The Darlimurla letters: overcoming the obstacles

Trish Macky had an entire family legacy in the form of letters. She decided to research and reform the letters facing multiple challenges and overcoming obstacles along the way.

Trish Macky began her Master of Arts research on the Darlimurla letters in the beginning of 2013. The research was quite a lengthy process taking her just over a year to complete it.

The time frame was lengthy as there were so many separate letters and pieces of writing involved.

Trish stated that one of the real difficulties that she faced when researching and restoring the letters was that her aunt had transcribed the letters and she didn’t have access to any digital files. This meant that she had to have every single page scanned and then placed into its own word document.

Trish also had to visit the Auckland public library each time she wanted access to the letters, as the letters were part of Sir George Grey Special Collection.

Another difficulty that Trish faced when restoring and collating the letters was that they had been transcribed according to author, not according to the order in which they had originally been sent, which made following them very difficult.

One of the reasons that Trish chose to research the Darlimurla letters was that she didn’t ever really get a chance to get to know her grandfather, who had written some of the letters. It was a fantastic opportunity for her to see what her family members had been like and what life had been like for them. She learned that they were all an incredibly supportive family and that they had rather large struggles back in that time even though they were not poor or underprivileged.

Trish also said that it was interesting seeing how open and frank the family members were when writing to one another and that she thought it was incredibly special to come across the generations.

The family members spoke very openly to one another sharing their feelings and issues amongst one another.

The Darlimurla letters are incredibly well preserved and such an amazing piece of history. It is not often that such a tale can be told through a series of letters dating back so far and it is a privilege to be able to view the content of the letters.