{"id":848,"date":"2021-05-27T19:10:29","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T09:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/?p=848"},"modified":"2022-01-02T18:36:28","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T08:36:28","slug":"kunyi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/?p=848","title":{"rendered":"Kunyi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"770\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Kunyi-xxx.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-849\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Kunyi-xxx.jpg 900w, https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Kunyi-xxx-300x257.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Kunyi-xxx-768x657.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Kunyi\u2019 by Kunyi June Anne McInerney tells her story in this picture book about being forcibly removed from her family and home when she was four years old to live with the missionaries at the Oodnadatta Children\u2019s Home in\u00a0 the 1950s. This is a story of dispossession, loss, fear, courage, resilience and friendship. Kunyi tells this story through a written account, detailing her experiences of what it was like living at the Children\u2019s Home and includes her vibrant art to illustrate these memories. Over sixty of Kunyi\u2019s paintings are included in this book that were part of the \u2018My Paintings Speak for Me\u2019 exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Kunyi begins her story with her family &#8211; her mother, granny and siblings. Together, they peacefully and happily lived in a humpy where they spoke the Yankunytjatjara language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Kunyi explains that when she went to the Oodnadatta Children\u2019s Home her name was changed to \u2018Anne\u2019 and she was told to speak English. The home was rudimentary and lacking any creature comforts. There was no insulation, given it was in the desert, it was unbearably hot in the summer and freezing cold in winter. There was no dining room, the children ate out on the verandah under a corrugated iron roof. The children slept on beds covered in sets of rags, no sheets, just rags. Clean bath water was unheard of as all children bathed in the same, unchanged bathwater. They knew no different. There was no toilet paper, pieces of newspaper were used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Kunyi shares her recollection of the children working in silence as their job was to peel the vegetables. She talks about the older children taunting the younger children by telling them about Mamu (bad spirits) while they ate their dinner on the dark verandah. Kunyi mentions the compulsory Bible lessons where harsh punishments were given if it was deemed you were not paying attention. As there were no toys or games for the children to play with, they employed their creativity and resourcefulness to make their own. Treasure came in the form of broken crockery, especially the ones featuring beautiful designs and these were hidden away from the Sisters. There were some treasured times too when the children would look for animal bones and suck the bone marrow, or go swimming at Hookey\u2019s Hole. Kunyi\u2019s artworks deftly capture the freedom and joy the children experienced when they were away from the home and swimming, walking along the gibber stones or admiring the wildflowers and eating bush tucker. Their admiration for the land and profound connection to it is palpable in the artwork. Kunyi talks about the harsh and cruel punishments and how the children were highly controlled and frequently punished. The final parts of her story tell how Kunyi came to leave the children\u2019s home at age nine, after five years of being there, it was cruel, deceitful and done without care or compassion. Kunyi was sent away to a foster family who changed her name to &#8216;June&#8217;. Kunyi then shares a little about her mother\u2019s heartbreaking story. There are personal photos from Kunyi\u2019s private collection of her and her siblings at the home and later in life that have been included at the back of the book.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The end papers are truly a sight to behold, they feature a montage containing a piece from each of the paintings in the book. Each artwork represents a memory or experience, one part of Kunyi\u2019s story. The endpapers resemble a classic squares quilt with each square a piece of Kunyi\u2019s heart and story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Kunyi\u2019s story about the way the children in the home were torn away from their families, stripped of their identities, forced to reject their culture and adopt a white culture have been shared so people can learn what happened and so the children\u2019s experiences while at the Oodnadatta Children\u2019s Home will not be forgotten. Kunyi has opened her heart to tell her story and that of the children in the home to educate and inform others about the long-lasting intergenerational impact of the Stolen Generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Kunyi\u2019 by Kunyi June Anne McInerney tells her story in this picture book about being forcibly removed from her family and home when she was four years old to live with the missionaries at the Oodnadatta Children\u2019s Home in\u00a0 the 1950s. This is a story of dispossession, loss, fear, courage, resilience and friendship. Kunyi tells [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"book-category":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kunyi - Blog - Reading Opens Doors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.readingopensdoors.com.au\/?p=848\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kunyi - Blog - Reading Opens Doors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2018Kunyi\u2019 by Kunyi June Anne McInerney tells her story in this picture book about being forcibly removed from her family and home when she was four years old to live with the missionaries at the Oodnadatta Children\u2019s Home in\u00a0 the 1950s. 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