Long before The Sapphires graced big screens across the globe, pulling in 26 awards and 27 nominations, the singers were just Shepparton locals.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Yorta Yorta women Beverly Briggs, Naomi Mayers, Lois Peeler and Laurel Robinson made up the original Sapphires and now years on, Laurel has made her return back to Country.
Sitting outside her Shepparton North property, Laurel speaks of her time with a knowing glint in her eye.
In her 73 years, she has been a part of what sometimes seems like a dream.
“It’s hard to believe it’s happened, just about every day I think about it, the little things,” she said.
“It will live with me for ever.”
The Sapphires formed in St Kilda in the 1960s — Laurel had moved to Melbourne to live with her cousin and sister at the age of 16 with little more than a packed bag and a slither of hope.
But she and her family had something to draw them apart from the crowd: their voices.
From day one, singing had been a constant in their lives; from church to home concerts, melodies followed the girls everywhere they went.
Born in Mooroopna, Laurel spoke of a childhood performing concerts with her brother and eight sisters, a quiet moment in her family home not filled with harmonies was unusual.
She took to the bright lights of Melbourne in search of a job after facing difficulties finding work in Shepparton due to forms of discrimination.
Working long hours at the Postmaster General’s office, a homeward stroll often led the young women down St Kilda’s main drag.
It was not long until curiosity got the better of them.
“We used to walk past this club and sticky beak,” Laurel said with a laugh.
“The guy at the club asked if we sang, and we said, ‘well, yes, we’ve been singers all our lives, really’.
“When he heard our voices, we had a regular spot there at Tiki Village every Thursday, Friday and sometimes Saturdays and then when the war was starting up, we were approached to go to Vietnam.”
At the time, Naomi and Beverly were strong anti-war protestors, so unlike the film, only Laurel and her sister Lois made the journey overseas.
“We went for three months travelling with a Maori band; I knew it was going to be different but for some reason, I wasn’t scared,” Laurel said.
With a slight grin, Laurel remembered a specific event.
“Actually, the only time I got nervous was when we were in the back of a truck going to do a show, we were going around a mountain and they said ‘get down, and stay down’ because we were in a gun-track,” she said.
“I said, oh, look at all the fireworks, because I knew they loved firework celebrations over there. They said, ‘it’s not a celebration, they’re shooting at us so keep your head down’.”
Although she recounts another episode of a relatively nearby bomb that had cut power to their hotel, the sisters rarely felt their safety was in doubt.
“There weren’t too many scary incidents, just from a distance we saw them,” Laurel said.
“Firing, shooting the napalm, I just thought it was the engines they were burning off but they were spraying it into the forest.
“I remember when they told me; it’s still hard to believe human beings could do that to one another.”
The tour packed in show after show, flying from one place to another, with some cautiously cancelled due to being in war zones.
“When we came home, we were watching the news with mum where Saigon had fallen and I said, ‘that’s where we were’,” Laurel said.
“She couldn’t believe it; she said, ‘you are an idiot, you could have been killed’.”
While the two sisters embraced the opportunity of a lifetime, home was calling for Laurel to raise her baby son, Tony Briggs.
Following her return to Australia, she said singing somewhat fell to the background.
In true Sapphires fashion, the four women involved went on to become trailblazers in their fields.
Lois became a passionate educator and principal at Australia’s only Aboriginal girls’ boarding school, and received a Senior Australian of the Year award in 2017.
The other three women went on to work together at the Aboriginal Medical Service, where Naomi worked up to being the chief executive.
Together they paved the way in making First Nations health services more accessible.
Sitting in her Shepparton home, as Laurel reflects on the decades of travel, work and adventures, she’s glad they will live on forever in another form.
The idea for the film The Sapphires was sparked by a casual conversation with her son — reminiscing about life as a Sapphire sparked Tony’s creative streak.
“He walked around everywhere in Melbourne trying to get someone interested in it, then the Melbourne Theatre Company picked it up,” Laurel said.
“We were all just so happy for him because he’s worked so hard at writing, he loves writing and acting, it was just a big hit everywhere.”
Laurel said the film brought with it more than they had ever expected, but a particular highlight was the feedback from other First Nations artists.
“We had some singers say, ‘now that we've seen this, we're not ashamed to say that we’re Aboriginal and that we’ve come off the mission, we're so proud to be part of the community now’,” she said.
“Before, some of them used to be embarrassed or ashamed to say where they came from or what they were.
“I know there’s a couple around here that love getting up to sing the same song we sang, Ngarra Burra Ferra, a gospel song that our grandmother translated to Yorta Yorta.
“We sing that all the time, we grew up singing it.”
Shepparton News journalist