In November 1987, Michael Jackson came to Sydney, Australia, on his “Bad” world tour. He had two shows booked at Parramatta Stadium, on November 20 and 21.
Big concerts were the part everyone saw. What happened away from the stage stayed hidden for a very long time.
It started with a letter.
Vilma Ryan was the director of Murawina, a community preschool in the Sydney neighborhood of Redfern. Murawina gave childcare to Aboriginal children. Aboriginal people are Australia’s first peoples.
Vilma decided to take a chance. She passed a letter to Michael’s team.
It worked. She ended up meeting Michael at his Sydney hotel.
She remembered him clearly. “He was very polite, soft spoken and respectful during our meeting,” she said.
Then Michael went one step further. He came to visit Murawina himself.
This wasn’t a quick wave for the cameras. “He spent about two hours at the centre talking with the kids, their parents and staff,” Vilma said. Parents got to talk with him. The teachers who cared for those children every day got to meet him too. For a small community preschool, it must have felt like the whole world had come to their door.
During their talks, Vilma told Michael something honest. The families she worked with didn’t have much money, and the local kids couldn’t afford to go to his concert.
Michael’s answer came in the form of tickets.
“He gave me 100 tickets to his concert at Parramatta Stadium,” she said, “when I told him our kids couldn’t afford to see his show.”
A Channel 9 News snippet from his November 20 show in Sydney gives you a feel for the concert those tickets were for.
A Channel 9 News clip from Michael’s Sydney show on November 20, 1987
One hundred tickets. That’s the kind of gift you’d want to tell everyone about.
Vilma couldn’t.
She says she was asked to keep the visit private. And the request didn’t end when the tour moved on. “I was also warned not to publicise it even after his return to America,” she said.
So she kept quiet.
She says she held on to that secret for a very long time. In July 2009, after Michael had passed away, she finally told the story to a Sydney paper.
“It was the highlight of my life and my biggest secret for 22 years,” she said.
That’s a lot to keep to yourself. Two hours with the most famous entertainer in the world, plus 100 concert tickets for the kids, and she says she didn’t go public with any of it until 2009.
We don’t know of any video from the preschool visit itself. The Redfern oral history website does keep a photo captioned “Michael Jackson @ Murawina in 1987,” a small piece of proof from that day.
For Vilma, the memory was enough. She waited a long time to share it, and when she finally did, she made it clear how much those two hours had meant to her.