Ivy Getchell

Ivy Getchell born in 1932, during the Great Depression, in Lithgow in the heart of New South Wales, Ivy spent her first twelve years with her itinerant family, working in the fields picking vegetables. Home was Native Dog Creek near Oberon.In 1945, her family was abruptly shattered by the loss of their mother. The children were separated, and Ivy was placed in the notorious Parramatta Girls Training School, an institution infamous for its harsh discipline and bleak conditions. Her teenage years were marked by daily hardship and a scarcity of hope, yet Ivy drew on deep reserves of resilience that would carry her forward. At eighteen, she was sent to work in Queensland, where an abusive marriage followed. Finding the strength to leave, Ivy endured the heartbreak of separation from her children.

With Frank, the love of her life, she later built a life grounded in love and stability. She travelled to North America, where she connected with her great-grandmother’s tribe, the Blackfoot people, sleeping in teepees and learning traditional cultural practices passed down through her mother’s line.

Now in her nineties, Ivy has found a sense of home in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, surrounded by friends and family. Her life stands as a testament to resilience, truth-telling, and the enduring possibility of hope.