Nia's Doll (2)

Nia is now 25 years old and a succesful career woman. She still calls Australia home while her brother Ninto lives and works in London. The picture on the left was taken at Nia's 21st birthday party. Ninto is the one in brownish grey shirt.

The doll represents Nia's past and childhood memories. She has been cleaned and dressed in a red wine velvety dress, that kind of red is one of the traditional Minangkabau's colours representing her mum's origin (Minang in West Sumatra) and the canting and the Batik head cover representing the Javanese blood in her from her father's side. The doll is carrying a pouch with two small teddy bears, one in pink nightie representing Nia and the one in blue representing her brother Ninto.

In the picture on the right is Nia and her boyfriend Anthony holding Nia's doll. Anthony looks very much like Ninto.

Nia's Doll (1)

Nia Amasin was three years old when the marriage of the parents fell apart. Lini , her mother took her and her brother Ninto to Australia. Lini met Stuart and formed a new family.

Nia's doll is a Unimax made in China given by her father when she was a baby, the doll was the only momento from her beloved dad. She could not be parted from the doll until she was in her thirteen. The doll was always with her wherever she went.

The Lost Bear

"Can I have my bear back?" Asked Ratri pitifully to her aunt. She was then 12 years old and she got that tiny bear from her penfriend in the USA. "No!" Her aunt answered firmly. The beautiful mohair teddy bear was just there inside the glass cabinet, out of reach and out of touch. It was a display in the living room for all people to see but for Ratri the owner, well, she had no right to play with it.

Ratri migrated to England and lived in London there for 20 years. Now, in her sixties she lives in Sydney, Australia. No one can say no to her anymore. This bear is similar to the tiny teddy bear confiscated by her aunt. The bear she lost is now found. This is one of 2,000 pieces designed by Becky Wheeler and it was bought from a shop in the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney.

If only we could find the toys we loved so much when we were children...

The Soft Toy Pie

When Englishmen go out to dine
Roast beef their staple dish
The Russians all eat caviar
And Eskimos chew fish;


The French they say, are fond of frogs;
The Yanks - Kentucky fries;
But dinkum Aussies, one and all;
Shout: Give us hot meat pies."
Yes, dinkum Aussies, one and all
Shout:"Give us hot meat pies."

A Roll-Over Cat

In 1958 a friend of my dad went to Hong Kong and when he returned he gave me a roll-over cat with black rubber ears. That was the first tin toy I had.

This roll-over cat which I obtained from Cromwell's auction (Lot 124) was made in Germany (US Zone), the tinprinted tabby with a yellow ball reminds me of my cat Bubu. She is a spoilt, adorable cat. I always love cats and for the last 12 years living in Australia we led a catless life until the day we bought a house. In Australia pets are not allowed to be kept in flats or apartments.

This roll-over cat moves in wide circles, rolling over occasionally, in very good working condition.

A Doll Called Windu

Australians come from over 200 countries according to the 2001 census. Each of these groups has its own cultural diversity.

It is hard to live in Australia when your name consists of twenty-two letters and it is not a familiar Aussie name therefore I change my name to Theresa Jackson. "How do you spell your first name?" They still ask. I always say :"Theresa just like Mother Theresa and the surname is Jackson like Michael Jackson." Within 2 minutes the spelling is done, so simple and easy, not complicated at all.

This Patsy type doll from the 1930s has been repainted into a new doll just like me having been a few days to become an Australian citizen. I received a brown doll as a present from my mom when I was 8 years old. The doll was given the name Windu which in Sanskrits language means eight. Unfortunately I lost that beautiful doll a long time ago and luckily I got this Windu-look-alike doll a few days ago from e-bay. What a magnificent doll!

An OK Kader Doll

When I was ten years old I was given an OK Kader Doll B 3525 by my parents. It was then named "Christine" (tien means ten in Dutch) but I lost this doll a long time ago. It happened that my sister-in-law had the same doll. Her father bought this doll when she was little. Dolls like these were very expensive in those days. I got mine from Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. She got hers in Semarang, a harbour city, the capital city of Central Java. All these years the doll was kept in her empty house in her hometown Pekalongan. The doll was brought to Yogyakarta and then to Sydney. This doll had to be hand carried and on the flight to Sydney, she was always mistaken for a real baby and asked to be seen her boarding pass.

As soon as she landed in Sydney she was brought to "the Vinnies" to get a new dress. She is now wearing a pair of jeans, a jumper with a Teddy Bear on it, a cap, a shawl and a pair of red rubber shoes. She looks magnificent! This Doll made in Hong Kong now recides in Australia.

My Studio and Library of Books and Toys

I work in the evening in one of the rooms in the house which I consider as a studio surrounded by books and toys. With the simple lighting that comes from a desk lamp I take the pictures of the toys in my collection by using a digital camera. I do a research of the toys from the books in this library or from the internet. I also do some line drawings for the stories.
The enjoyment of toys is to see them displayed, attractively and orderly. A sad thing is a toy packed away. Let posterity be now. Feel, revel, examine. A toy is history and art in action. (On the Dynamics of Display - Al Marwick)

The Little Queen (2)

The Queen visited Australia again recently to open the Commonwealth Games. The visit before that was done in 2001 and that was when I met her. I took this picture in Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour. I handed her a flower while taking this picture and by doing that I almost fell into the water and she laughed. The Duke of Eddinburg took the flower and handed it to her.

The Little Queen (1)

The little queen was a doll that was made to commemorate the visit of HM the Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 to Australia. Surely I could not attend the occassion since that was the year I was born. The picture on the right was taken when the queen visited "the Three Sisters" in the Blue Mountains, NSW in 1954. I obtained the original black and white picture from the photographer.

The Koala in a Match Box

A koala is not a bear, it is a marsupial but it is always addressed as the "Koala Bear" because of its teddy-bear look.

My mum used to teach us to make our own toys. We made dolls out of chalks and we put them in match boxes in a row resembling the babbies in the maternity ward. In remembrance of those happy creative days, I put this "Koala Bear" in a Koala Match Box. The koala is made of pottery, the two hands and legs are movable.

Toys serve many purposes. They occupy, teach, amuse and become much-loved treasures. Throughout the ages parents have provided their children with toys and this is unlikely to change, but it was not always possible to purchase toys in shops. What happened if there were no shops or times were tough, or a shop did not have what the child wanted? Perhaps sheer neceeity meant that the parent had to make the toys from scratch using all of his or her ingenuity. (John Verhoeven - "Toy Story" Collectors Corner)

The Pecking Hens and A Rooster (2)

There is a definite rhytym involved as their beaks touch the paddle and the sound can be modulated by the speed and direction in which the pendulum is rotated.

The fall has got a positive result in the neck of one of the hens, when the pendulum moves the neck goes to the direction of the mouse next to it as if trying to "shoosh" it away. Wonderful! By the way, this wooden toy was made in Srilangka.

The future of toy collecting lies in repair and repainting. It is a wide open field and of course, related only to the 'in need of restoration' category. If one can restore a full size automobile then why not its toy counterpart? (Twenty-five Topics Pertaining to Toy Collecting by Al Marwick)

The Pecking Hens and A Rooster (1)

In 1998 I found this toy in front of my apartment in North Sydney. It was thrown away by a child with a temper tantrum and the hens were scattered around. Indeed, it was badly damaged. I fixed this toy by glueing back the four hens and one rooster on the paddle and repainted them. One tail was gone and I made a new one out of clay. In addition I also made two mice. Now when the pendulum is moved, the hens and the rooster are busy peking the grains.

The two mice just stand there as if trying to steal the grains from the hens. The chickens bodies are stationary but their heads and necks rise and fall in response to the motion of the rotating ball beneath the paddle.

A wooden Horse from Rangoon

I bought this horse at Rozelle market last Saturday from a frenchman called Benjamin. He migrated to Australia in 1950s and now he makes a living by having a stall selling secondhand goods in markets.

This marionette depicts Buddha's horse "Kandik". It is made of wood and decorated with painted flowers. This horse came from Rangoon, Burma (probably in 1960s). This elegant white horse is a one of a set of puppets wood for performances.

The Greek Wedding Keepsakes

There are two of these dolls in my collection, one is white and the other one is pink. The lady doll can be split into two parts and inside there is an inscription on a piece of paper; Michael-Kate 8/3/59. I think these dolls must be the keepsakes from the groom and the bride on their wedding day to the guests who came to attend their wedding party. There are a lot of Greek migrants in Australia. Michael and Kate must be their adopted Australian names.

The Bandai Ford Fairlane Pick Up Truck

This Bandai toy car was made in Japan in 1957, tinplate and friction drive. The ute is in sky blue colour and cream with chrome detailing, whitewall tyress, checked tinprinted interior and striped tinprinted tray with articulated fold down rear gear.

This car is still in a very nice condition and it brings back my memory of the past. My dad used to run a garage and cars like these were in our garage. The pictures on the right were taken by my uncle when I escaped from my playpen (I was 7 months old) and crawled to the garage. My father picked me up from the floor with his greasy fingers. Mum found 'the escapee' in Dad's arms and that was when the shoot was taken (in 1955).

For me the garage was always a place to find new adventures and new toys. This Bandai tintoy surely brings back a lot of sweet, unforgettable memories with my beloved Dad and his garage.

The Tricycle underneath the House (2)

The tricycle belonged to one of the three sons of the previous owner of the house. Mrs. Gardiner passed away a few months before the house was sold, she was in her eighties.

In 2004 we bought another house, 20 houses away from the previous one. The van Waards, a Dutch couple in their eighties are our nextdoor neighbours. They migrated to Australia in 1958. They have a son and a daughter. In this photograph, the son was standing in front of his sister while holding a Cyclop tricycle just like the one found underneath the other house. So many things are connected to the toys in a strange kind of way. Throuh the tricycle we learn a bit of the history of the suburb we live in.

The Tricycle underneath the House

Now I have lived in Australia for 13 years. I am an Indonesian language tutor and I have worked in different schools, TAFEs and at one time at Sydney University. I had been the editor of the Indonesian Monthly Magazine Gamelan for 8 years. Gamelan stopped its publication last April 2006. The circulation was 10,000 copies monthly. I am also a photographer and an illustrator.

After moving to different suburbs in Sydney, we bought a house in this suburb 2 years ago. The fibro house stands on stilts above the ground just like the bamboo houses in Indonesia in the past.

The fibro house was old but quite strong and still in good condition. Before settling in we asked someone to clean the junks underneath the house. A lot of interesting things could be found among others an old Cyclop tricycle .

My Grandma's Doll and HMV Gramophone (2)

The case of the HMV gramophone is with hinged lid and the front set with two doors opening to reveal a record storage area, complete with a winder and a box of illustrated needle tin full of needles. The volume of the gramophone is controlled by the type of needles used (extra loud, loud, half tone or soft tone). I left the original gramophone belonging to my grandma in our house in Indonesia.

The china doll was made in Germany in 1890. When it was given to me, it had just been found locked in a cabinet in the storage for more than 50 years. By then the doll was not yet a complete doll (just the head and limbs).
I asked a friend to sew a body and a dress to match. We had never seen such a doll before. Apparently, the body made for her is too short for this doll since she was meant to have a caucasian body. The doll is then a combination of East and West, a parian doll with an Asian body, a multi cultural doll!

My Grandma's Doll and HMV Gramophone (1)

I migrated to Australia as a skilled migrant in 1993 and to accompany me I brought along the toy that was given by my grandma. My grand mother was born in Yogyakarta, Central Java in 1893 (ten years after the big eruption of the volcano Krakatoa) and 100 years after that her grand daughter landed in Sydney on the first of January 1993.

Apparently when you migrate to another country it is important to bring something that reminds you to your homeland. This doll is considered to be a momento from my grand mother. I was very closed to her and she passed away in 1983 at the age of 83.

My grand mother got this china doll from an auction in 1920s. A Dutchman by the name of van den Bruin left the country to return to his homeland in the Netherlands and all his goods were auctioned (Indonesia was occupied by the Dutch for 350 years from early 1600 to 1945). Besides this doll she got among others a gramophone (His Master's Voice). I could not bring the gramophone with me but I got an original HMV gramophone as such from Cromwell's auction (Model HMV 563 or 109, circa 1913, the table gramophone contained in a rectangular oak case).

A Vintage Type Writer & The Busy Secretary

This Mettoy Supertywriter was made in Great Britain in 1950s, the tinprinted machine in green and red with real ribbon, in fair condition in its original maker's box.

Indeed, a typewriter itself can be considered a toy. A child (if allowed) will be amused to play with a real type writer. This toy typewriter is the replacement, who knows what the future holds for the little one? A computer programmer? An IT expert? I think, a happy child had got the enjoyment of playing with this wonderful typing machine before computers and video games were invented.

People who migrated to Australia and brought their children might bring a toy or two from their home countries or the toys might have been bought here after settling down.

The other toy on the left was made in Japan. A Linemar Busy Secretary from 1950s, tinplate and battery operated, the tinprinted desk with pencils etc complete with a typewriter. The secretary with rubber painted and moulded face, long pony tail and tinprinted 1950s-style blouse and skirt. She takes dictation, a letter emerges from the lighted moving typewriter, seven actions in all, the typewriter lights up but not in working condition (what a pity!).

Toys, which upon first inspection appear to be children's playthings can symbolize much more, the toys may play a role in deciding their career in the future!

Introduction

Hello, let me introduce myself , my name is Theresa Jackson and this is my first Blog.
I live in one of Sydney suburbs, Australia . I want to write about my life in Australia as an artist and a toy collector. At present my hobby is collecting toys (vintage dolls, teddy bears, tin toys etc). The theme of the collection is "Migrant's Toys in Australia".
My home country is Indonesia and I migrated to Australia on the first of January 1993, so I have lived here for 13 years. I came as a skilled migrant as I am an Indonesian language teacher. According to me, there is a child within each of us which needs a toy to have a joy and to share a story, for there is a story behind every toy and there is a joy when the story is told.

There are hundreds of toys in my collection at present and I am in the middle of writing a story behind each of them.