The Monthly, December 2009 - January 2010, No. 52

Money was tight when Faith Bandler was growing up in Murwillumbah in the early 1930s, but her two older brothers managed to save a portion of their wages to buy records. Paul Robeson was a favourite and the family would all sing along. At 17, Faith sneaked away from a church meeting to see him perform ‘Ol’ Man River’ in Showboat. It was the first movie she ever saw.

Young Faith’s interest was more than just musical. The daughter of a South Sea Islander blackbirded to the Queensland canefields, she already saw parallels between the Afro-American experience...