The emu and the marbles

Tweet

From time to time, Perth Library publishes oral histories on their Facebook page. A recent one told the story of a person who was taken from her indigenous mother, making her one of the ‘stolen generation’. These children were raised in missions under very tough conditions but I wanted to share a lighter moment from Jessie Coyne’s story. The children were often hungry and poorly clad. They had few toys but one of their pleasures was playing marbles. At one time, an emu joined the children as a pet and he would swallow the marbles whenever the chance arose. The kids would then follow him around and poke around his droppings with a stick to get their marbles back. The photo is of an emu we saw in Ireland at a holiday park. Because of European Union rules, he was kept away from the public. He was regarded as an ‘exotic creature’ and could only be displayed if there was a resident veterinarian.