...Growing up in the Mabo family...

'There's Eddie Jnr, oldest boy, and then there's Maria Jessie, who is oldest girl. Bethel, she's the next one, then there's me, middle one. Then comes Mal, then Malita, then Celuia. Then there's Mario and Wannee, and they're adopted into our family through Dad, by his younger sister who passed away at childbirth and then we adopted Ezra into our family, who was our nephew, he became like a brother, a younger brother that we didn't have. And then that's all the members of our family.'

'Growing up in the Mabo family was - a lot of squabbles, family squabbles. Lots of bickering between sisters and bullying with brothers and older brother used to bully, and then Dad used to chastise him and then if we bullied, well Mum used to chastise us. And then if we all squabbled, well then we all got flogged. That was end of story, no one did anything wrong then. We were all good.'

Keywords: childhood, Mabo family, Mabo, Gail, Townsville

Interviewed by Trevor Graham, 1996. Still:© Mabo Family CollectionAuthor: Graham, Trevor
© Film Australia
Source: Mabo, Gail