The 7 Stages of Grieving + The Longest Memory - Quotes

4 - Nana’s Story (5)

• 'The whole family came together for meals'

• 'When we got to the grave a song caught on around the gathering'

• 'She wouldn't tell us a lot of stories but when she did we all listened'

• 'She took so many stories with her to the grave. Stories of her life, our traditions, our heritage, who I am… gone'

• 'Sometimes the joy of being there enough to forget, even for the briefest moment, the reason'

6 - Story Of A Father (2)

• 'Sometimes I find myself crying in the dark alone'

• 'The pain comes in and I cry and cry until I can't feel anymore. Numbed. Nothing'

9 - Black Skin Girl (3)

• ‘Naia gigi warunguldul’ I will be strong always

• 'Letters of the alphabet appear on her dress'

• 'She attempts to evade the letters by removing her dress'

10 - Invasion Poem (4)

• 'I invited them in, they demanded respect'

• 'One took a handful of my hair and led my head to their knee'

• 'Silenced by a single wave of a stick'

• 'I lie painfully sleepless'

12 - Murri Gets A Dress (4)

• 'Waving a nice big pump-you-full-of-holes semi-automatic gun in the air'

• 'Keep an eye on the black one'

• 'You get a lot of attention, special treatment when you're black'

• 'I'm still black and deadly'

13 - Aunty Grace (3)

• 'She was stuck up and wasn't really family'

• 'I never saw her cry the whole time she was with us'

• 'Crying, at last, crying'

14 - Mugshot (3)

• 'Delivered in the style of a court report with no hint of emotion'

• 'Intercepted' and 'went to the ground' as a euphemism for police brutality

• 'People called him Boonie! He was known as Boonie…'

15 - March (5)

• 'A peaceful march, a silent march'

• 'Defiant Aboriginal march'

• ‘We come from a long tradition of storytelling. If this is the only way we can get our story told…’

• 'We're not fighting. We're grieving'

• 'Don't tell me we're not fighting! Don't tell me we don't fight most of our lives'

18 - Story Of A Brother (2)

• 'They wanted one of my brother's friends… you know how we all look alike'

• 'Sticking up for his Bungies'

20 - Suitcase Opening (2)

• ‘The Woman grieves over the photographs'

• ‘Music fills the space. There is a feeling of catharsis and release’

23 - Plea (1)

• ‘These are my stories. These are my people’s stories. They need to be told’

24 - Walking Across Bridges (2)

• 'They've written sorry across the sky'

• 'I guess we can't go back now'

Cook’s Death (2)

• ‘I held her head, he watched her lips. We cried’

• ‘With her gone nothing could keep me there'

Chapel’s Death (1)

• Sanders Junior wanted to ensure Chapel ‘would be made an example of to discourage further runaways’, and decided to ‘administer 200 lashes’ as punishment

Whitechapel ‘betraying the whereabouts of [his] son’ (1)

• ‘The house slaves cast me such disdainful looks’

Great Granddaughter’s dream of Africa (3)

• ‘That’s how I know I’m back where I belong’

• ‘I fly through the air and land in a place I know is Africa’

• Whitechapel's great granddaughter not ‘recognizing the food’ and ‘dream[ing] about something [she] doesn’t know’

Whitechapel refusing to dream of Africa (2)

• ‘He never talked about Africa' since it 'promoted day dreams and insolence on the plantation’

• ‘He said Africa was his past and not ours. If anyone had the right to dream about it, he did and he chose not to’

Chapel writing to The Virginian (3)

• In an 'articulate letter' he argues that 'these pages should carry stories about slaves told by the slaves themselves'

• The Virginian public answered with a 'resounding no' to this suggestion

• ‘The Virginian’ dehumanises African people by referring to them as ‘primitive’, and urges its readers to ‘remember where they came from’

Chapel learning to read and write (2)

• Chapel 'can open a book and sound like the master'

• 'When Mr Whitechapel discovers Chapel has been taught to read and write, ‘he ordered Lydia out’ of the room, then proceeded to ‘[draw] his belt’ and threaten to send Chapel away ‘to a place where slave boys die of hunger, hard work and the whip’

Sanders Senior abusing Cook (1)

• After Sanders Senior ‘laid his hands’ on Cook, she ‘wanted to die’

Whitechapel’s grief and guilt over Chapel’s death (5)

• Whitechapel becomes a ‘self-governing slave’ and ‘thinks freedom is death’

• ‘He is a ghost we all see and ignore because he killed his only son’

• After his son was whipped to death, Whitechapel ‘shrank in stature’ and became known as ‘sour-face’ 

• Whitechapel wished he could die sooner, believing he’s ‘seen enough for one life, several lives’.

• Whitechapel is isolated in his grieving after ‘betraying the whereabouts of [his] son’