Margaret Kay

Margaret Kay was born in the Northern Rivers but sent to a welfare home around 1915 under the Aborigines Protection Act (1909). She became a nursemaid to a white family, who she worked with until 1948 when she retired to Tweed Heads.

Proud of her Aboriginal heritage and wanting to preserve her culture, she joined local history groups in the Tweed. She became known as a keeper of Aboriginal artifacts and eventually opened her own museum in the front of her home.

Margaret took on the responsibility of maintaining a nearby Bora Ring previously used for initiation ceremonies. In 1961 she successfully lobbied the Tweed Shire Council to have the area preserved. It was gazetted in 1961 as a Nature Reserve for "the Preservation of Aboriginal Relics", at a period when conserving Aboriginal sites was unusual.

Margaret led school students on conducted tours, explaining the history and significance of the site. Margaret sadly passed away in 1967. In 1980, the management of the nature reserve was taken over by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, and it was declared a Historic Site.

In 2011, on the 50th anniversary of the gazetting of the South Tweed Heads reserve (and coincidentally the 40th anniversary of the appointment of Neville Bonner, the first Aboriginal senator in Australia, who was born on nearby Ukerebagh Island), the Senate of Australia acknowledged Margaret’s work in conserving Aboriginal heritage, at a time when that was rare.

To find out more about Tweed’s Indigenous history, visit the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage page.

To find out more, visit the Tweed Heads Bora Ring and Minjungbal Aboriginal Cultural Centre website.