An official statement from the family of Dr Ruby Langford:
ANNOUNCING THE DEATH OF A MOST AMAZING AND SIGNIFICANT WOMAN.
DR RUBY LANGFORD GINIBI, Bundjalung woman, born 26th January (ironically) 1934 at Box Ridge Mission Coraki, died on 1st october 2011 at 10pm. Her youngest son Jeff was present with her as she went to her Dreaming.
Ruby Langford Ginibi (born 26 January 1934) is a Bundjalung woman, an acclaimed author and historian.
She was born at the Box Ridge Mission, Coraki on the NSW north coast, grew up at Bonalbo and went to high school in Casino.
At 15, she moved to Sydney where she qualified as a clothing machinist. She married young and had nine children, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Like many women writers, she didn't start her writing career until later in life.
Her best known book is her autobiographical work, Don't Take Your Love to Town, published in 1988, which won the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Human Rights Award for Literature.
She received an inaugural History Fellowship from the NSW Ministry for the Arts in 1994, an inaugural honorary fellowship from the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, in 1995, and an inaugural doctorate of letters (Honors Causia) from La Trobe University, Victoria in 1998, and a Doctorate of Letters (Honors Causia) from Southern Cross University, Northern Rivers.
In 2005 she was awarded the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Special Award. She is a historian and lecturer on Aboriginal history, culture and politics. Her works are studied in Australian high schools and universities.
She recently won the 2006 Australia Council for the Arts Writers' Emeritus Award.
Dr Ginibi received the award, and prize of up to $50,000, at a ceremony during the Sydney Writers' Festival. The award recognises the achievements of writers over the age of 65.
In 2008, Dr Ginibi was a Don't DIS my ABILITY ambassador.
Dr Ginibi has written non-fiction books, essays, poems and short stories.
Bibliography
Ruby, although enjoying the awards, always said that she never did anything for the accolades and was always nervous of them as her experience of life told her that there was always a 'backhand', a fall, if one got too above oneself. Her delight in achievement was always measured by her humbleness in the face of what others did not have, not what she had. Her joy and generosity was notorious and she was loved for her ability to communicate, laugh, and simply give a hug. Her humanity was all encompassing and amazing considering the pain and loss that walked side by side with her throughout her life. The loss of three of her children was an ongoing source of both heartbreak and compassion in her life.
Ruby says that a great source of her pride and happiness comes from having her children around her. She raised nine children as a single mother without support from the children's fathers and in poor and insubstantial living conditions. She speaks candidly of her experiences with men and the prejudice she felt was directed to her as a single mother.
As a child, she had a fairly disconnected family life. Her mother left when she was just six-years-old and her father had to work in other towns and the country to provide for his children. She grew up with family friends in different towns on the north coast of New South Wales.
A great source of anger and activity for Ruby was the rate of incarcerated Indigenous people in Australia. "We're not quite two per cent of the total population of Australia, yet we're the most incarcerated people in Her Majesty's gaols in this country." Within her own family incarceration was an ongoing and traumatic experience and she recognised that incarceration itself would define the future of Indigenous people unless the rates and causes were confronted in an honest way. Her anger and despair and any inequality was tempered by her humanity and ability to laugh. "Laugh", she always said, "because if you don't laugh you'll cry". Ruby's infectious laugh, her honesty, her generosity, compassion and love, are not only a great loss to her immediate family, which is extensive, but to the Australian nation as a whole.
Sometimes you don't know what you've lost until it's gone. What will we all do without Ruby?