Care and Control: the Catholic Religious and Australia's Twentieth
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Care and Control: The Catholic Religious and Australia’s Twentieth-Century ‘Indigenous’ Leprosaria 1937-1986 Charmaine Robson A thesis submitted to the University of New South Wales, in fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University of New South Wales December 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I give heartfelt thanks to my supervisor, Anne O’Brien, for guiding me through this process with her constant encouragement and unending patience. I must also thank my co-supervisor, Grace Karskens, and Geoffrey Nathan, Paul Brown, Mina Roces and Sally Pearson of the School of History for their support and enthusiasm. I am grateful for receiving an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship. This project took me around Australia for research, and I was gratified that many people welcomed me into their private worlds and precious archives to share their information. To Sr Patricia Rhatigan of the Sisters of St John of God Archives in Broome, WA, and to Fr Antony Caruana of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Archives in Kensington, NSW, a special thank- you is necessary for their trust and invaluable assistance. Bishop Michael Putney and archivist Helen Lucas of the Townsville Catholic Diocese were also especially supportive and accommodating. I also thank archivists Sr Madonna Purcell (Franciscan Missionaries of Mary); the late Sr Shirley Bates (Daughters of our Lady of the Sacred Heart) and Dr Roberta Cowan (Pallottine Fathers). Thanks must also go to Chris Adamou and staff at the UNSW Library, National Archives of Australia in Canberra and Darwin, the Queensland State Archives, James Cook University, and the State Records Office of Western Australia. Thanks to Zofia Carter of the State Library of Western Australia for her help in providing documents. I am grateful to Sean Gilligan, Adrian Strong, Christine Choo, Mary Anne Jebb, Robin McIntyre and Barry Leithhead for assistance and permission to use their research material. My deep gratitude to the interview participants who warmly shared their memories, allowing me to garner such rich insights into this history. In particular, I am appreciative to the anonymous “Warwick,” a former leprosarium patient, who gave me so much of his time and confidence. My research benefitted from his ability to “talk under wet cement,” as he put it. Special thanks are also due to Dr John Hargrave for his hospitality and his patience with answering my endless questions. During this project, I received tremendous support from the other post-graduates in the School of Humanities at UNSW. In particular, I thank Eureka Henrich, Lindsay Yeates, Erik Nielsen, Carlin de Montfort, Eve Carroll-Dwyer, Uraiwan Keodara, Antje Kuehnast, Johanna Perheentupa, and Rosemary Phillips. Finally, I am indebted to my family, William, Amelia and Melanie Robson, for their epic endurance and unstinting support. Thanks to my daughters for their indispensible help with technical issues and proof-reading. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements v Abbreviations vii Terminology viii List of Figures ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Prehistories: Hansen’s Disease before 1925 24 Chapter 2 The Advent of the Catholic Religious in the Indigenous Leprosaria c.1925-1943 50 Chapter 3 The Work of the Sisters: The Early Years 1937 - c.1954 102 Section 1: Carers, Patients and Conditions 104 The Catholic Nursing Sisters 104 The Patients 113 Staff Roles 115 The Leprosarium Conditions 116 Section 2: Making Christian Citizens 120 Nursing and Medical Care 120 The Work Ethic 128 School 135 Music and Dance 139 Evangelisation 147 Control of Sexuality and Reproduction 153 Section 3: Discipline, Protest and the Public Eye 166 Discipline 166 Protest 171 The Public Eye 175 Chapter 4 Catholic Male Missionaries and the Indigenous Leprosaria 185 1940 - c.1955 Chapter 5 Catholic Sisters, Doctors and Hansen’s Disease Policy 203 1955 -1980s Epilogue 249 Conclusion 256 Bibliography 262 vi ABBREVIATIONS BELRA British Empire Leprosy Relief Association CDGH Commonwealth Director-General of Health CMO Chief Medical Officer (NT) CPH Commissioner of Public Health (WA) DOLSH Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart DG Director-General DNA Department of Native Affairs DSS Department of Social Services FHC Federal Health Council FMM Franciscan Missionaries of Mary MSC Missionaries of the Sacred Heart NHMRC National Health and Medical Research Council NT Northern Territory OFM Orders of the Friars Minor OLHC Our Lady Help of Christians QLD Queensland RFA Relatives and Friends Association SAC Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines). UAM United Aborigines Mission UN United Nations WA Western Australia WHO World Health Organisation vii TERMINOLOGY Leprosarium Institution for detainment and treatment of people diagnosed with Hansen’s disease. Lazaret Understood in two senses: 1. leprosarium; 2. place set aside for detainment of people diagnosed with Hansen’s disease Hansen’s disease The preferred, non-pejorative term for leprosy, sometimes abbreviated to ‘Hansens’ for economy. Indigenous Describes person of Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander descent. Aboriginal Describes person of Australian Aboriginal descent. Mixed descent Describes person with mixed background of Indigenous and other ethnicity. It is necessary only to make this distinction as it was relevant historically. Historical documents distinguish between people with parents who were both Indigenous (‘full-bloods’); those who had one Indigenous parent (‘half-castes’); and those who had one Indigenous grand-parent (‘quarter-caste’ or ‘quadroon’). White Australians Australians of European or Anglo-Celtic background. Sometimes ‘European’ is used also. Traditional Indigenous This can never be a precise definition but is useful in this study to draw contrasts between those Indigenous people who were leading a more traditional way of life before entering the leprosarium and those, such as former mission residents, who were familiar with Western education and culture. viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Map of Australia showing the four ‘Indigenous’ leprosaria. 1 Figure 2 Jesus healing a leper. 25 Figure 3 Religious representation of St Francis and a ‘leper.’ 30 Figure 4 Father Damien of Molokai and Hawaiian inmates. 31 Figure 5 Mud Island Lazaret, Northern Territory. 54 Figure 6 Map of 'Tropical Australia', 1931. 55 Figure 7 Map showing location of Channel Island Leprosarium. 69 Figure 8 Map showing location of Derby Leprosarium. 82 Figure 9 Map showing location of Fantome Island Leprosarium. 89 Figure 10 Catholic Sister at Fiji’s Makogai Leprosarium. 95 Figure 11 Srs Gabrielle and Campion after arrival at Channel Island. 97 Figure 12 SSJG recruiting brochure. 108 Figure 13 Trackers and police escort a Hansen’s disease suspect. 114 Figure 14 Huts on Channel Island, c. 1930s. 117 Figure 15 Derby Leprosarium buildings, 1947. 118 Figure 16 Fantome Island Leprosarium patient huts, 1947. 119 Figure 17 Sister injecting patient with chaulmoogra oil. 122 Figure 18 Sister checking smear, Derby Leprosarium, 1948. 123 Figure 19 Daily exercise class, Derby Leprosarium, 1948. 125 Figure 20 Women patients working in the Derby vegetable garden. 128 Figure 21 Derby Leprosarium school class, 1947. 135 Figure 22 The school at East Arm Leprosarium, 1950s. 136 Figure 23 String section, Derby Leprosarium orchestra. 141 Figure 24 Cellist, Derby Leprosarium. 144 Figure 25 Corroboree at Derby Leprosarium, 1947. 145 Figure 26 Derby women patients playing poker. 154 Figure 27 Position of patient accommodation, Fantome Island. 156 Figure 28 Position of general buildings on Fantome Island. 156 Figure 29 Channel Island: a bird's eye view. 158 Figure 30 Fantome Island wedding. 160 Figure 31 Newly married couple on Fantome Island arrive at the marital home. 161 Figure 32 Married life begins for a couple on Fantome Island. 162 Figure 33 A Sister shows a Fantome Island a patient her newborn baby. 163 ix Figure 34 Newspaper cutting – ‘Brave Nuns.’ 176 Figure 35 Father William Henschke. 188 Figure 36 Father Moloney with young flock, Little Flower Mission. 188 Figure 37 Father Foster and the Fantome Island Catholic congregation. 190 Figure 38 The Fantome Island Catholic Church. 191 Figure 39 Catholic statuary at Fantome Island Leprosarium. 192 Figure 40 Missionary priest recruitment article. 196 Figure 41 The course of Hansen’s disease through Indigenous communities of the 208 Northern Territory 1911-1970. Figure 42 Derby Leprosarium jail. 216 Figure 43 The outdoor cinema at Derby Leprosarium, c. 1948. 217 Figure 44 Hospital ward, East Arm Leprosarium, 1958. 224 Figure 45 Mother Marion and a patient with arm and leg prostheses. 226 Figure 46 Sister with health worker, East Arm Leprosarium, 1960s. 229 Figure 47 Paramedical Training Centre, East Arm Leprosarium, 1976. 230 Figure 48 Sister in surgery, East Arm Leprosarium, 1958. 238 x Introduction … ‘confinement’ conceals both a metaphysics of government and a politics of religion; it is situated, as an effort in tyrannical synthesis, in the vast space separating the garden of God and the cities which men, driven from paradise, have built with their own hands.1 Dotted around Australia’s vast perimeter lie the physical vestiges of nineteenth and twentieth- century Hansen’s isolation practices, forlorn islands and verges, too bleak or far-flung for all but forced human habitation. Yielding back to the elements, most divulge little trace of their colonised past; in a few, the baked dirt, pricked with the crosses of human transience, remembers death - but of life, is mute. Four of these sites are linked to a recently-closed and specific phase in Australian public health policy and missionary endeavour. In the decade following 1930, Commonwealth and state governments opened leprosaria for Indigenous Australians at three of these locations in northern Australia: Channel Island (NT); Derby (WA); and Fantome Island (QLD). A fourth one, on the Northern Territory coast at East Arm, replaced Channel Island in 1955 (see Fig. 1). Contrasting with all other Australian lazarets, Catholic missionary Sisters were appointed as nursing staff. Channel Island (Northern Territory) 1931 – 1955 then replaced with East Arm 1955 – 1982.