm and spend several weeks fossicking with my parents’ approval. I vividly remember it was a cold rainy blustery winter’s evening and as my father and I walked into my house to a warm environment I said to my dad ‘What about those Aboriginals, who are up there over the hill. How are they going to be tonight in such a cold environment?’ They lived under bush humpies made out of the materials that were available in the bush. My father’s words were ‘They are used to living in such bleak conditions.’ And my heart went out to them thinking ‘I’m glad that I have what we have and don’t have to live like that on a cold winter’s night like tonight.‘