Marguerite duncan biography
Margaret Duncan
Margaret Duncan was born in Ngukurr (Roper River Mission) in , but grew up in nearby Urapunga. Her Aboriginal name is Bowngyii. Her mother’s family is Milwarapra (kangaroo people); they belong to country of Urapunga, Roper Bar and Ngukurr. Her father’s country is Elcho Island.
Margaret comes from a family who are all artists – her three brothers and two sisters are painters, weavers and carvers. When her third child Tasha was born with cerebral palsy she became her fulltime carer; they moved into Katherine when Tasha was 13 so she could continue school. Margaret used art as an escape; a way to keep strong and remember country. “When I was trapped in town, and couldn’t do the thing I really wanted to do (like fishing), I would sit down and do painting – imagining me inside that painting, being in country.”
Margaret created this design in September during a workshop in Katherine run by Tim Growcott and Millie Shorter, facilitated by Magpie Goose in partnership with Katherine Regional Arts. “It opened my heart. It was so incredible, how we can draw something, then print it on the material.”
Magpie Goose acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, work and trade. We acknowledge their ongoing connection and custodianship for Country.
We pay our deep respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly those who we work and collaborate with.
Always was, always will be.
Margaret Duncan’s diary: 3 March
by Nicky Sugar, Archivist.
In February Margaret Duncan, a Post Office clerk from Scotland, sailed to East Africa for a new job and new adventures. Her diary and photograph albums are now in the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection at Bristol Archives (ref: //2). One hundred years on, we share her story for the first time.
Last month Margaret wrote of her struggles with seasickness and the fun she was having with her new friends on board, particularly the Australian soldiers! She also saw African soil for the first time as the Balmoral Castle approached Sierra Leone. Here’s the next instalment…
My Diary
Sunday 3 March
At Capetown
Well this diary has been neglected of late, days have been so delightful and full of interest that writing of any description has been put almost quite in the background.
We went ashore at Sierra Leone on the afternoon of February 15th and from that date onward I shall endeavour to record impressions of life on board. Eleanor, Nurse and myself have been very much together and have had our own little circle of boys on deck and have been so very happy.
We found the Native port very interesting and amusing, saw very few white people and the heat was intense. Children swarmed around us selling oranges, others offered their services as Guides and altogether they became rather tiresome. Some were really quite picturesque in their native garb of bright colourings, others were really dirty, but in the town there, all were at least clad. The shops and bazaars were interesting, some seemed a bit muddled up, but all notices were in English and everyone spoke and understood it. We got lots of oranges, I also bought postcards and a string of grass-seed beads.
That night was absolutely lovely. We went to the boat deck after dinner, Harry, Ben and Billy were there and had seats ready for us. The lights were on, our ship lay near the Cruiser “Marie” which was brilliantly lit up in colou When Marguerite Duncan was born on 24 March , in Hamburg, Fremont, Iowa, United States, her father, Robert Leroy Duncan, was 30 and her mother, Louise Ann Volkhardt, was She married Fay Elwood Ebaugh about , in Fremont, Mahaska, Iowa, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 daughter. She lived in Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa, United States for about 10 years and Tucson, Pima, Arizona, United States in She died on 24 May , at the age of 80, and was buried in Olivewood Memorial Park, Riverside, Riverside, California, United States. Marguerite Virginia Duncan was born in , in Pennsylvania, United States as the daughter of Margaret Duncan. She had at least 4 sons and 4 daughters with Donald A Patterson. She lived in Versailles Township, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States in and McKeesport, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States for about 20 years. She died in McKeesport, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States, and was buried in Elizabeth, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States.