‘Ignorant and idle’: Indigenous education in Natal and Western Australia, 1833-1875 Rebecca Swartz This thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Royal Holloway, University of London September 2015 Declaration of Authorship I, Rebecca Swartz, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: R Swartz Date: 29.09.2015 ii ‘Ignorant and idle’: Indigenous education in Natal and Western Australia, 1833-1875 Schools, and education more broadly, were pivotal in constructing and maintaining racial difference in the settler colonies of Western Australia and Natal, South Africa. Education must be taken seriously as a way into understanding the intersections between the conflicting, but ultimately reconciled, discourses of humanitarianism and settler colonialism. By considering the education provided for Indigenous children between 1833 and 1875, this thesis shows that schools were essential points of contact between the local government, missionaries and Indigenous people. In examining both colonial policy on education and missionary practice, it highlights conceptions of race, educability and childhood that underpinned education provision in each place. The thesis draws on a variety of sources, including missionary correspondence and imperial and colonial government records. This project seeks to enhance our understanding of education at different scales, making a case for integrating local cases with broader imperial histories. First, the thesis considers the connections between education policy and practice in different sites of Empire. Using case studies of educational change from Britain and the West Indies between 1833 and 1847, New Zealand and the Cape between 1850 and 1865, the thesis highlights continuities in thinking about race and education across diverse parts of the British Empire. In the 1830s, education came to be seen as the role of a humanitarian government in both metropole and colony. This idea proved foundational to the development of Indigenous education in Natal and Western Australia. Second, the thesis builds on this context, and examines approaches to Indigenous education in Natal and Western Australia in comparative perspective. By comparing the colonies, it shows that while Indigenous education policy might have appeared quite different in these colonies, there were connections in thinking about race and the purpose of education that underpinned practice in both places. Education was central to projects of racial amalgamation in Natal and Western Australia in the 1840s and 1850s. However as the century progressed, and ideas about race changed, so too did the nature of education interventions. By the 1870s, government involvement in education was increasingly accepted, in both metropolitan and colonial cases, and its practice was more closely aligned with settler colonialism. iii Table of contents Table of contents ........................................................................................................ iv Table of Figures ........................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... vi Abbreviations ........................................................................................................... viii Introduction .................................................................................................................. 2 Defining education and childhood: Colonialism as education, education as colonialism 6 Policy and practice: Missionaries and government in Indigenous education 9 Methods: Comparisons and connections in local and global perspective 17 Contexts and chronologies 23 Note on sources and boundaries: Symmetries and silences 39 Chapter outline 42 Note on terminology 45 Chapter One Popular ignorance and political freedom: Education in the context of emancipation, 1833-1847 ........................................................................................... 46 Educating the poor in early nineteenth century Britain 50 The Negro Education Grant: Experts, advisors and missionaries 54 Inspections, education and labour 64 ‘A System of Education for the Coloured Races of the British Colonies’ 74 Conclusion 81 Chapter Two Indigenous education and Empire: School frontiers in imperial and local perspective ......................................................................................................... 85 Sanitary statistics in native schools 89 Schools, roads and hospitals: Sir George Grey’s scheme for industrial education in the Cape and New Zealand 98 Ekukhanyeni: ‘One strong, central training Institution’ 109 Conclusion: Indigenous education and Empire 122 Chapter Three Ambivalent humanitarianism, land, labour and education in Western Australia and Natal, 1835-1856 ................................................................. 125 Systematic colonisation and racial amalgamation 127 Civilising spaces: Land and education in Western Australia 131 Civilised workers: Education in colonial Natal 146 Conclusion: Ambivalent humanitarianism, education and the settler colony 160 Chapter Four Local cases, global concerns: Education and civilisation in Western Australia and Natal, 1856-1870 ............................................................................... 164 Local contexts 168 Western Australia: Race, educability and civilisation 174 Natal: Monogenesis, literacy and education 191 Conclusion: Local cases, global concerns 204 Chapter Five Children, parents and the government in education: Britain, Western Australia and Natal in the 1870s .............................................................................. 207 Parents, children and education in Britain and the Empire 212 Industrial schools legislation in Britain 218 The Industrial Schools Act in Western Australia 221 Natal: White children and racial others 231 Conclusion: Racial difference, class, and childhood 245 Conclusion The ‘chief blessing of civilisation, the benefit of education’ ................ 248 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 257 iv Table of Figures Figure 1 Places mentioned in text ................................................................................ 1 Figure 2 Map of Western Australia showing places mentioned in text ..................... 27 Figure 3 Map of Natal showing places mentioned in text ......................................... 33 Figure 4 School at Ekukhanyeni .............................................................................. 113 Figure 5 Bessy Flower and Anne Camfield ............................................................. 186 Figure 6 'Coloured children ejected from a European school' PAR C4169/3 .......... 235 Figure 7 'Coloured children ejected from a European school' PAR C4169/4 .......... 235 v Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been produced without the support of many people in different parts of the world. Firstly, my thanks to my supervisor, Zoë Laidlaw. Zoë engaged me in challenging dialogue throughout this project. Her perspectives and scholarship have been critical guides in shaping my work. The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission generously funded this research. A travel grant from the University of London allowed me to conduct research in the Pietermaritzburg Archives and to attend the ISCHE Workshop on Education in Colonial Africa in 2013, which was hugely beneficial for my research. Thanks to the archivists and librarians in London, Oxford, Perth, Cape Town, and Pietermaritzburg. During my time in Western Australia, I stayed with Elaine Newton and Phil Hutton in Fremantle. I cannot thank Rachel Mazower enough for putting us in touch. Having a home to come back to at the end of long days in the archives kept me sane. Thanks for all of the discussions, engagement with the project, and for welcoming me into your home as one of the family. This project would not have been possible without your kindness, friendship and hospitality. Laura Phillips and her Pink House housemates were fantastic hosts in Johannesburg, and Luke Spiropolous pointed me towards the Anglican Church collection in the Cullen Library when my plans to visit the archives in Pretoria were hindered by a burst pipe in the archives. My interest in looking at Australia and South Africa was sparked by the course ‘Southern Crossings’ run by Nigel Worden at the University of Cape Town with Kirsten McKenzie at the University of Sydney in 2010. Nigel encouraged me to apply for funding to pursue a PhD. I am grateful for his support and mentorship. Peter Kallaway was enthusiastic about my research and generous with his knowledge of the field. During the past eighteen months, my research has benefitted from regular meetings with other research students at the Colonial/Postcolonial New Researchers’ Workshop at the Institute of Historical Research London, and particularly so during my time as co-convenor with Lara Atkin and Hannah Young. vi Lara and Hannah have been hugely supportive and our post workshop drinks have kept me in touch with the brighter side of academia. My friends in Cape Town and in London have put up with many absences and strange distractions with good humour. My family have been encouraging and supportive of me throughout the process.