Vale
Nancy de Vries RN (Auntie Nance)
Jill Iliffe
Federal Secretary, Australian Nursing Federation
PP: viii
Article Text
It was with great sadness that I learned of the recent death of Nancy de Vries. I first met Nancy ten years ago. She was the most amazing woman. Born in 1932, Nancy was one of the 'stolen generation'; removed from her mother's care at the age of fifteen months. Nancy spent her childhood and her adolescence in numerous foster homes - 22 by the time she was 18 years old. Nancy described herself during those traumatic years as a homeless, unwanted and unloved child.
Nancy spent 27 years working in aged care as a nursing assistant. When the first nursing course commenced at the University of Western Sydney (UWS), Nancy applied to do her registered nurse undergraduate degree. She became the first Indigenous person to graduate from UWS as a nurse, despite never having previously attended university; despite the difficulties adjusting to formal study and despite being the only Indigenous person in her group. Nancy was instrumental in putting in place a mentoring program for other Indigenous nursing students at UWS so that they did not experience the same difficulties she had.
Nancy worked as a registered nurse in the area of mental health for the next 20 or so years. Nancy was drawn to mental health because as a young person she had spent time in a psychiatric facility where she had been admitted for treatment in an attempt to stop her running away to try to find her birth family.
Nancy eventually did find her mother after 53 years. She tells the story of their meeting in a limited edition book: Ten Hours in a Lifetime published by UWS and launched by the Honourable Gough Whitlam AC QC on International Women's Day 8 March 2005. Nancy's mother Ruby found it difficult to accept Nancy, so ten hours was all the time Nancy managed to spend with her mother.
In 1997, Nancy was invited to address the New South Wales Parliament, the first unelected woman to address a special sitting since Elizabeth II. Following her speech she received a formal apology on behalf of Indigenous people from the then NSW Premier Bob Carr.
Nancy was a wonderful ambassador for reconciliation and an untiring advocate for Indigenous nurses. Despite her lack of family as a child, Nancy was the most loving, warm and generous mother and grandmother; and an affectionate, accessible and understanding Auntie to numerous Indigenous adults, young people and children.
Nancy generated love and respect from all who knew her. I remember well her broad smile, her warmth, her generosity, her sense of humour, her determination to keep going despite increasingly poor health, and above all her humility. She was constantly amazed by the high regard in which she was held.
Nancy will be missed and remembered not only by her immediate and extended family, and her close friends, but by everyone who came into contact with her. Her recorded story as one of the 'stolen generation' touched this generation and will touch generations to come, making sure that what happened to her and her family, and to so many other Indigenous children and their families, never happens again.
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