RACIAL FOLLY
A TWENTIETH-CENTURY ABORIGINAL FAMILY
book.indb 1 17/02/10 10:14 AM book.indb 2 17/02/10 10:14 AM RACIAL FOLLY
A TWENTIETH-CENTURY ABORIGINAL FAMILY
Gordon Briscoe
THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
E P R E S S
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Published by ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Incorporated Aboriginal History Monograph 20
This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/racial_folly_citation.html
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Briscoe, Gordon, 1938-
Title: Racial folly : a memoir of a twentieth century family / Gordon Briscoe.
ISBN: 9781921666209 (pbk.) 9781921666216 (pdf)
Series: Aboriginal history monograph ; 20.
Notes: Bibliography.
Subjects: Briscoe, Gordon, 1938- Aboriginal Australian intellectuals--Australia--Biography. Intellectuals--Australia--Biography. Aboriginal Australian historians--Biography. Historians--Australia--Biography Political activists, Aboriginal Australian--Australia--Biography. Political activists--Australia--Biography. Aboriginal Australians--Politics and government. Aboriginal Australians--Northern Territory--Removal--Biography. Children, Aboriginal Australian--Institutional care--South Australia--Biography.
Dewey Number: 994.007202
Aboriginal History Incorporated Aboriginal History is administered by an Editorial Board which is responsible for all unsigned material. Views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily shared by Board members. The Committee of Management and the Editorial Board Kaye Price (Chair), Peter Read (Editor), Robert Paton (Treasurer and Public Officer), Anne McGrath (Deputy Chair), Karen Smith (Secretary), Isabel McBryde, Niel Gunson, Luise Hercus, Harold Koch, Christine Hansen, Tikka Wilson, Geoff Gray, Jay Arthur, Shino Konishi, Dave Johnson, Ingereth Macfarlane, Brian Egloff, Lorena Kanellopoulos, Serene Fernando, Richard Baker, Peter Radoll, Samantha Faulkner, Sophie Collins.
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WARNING: Readers are notified that this publication may contain names or images of deceased persons.
ANU E Press: All correspondence should be addressed to: ANU E Press, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected], http://epress.anu.edu.au Cover image: Sleeping arrangments for half-caste children. Jay Creek, Northern Territory, 1929. From Dr WD Walker Report on Aborigines N Aust (1928-1929), NAA: CRS A1 1928/10743. Courtesy of National Archives of Australia. Cover design and layout by ANU E Press Printed by University Printing Services, ANU Apart for any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher. This edition © 2010 ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Inc
book.indb 4 17/02/10 10:14 AM Contents
Illustrations ...... xi Foreword ...... xv Preface ...... xix 1 ..My family background, 1890 to 1941...... 1 2 ..Evacuation, Mulgoa to Semaphore, 1938 to 1945...... 17 3 ..Racial theory and a religious solution, 1920s to 1945 . . . . . 31 4 ..Pembroke Street to St Francis House, 1946 to 1949. . . . . 47 5 ..Educated men or Christian misfits? 1950 to 1956 ...... 77 6 ..Life after St Francis House, 1957 to 1964...... 91 7 ..Race relations, work and education, 1964 to 1968. . . . . 103 8 ..University and Aboriginal politics, 1969 to 1971 ...... 119 9 ..Redfern and the early 1970s...... 151 10 ..The Northern Territory, 1972...... 165 11 ..A new era in Aboriginal politics, 1974 to 1981...... 177 12 ..The education years: 1980s...... 191 13 ..The 1990s and beyond ...... 203 Epilogue...... 215 References...... 221
v
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For my brother Bill (1944 to 2003) who served his country well.
vii
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‘I have had many dealings with adversity, but the want of parental affection has been the heaviest of my trials’ Edgar Allan Poe
ix
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