Never Forgotten Claire G

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Never Forgotten Claire G. Coleman I am haunted by a quote; it rattles around in the corners of my mind never leaving and always informing my work. Forgetting where it was from, I searched for documentary evidence of the words. I needed to know it was not a figment of my imagination. One day, I knew, I would need to prove these words were said. Those words appeared, eventually, in Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800 – 2000, by Anna Haebich [Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2000]. In 1904 the Traveling Inspector of Aborigines in the Kimberly, James Isdell, said of Aboriginal women whose children had been stolen by the protectors: “they forget their children in 24 hours and as a rule [were] glad to be rid of them”. He was not the only coloniser to harbour such sentiment; similar statements can be found elsewhere by anyone willing to look. Belief that Aboriginal women were bad or careless mothers was used regularly to justify the genocidal policies that led to the stolen generations. Australia does not like thinking of genocide. When we think of genocide our minds go to Nazi Germany, or the Khmer Rouge; faraway places and their war crimes, crimes against humanity by people we can dismiss as “bad”. We do not generally, remember the genocide in Australia, we cannot accept genocide as home grown. When I say “we” here I am referring to the nation of Australia, not me, not other Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people are aware of genocide because we are survivors; and it can be argued that in Western Australia, where I was born, the hammer fell hardest. When I am thinking of genocide my mind goes to A. O. Neville who stole children, who controlled every aspect of my ancestor's lives, who banned Aboriginal people from the city centre of Perth at night for decades; who was “Chief Protector of Aborigines” in Western Australia from 1915 to 1936. It was Aboriginal women who fought to survive, fought to keep culture alive, fought to keep their children. In 2016 the creator of the Aboriginal Flag, Luritja man Harold Thomas, won the National Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Art Awards with a work in the style of European History paintings. In Tribal Abduction [2016] the police are tearing a child from his mother's arms as she fights and even bites them in desperation. A nun rushes in to wrap the naked child in a white shroud. Thomas, a descendent of a stolen generation mother and a stolen generation child himself, painted a truth that shows the lie of Idsell's statement in stark relief. In reality oral history tells us of Aboriginal mothers looking for their stolen children all their lives. The wailing of a mother is represented in the song Brown Skin Baby [1970] by Yankunytjatjara man Bob Randall. Randall sings of the eternal mourning of a blak mother whose mixed race brown baby had been taken by the police and the unending trauma of the stolen children. Randall was the brown-skinned baby who never saw his mother again. Singer Shellie Morris, like Bob Randall, grew up away from her Aboriginal family, not having a chance to learn her culture; then sought out her family as an adult. Perhaps her best-known song is Swept Away [2000], a piece of soaring vocal virtuosity, emotionally evoking the moment of returning to Country and lost family. A listener can feel the return to family in the flight of voice; we can be there with Morris as she holds family who have missed her. It is a continuing conceit of Australia that children were taken from their families for what colonial forces believed was “their own good”; and that Aboriginal mothers abandoned children to the authorities. The evidence stands thoroughly against that sentiment. We should never doubt that the stolen generations practices did more harm than good and that mothers, whose children were taken, sought for and mourned their stolen children all their lives. The love of a mother for her child cannot be broken. .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

SOLONEC Shared Lives on Nigena Country
Shared lives on Nigena country: A joint Biography of Katie and Frank Rodriguez, 1944-1994. Jacinta Solonec 20131828 M.A. Edith Cowan University, 2003., B.A. Edith Cowan University, 1994 This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia School of Humanities (Discipline – History) 2015 Abstract On the 8th of December 1946 Katie Fraser and Frank Rodriguez married in the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Derby, Western Australia. They spent the next forty-eight years together, living in the West Kimberley and making a home for themselves on Nigena country. These are Katie’s ancestral homelands, far from Frank’s birthplace in Galicia, Spain. This thesis offers an investigation into the social history of a West Kimberley couple and their family, a couple the likes of whom are rarely represented in the history books, who arguably typify the historic multiculturalism of the Kimberley community. Katie and Frank were seemingly ordinary people, who like many others at the time were socially and politically marginalised due to Katie being Aboriginal and Frank being a migrant from a non-English speaking background. Moreover in many respects their shared life experiences encapsulate the history of the Kimberley, and the experiences of many of its people who have been marginalised from history. Their lives were shaped by their shared faith and Katie’s family connections to the Catholic mission at Beagle Bay, the different governmental policies which sought to assimilate them into an Australian way of life, as well as their experiences working in the pastoral industry.
[Show full text]
By-Elections in Western Australia
By-elections in Western Australia Contents WA By-elections - by date ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 WA By-elections - by reason ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 14 By-elections due to the death of a sitting member ........................................................................................................................................................... 14 Ministerial by-elections.................................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 Fresh election ordered ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Seats declared vacant ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17 WA By-elections - by electorate ..........................................................................................................................................................................................
[Show full text]
Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 21
Aboriginal History Volume twenty-one 1997 Aboriginal History Incorporated The Committee of Management and the Editorial Board Peter Read (Chair), Rob Paton (Secretary), Peter Grimshaw (Treasurer/Public Officer), Neil Andrews, Richard Baker, Ann Curthoys, Brian Egloff, Geoff Gray, Niel Gunson, Luise Hercus, Bill Humes, Ian Keen, David Johnston, Harold Koch, Isabel McBryde, Diane Smith, Elspeth Young. Correspondents Jeremy Beckett, Valerie Chapman, Ian Clark, Eve Fesl, Fay Gale, Ronald Lampert, Campbell Macknight, Ewan Morris, John Mulvaney, Andrew Markus, Bob Reece, Henry Reynolds, Shirley Roser, Lyndall Ryan, Bruce Shaw, Tom Stannage, Robert Tonkinson, James Urry. Aboriginal History aims to present articles and information in the field of Australian ethnohistory, particularly in the post-contact history of the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Historical studies based on anthropological, archaeological, linguistic and sociological research, including comparative studies of other ethnic groups such as Pacific Islanders in Australia will be welcomed. Issues include recorded oral traditions and biographies, narratives in local languages with translations, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, resumes of current events, archival and bibliographical articles, and book reviews. Editors 1997 Rob Paton and Di Smith, Editors, Luise Hercus, Review Editor and Ian Howie Willis, Managing Editor. Aboriginal History Monograph Series Published occasionally, the monographs present longer discussions or a series of articles on single subjects of contemporary interest. Previous monograph titles are D. Barwick, M. Mace and T. Stannage (eds), Handbook of Aboriginal and Islander History; Diane Bell and Pam Ditton, Law: the old the nexo; Peter Sutton, Country: Aboriginal boundaries and land ownership in Australia; Link-Up (NSW) and Tikka Wilson, In the Best Interest of the Child? Stolen children: Aboriginal pain/white shame, Jane Simpson and Luise Hercus, History in Portraits: biographies of nineteenth century South Australian Aboriginal people.
[Show full text]
Aboriginal Problem’: Controlling Interracial Marriage in Australia in the Late 19Th and Early 20Th Centuries
Absorbing the ‘Aboriginal problem’: controlling interracial marriage in Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Katherine Ellinghaus [A]ssimilation is our word. Many Aboriginals take it as meaning they are to be bred out. They wish to be a distinctive people … The desire of the Aboriginals to be a distinctive people is something we should respect.1 What did the word ‘assimilation’ really mean in the mouths of white Australian politi- cians when they referred to Aboriginal people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? This paper, part of a larger project which compares interracial marriages of white women and Indigenous men in Australia and the United States, begins from the assumption that umbrella terms such as ‘assimilation’ can mean different things in dif- ferent times and places. Comparative historians are urged not to assume that ‘because they bear the same label, ideas, institutions, or groups … perform the same function everywhere’.2 As this paper will show, such insights prove valuable when seeking to understand the particular policies aimed at Indigenous people in a unique settler society such as Australia. In Australia of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whites envisioned the ‘assim- ilation’ of Indigenous people in two very different ways. Some believed in the possibilities of teaching Indigenous people to live and support themselves as white people (‘cultural assimilation’), others focused on the loss of Indigenous physical char- acteristics through interracial relationships (‘biological absorption’). In most instances, however, the politicians, public servants and anthropologists involved in solving the ‘Aboriginal problem’ were cryptic when they referred to the future of Aboriginal peo- ples.
[Show full text]
Science, Sexuality, and Race in the United States and Australia, 1780– 1940
Science, Sexuality, and Race in the United States and Australia, 1780– 1940, revised edition | Gregory D. Smithers university of nebraska press | lincoln and london 2017 [2008] Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi A Note about Terminology xiii Introduction 1 part i 1. On the Importance of Good Breeding 27 2. Debating Race and the Meaning of Whiteness 67 3. Eliminating the “Dubious Hyphen between Savagery and Civilization” 103 4. Racial Discourse in the United States and Australia 123 part ii 5. Missionaries, Settlers, Cherokees, and African Americans, 1780s– 1850s 155 6. Missionaries, Settlers, and Australian Aborigines, 1780s– 1850s 187 7. The Evolution of an American Race, 1860s– 1890s 215 8. The Evolution of White Australia, 1860– 1890 245 part iii 9. The “Science” of Human Breeding 277 10. “Breeding out the Colour” 303 Epilogue 339 Notes 345 Bibliography 409 Index 487 Illustrations figures 1. Port Jackson Painter, Five Half- Length Portraits of Australian Aborigines, ca. 1790 58 2. “An Affecting Scene in Kentucky,” 1835 86 3. Charles Darwin 108 4. “Reason against Unreason” 111 5. Frederick Douglass 176 6. Prout, Residence of the Aborigines, Flinders Island, 1846 200 7. “Three Generations,” from Australia’s Coloured Minority, 1947 328 table 1. Number of Aboriginal people in each colony at the 1891 census 252 ix Acknowledgments the act of writing is a solitary endeavor, but the process of producing a historical narrative is very much a collective pursuit. I am indebted to a great many institutions, colleagues, friends, and family for helping to make this book possible. For generously providing fellowship support and ﬁnancial assistance I would like to thank the American Philosophical Society; the Huntington Library; the Paciﬁc Rim Program at the University of California; the Institute for Governmental Affairs at the University of California; the Department of History at the University of California, Davis; the uhh Research Fund at the University of Hawaii, Hilo.
[Show full text]
The Stolen Generations: Lessons Australia Can Reveal to the Rest of the World
Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies Est 1998. Published by Social Care Ireland Volume 3 Issue 1 A Celebration of Foster Care, Vol.3, 2002 2002-01-01 The Stolen Generations: Lessons Australia Can Reveal to the Rest of the World Nicola Breeze Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education Marge Campbell Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education Zeena Elton Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education Follow this and additional works at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijass Recommended Citation Breeze, Nicola; Campbell, Marge; and Elton, Zeena (2002) "The Stolen Generations: Lessons Australia Can Reveal to the Rest of the World," Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 16. doi:10.21427/D7GQ7F Available at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijass/vol3/iss1/16 Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies. Vol. 3. No. 1. 2002 The Stolen Generations: Lessons Australia can reveal to the rest of the World Nicole Breeze*, Marge Campbell and Zeena Elton *Edmund Rice Centre for Justice & Community Education. [email protected] Abstract: In recent years groups of young people, educators, and leaders of peace and reconciliation processes internationally, have met to learn from each other' s experiences of various reconciliation settings from across the world. Let's Talk is a project that facilitates cross-cultural and international exchange amongst people from diverse regions including Australia, Latin America, the European Union, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. One of the key issues in the process of Reconciliation between Indigenous and non Indigenous peoples in Australia relates to the widespread removal of Aboriginal children from their families as an instrument of assimilation; what has become intemationally known as the 'Stolen Generations' .
[Show full text]
Rivers of the Kimberley About the Kimberley Rivers
Water notes WN35 August 2008 Water notes for river management Advisory notes for land managers on river and wetland restoration Rivers of the Kimberley About the Kimberley rivers The Fitzroy River by Luke Pen Western Australia’s Kimberley region has approximately 30 major rivers and many more tributaries and tidal creeks. Kimberley rivers are unique because of their relatively pristine nature. Unlike rivers in many other parts of Australia and the world, most Kimberley rivers are free flowing, their riverside vegetation is relatively intact, and water is not highly extracted or contaminated. In a few cases entire river catchments remain in an almost natural condition, free from significant human disturbance. Many Kimberley rivers are unique and represent important examples of some of Australia’s, and the world’s, last remaining natural river systems. They are, however, under increasing pressure from threats such as weeds, overgrazing, new roads, tourism, feral animals, increasing mining activity and inappropriate use and development. This water note describes eleven Kimberley rivers, providing information about their landscape, ecology, cultural significance and other notable features. 1. Aboriginal people and the Kimberley rivers Aboriginal people have lived in the Kimberley region for at least 40 000 years. Almost half of the Kimberley’s population is Aboriginal, with many people living within their traditional homelands in small-medium sized communities. Maintaining their responsibilities for country, maintaining clean and healthy water and preserving areas of cultural and conservation significance are important to Kimberley Aboriginal people. Waterways are an integral part of Aboriginal life and culture. Permanent and semi- permanent pools form a network of vital water resources for traditional and contemporary Aboriginal groups.
[Show full text]
A Genocide Denied the ‘Half-Castes’ of Australia During the Stolen Generations of 1905-1970 As Genocide
University of Canterbury A Genocide Denied The ‘half-castes’ of Australia during the Stolen Generations of 1905-1970 as genocide This dissertation is submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of BA Honours in History at the University of Canterbury. This dissertation is the result of my own work. Material from the published or unpublished work of other historians used in the dissertation is credited to the author in the footnote references. The dissertation is approximately 9568 words in length. Category One Dissertation Amy Louise Duff Supervisor: Associate Professor Lyndon Fraser HIST480 2016 1 Please note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this research contains names of deceased persons in writings or poems. 2 Abstract In the early 1990s the Wilson-Dodson enquiry was commissioned by the then Labour Government to investigate the issue of Aboriginal children being forcibly removed from their homes between 1900 and 1970. The children removed became known as the Stolen Generations. In 1997 the Wilson-Dodson enquiry published the findings in the Bringing Them Home Report which sparked intense public and academic debate around the issue of the forced removal of Aboriginal children, particularly whether it constituted genocide. In the wake of the report scholars investigated how the actions of the federal and state governments and their agencies relates to the 1949 United Nations definition of genocide. But this scholarship has not engaged specifically with the genocide of the ‘half-caste’ population. Apprehension around part-Aboriginal individuals arose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when many white Australians feared a growing ‘coloured’ population.
[Show full text]
The Numbers and Narratives of Forced Removals in Queensland 1859 - 1972
Calculating Lives: The Numbers and Narratives of Forced Removals in Queensland 1859 - 1972 Author Copland, Mark Stephen Published 2005 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School School of Arts, Media and Culture DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/95 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367813 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Calculating lives: the numbers and narratives of forced removals in Queensland 1859 - 1972 Mark Copland BA (Hons) Dip. Ed. (Aboriginal Education) Dip. Ed. (Secondary Education) A thesis submitted to Griffith University, School of Arts, Media and Culture for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2005 2 “But there are other important side-issues in connection with the reserves and these are: Upon what grounds are we justified in removing Aboriginals to these reserves at all?” Walter Roth, Annual Report of the Northern Protector of Aboriginals for 1901, p. 18 STATEMENT I certify that this work is an original piece of research. It is based on primary sources and, except where otherwise acknowledged, the findings and conclusions are my own. All primary and secondary sources are acknowledged and correct to the best of my knowledge. The material contained in this thesis has not been submitted, in whole or part, for a degree at this or any other university. Mark Stephen Copland 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A number of people have made significant contributions to the writing of this thesis. I owe a great debt to my wife Amber. Without her support, patience and love, this project would never have reached a conclusion.
[Show full text]
Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the Bringing Them Home Report
“Remember Me” Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the Bringing Them Home Report Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care “Remember Me” “Remember Me” Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the Bringing Them Home Report Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care September 2007 ‘Remember Me’: Commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Bringing Them Home report. Published by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Inc. (SNAICC), Suite 8, Level 1, 252–260 St Georges Road North Fitzroy VICTORIA 3068 Telephone: (03) 9489 8099 Fax: (03) 9489 8044 Email: [email protected] Website: www.snaicc.asn.au September 2007 The images, artwork and design of this publication are copyright © SNAICC 2007. Copyright for text of articles published is retained by the individual authors unless specified otherwise. Please seek permission from SNAICC before reproducing any information published here. This publication commemorates the tenth anniversary of the release of Bringing Them Home, the report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families. ISBN: 978-1-921174-11-7 Cover photograph by Tatiana Doroshenko, of a mural in North Fitzroy, Melbourne, Victoria Edited by Mark Lawrence Designed by Heather Hoare, Pixel City Digital Design Illustrations from artworks in SNAICC’s collection Disclaimer The views expressed in the articles are those of the individual authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Inc. unless otherwise indicated. The images and photographs in this publication are intended for illustrative purposes only. No inference is intended or implied that the children or adults depicted in the photographs are the subject of any issue(s) of interest to any child welfare authority in Australia.
[Show full text]
Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 27
Aboriginal History Volume 27 2003 Aboriginal History Incorporated The Committee of Management and the Editorial Board Peter Read (Chair), Rob Paton (Secretary), Alan Wyburn (Treasurer/Public Officer), Richard Baker, Gordon Briscoe, Jennifer Clarke, Ann Curthoys, Mick Dodson, Brian Egloff, Julie Finlayson, Geoff Gray, Niel Gunson, Luise Hercus, David Johnston, Harold Koch, Isabel McBryde, Ann McGrath, Ingereth Macfarlane, Francis Peters-Little, Deborah Bird Rose, Gary Shipp, Rebe Taylor. Correspondents Jeremy Beckett, Valerie Chapman, Ian Clark, Eve Fesl, Fay Gale, Ronald Lampert, Campbell Macknight, Ewan Morris, John Mulvaney, Andrew Markus, Bob Reece, Henry Reynolds, Lyndall Ryan, Bruce Shaw, Tom Stannage, Robert Tonkinson, James Urry. Aboriginal History is a refereed journal that presents articles and information in the field of Australian ethnohistory, particularly in the post-contact history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Historical studies based on anthropological, archaeological, linguistic and sociological research, including comparative studies of other ethnic groups such as Pacific Islanders in Australia, are welcomed. Subjects include recorded oral traditions and biographies, narratives in local languages with translations, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, resumés of current events, archival and bibliographic articles, and book reviews. Aboriginal History is administered by an Editorial Board which is responsible for all unsigned material in the journal. Views and opinions expressed by the authors of signed articles and reviews are not necessarily shared by Board members. The editors invite authors to submit contributions to either the journal or monograph series for consideration; reviews will be commissioned by the book review editor. This volume of the journal is formally dated 2003, but is published in 2004.
[Show full text]
An Aboriginal History
My Story of Annie’s Mob: An Aboriginal History Annie’s Mob This is Annie’s Mob as they go through their journeys of life. Their lives follow different paths. Nevertheless, each one has their own family with dreams and roads to walk but they will always be Annie’s Mob. 1 Annie’s Mob: The Story of an Aboriginal family Normae Bennett Dip. Teach; (W.A.C.A.E) B. Ed.; (E.C.U) ` M.A (Curtin U.T) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Murdoch University 2016. 2 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not been previously submitted for a degree at any tertiary educational institution. ………………………….. 3 Abstract As an Aboriginal author, my thesis is grounded in an Indigenist paradigm; a paradigm that places Indigenous experiences at the center of inquiry and whose goals are to “serve and inform the Indigenous struggle for self-determination” (Rigney, 1997, p. 119). Hence, this thesis is an auto/ethnographic journey based on my lived experiences. Apart from my memories I draw on family documents as well as other printed source material, such as the diaries of my Grandfather and departmental files. In the era when I was growing up, the cliché of; “Children should be seen and not heard” was popular. Not only that, my mother often told us that we children were never to tell anyone our business or talk about our personal life. Therefore, I never spoke freely about my family’s life, my growing up years and how I was ashamed of being an Aboriginal when I was younger.
[Show full text]