Biography
Mary Jane was the daughter of Jinnie Griffin, an Aboriginal woman, and Irishman Eugene Griffin. She was born in 1844 on Toorawandi Station and christened at the age of 14 on horseback on the road between Coonabarabran and Mudgee. After her first marriage to James Budsworth, Mary Jane married head stockman George William Cain in 1865. Much of what is known about the life of Mary Jane Cain was recorded in oral history interviews conducted by Margaret Somerville with four of her descendants—Marie Dundas, May Mead, Janet Robinson and Maureen Sulter. Somerville described Mary as "the woman who straddles two eras of history—the time before white settlement of this land and the time after. She moves between two worlds of such profound difference, and she gives her people the strength to move forward." She quotes Mary Jane, "We gotta make it good for ourselves to go forward, the people say. How can I move across this space between Nganyinytja and me?" After the death of her mother, Jinnie Griffin, in 1882, Mary became the leader of her community and was known to everyone as "Queenie" Cain. In notices published after her death, Mary's recollections were recorded of the use of Chinese labour on farms in the area before the gold rush and how after the workers departed to prospect for gold, the squatters employed local Aboriginal workers as shepherds, effectively easing hostilities in the frontier wars. Mary Jane Cain petitioned the government as her husband was unwell, and she needed to provide for their nine children. As a result Burra Bee Dee Aboriginal Reserve (no. 47521) was gazetted on 21 February 1912, it included a small parcel of land at Forky Mountain that had already been granted to Mary and her family byLanguage
Mary Jane Cain spoke a local indigenous language,Memorials
A bridge over theReferences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cain, Mary Jane 1844 births 1929 deaths Australian human rights activists Women human rights activists Australian indigenous rights activists People from New South Wales