[Dialogue] Death of Robert Shropshire

Fri Jun 1 00:37:58 PDT 2012

My, these are beautiful fragments of a great life.

Can we all get on-line on a skype conference call and sing: "For all the  
saints...."  or maybe: "Free men live..."  ?

Paul

In a message dated 01/06/2012 07:37:09 GMT Daylight Time,  
jkjmbarker at bigpond.com writes:

REMEMBERING ROBERT SHROPSHIRE

Robert is remembered  with deep affection and gratitude by the Mowanjum 
community and all of us who  were there as staff in the Derby Religious House 
in the early 70's. His  presence in an Aboriginal community in the remote 
North West Kimberley region  of Australia caused far more attention than he was 
comfortable with. The press  were on to his presence - at first positive 
when a great photo appeared on the  front page of "The Northern Times" of him 
with the senior elder Micky Bunguni  in front of a new sign "Mowanjum 
Community - Mission to the World" together  with the wedgeblade. But later the 
same paper led a scare campaign with banner  headlines "Black Power comes to 
Derby!" Robert's response was to laugh at the  notion that he of all people 
should be considered a dangerous threat - after  all "I am only a cool school 
teacher". Some of our fond memories of Robert  are:

* such an empowering  and imaginative teacher especially of teenagers * 
introducing Aboriginal  people to music they had never heard before *  his 
delight in  embellishing the story of the great sheep drive (5,000 of them) 
including the  fact that they all got lost at the first attempt! * his coolness 
towards our  tight structures * both his eruptive anger at being treated 
"differently" and  his gratitude when people were straight with him * being 
followed around by  giggling school girls * the love of kids who called out 
"Shropshire, come  here" * his infectious laughter especially at the 
incongruence of situations  we were faced with * his zany sense of humour and apt 
comments when the going  was tough * introducing "right on" into the Indigenous 
vocabulary * his  liberating presence as a proud black man * singing along 
with the elder Wattie  Ngerdu's favourite song "Free men live in 
responsibility"  (Wattie could  sing but Robert???) - we could go on. People of Mowanjum 
will mourn his  passing  - and are sure to retell great Robert Shropshire  
stories.

We also cherish our  opportunity to have caught up with him in the nineties 
in Chicago and have his  distinctive chuckle again etched into our memories 
- and yes, the Great Sheep  Drive was told once again!

We resonate with  Evelyn Philbrook where she says "I somehow feel he is 
some where laughing with the  Mystery expecting great things from us all to 
carry out God's unfinished  work."

Goodbye to a true  spirit colleague.

Jonathan and Janeen  Barker

On 31/05/2012, at 9:45 AM, George Holcombe  wrote:

Conna  Wilkerson told me that Robert died Tuesday night at his mother's 
home in  Chicago.  A service will be held for him on Saturday.  

Wanda and I will never forget Robert.  When he arrived at  Mowanjum, he was 
the star of the show, everyone thought he was the greatest.  Years later 
Robert and I had a great time playing music at the summer  programs.  I'm sure 
others of us have memories of Robert, too.

George  Holcombe
14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
Austin, TX 78728
Mobile  512/252-2756
_geowanda1 at me.com_ (mailto:geowanda1 at me.com) 

Hope  appeareth, but it is not your Hope—you do not have anything to do  
with it. It just appeareth. It comes as a stranger, as an alien—it  just 
appeareth! You do not even know why you hope. How in the  world could you hope 
when there is absolutely nothing to justify  any hope?    ~Joseph W.  Mathews

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