Sydney Elders
Continuing Aboriginal Stories
Uncle Charles ‘Chicka’ Madden
is a recognised member of the Redfern and inner-city community. He has worked in the construction industry for most of his life and been involved in many organisations, including the Aboriginal Medical Service and the Redfern All Blacks.
Gadigal country
Redfern
About this project‘Crowds from everywhere’
When the Redfern All Blacks are playing, they draw crowds from everywhere. Many years ago, Tommy Davis, the secretary of the Redfern All Blacks, explained to all us young fellas how it started. All the Kooris and whitefellas used to drink together after work. One day they said, ‘We should form a rugby league club’. So they put an application in. In those days, Souths Juniors would supply the gear if you registered a club. When they got the gear, they opened it up and it was a black jumper with a white collar, black shorts, black socks with white tops. We’re coming from Redfern and all the gear’s black, so they called themselves the ‘Redfern All Blacks’, and that’s how it started.
The Koori Knockout, Henson Park, Marrickville, 1992, photos by Ellen Comiskey
‘Stencils and rock art’
There are stencils and rock art all over Australia, but I just use the ones in the Sydney Basin, the Eora Nation. So I just use those local rock carvings on a lot of my ceramics. I’ve been making ceramics for about six or seven years now. I’ve given a pot with rock art on it to the Queen of England when I met her. I’ve given a pot to her son, Prince Charles, to his son, Prince William, and I’ve even given a pot with a kangaroo on it to his son, Prince George! All my grandkids have been given pots with different animals. I’m still making them and using the rock art on them. It’s very good. I enjoy it.
Ceramic fish, made by Uncle Chicka Madden, c2010 Courtesy Uncle Chicka Madden
Aboriginal carvings at Middle Head, South Head and Point Piper, pencil and watercolour drawings by WA Miles, 1839–71
‘You could work six days a week’
A lot of my cousins and mates worked as riggers and scaffolders in the city — a lot of them worked down on the Opera House when that was being built. I got a job working with them on the Gladesville Bridge and Tarban Creek Bridge. I was getting 35 pound a week over there, before decimal currency came in. So I worked over there for about five years with Ossie and Benny [Cruse] and about two or three other Kooris, some from up the coast and around the city. It wasn’t hard work but it was solid. You could work six days a week there, sometimes seven. And the money was good.
Tarban Creek and Gladesville bridges under construction, c1964, photos by Bernard Heckford
Eastern Suburbs Railway under construction, 1974, photo by EC O’Neill
Learning activities
Sydney EldersStage 2 History: Australia as a nation
How can oral histories help us to understand the lived experience of Indigenous people?
Read nowAboriginal Studies Years 7-10: Core Part 1 — Aboriginal identities
Students respond to the dynamic Aboriginal identities of elders from different areas of Sydney and learn how to conduct a case study in their own community.
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