Aboriginal Children In Subiaco...The Early Years.
This post provides a brief background on the history of Aboriginal Children in Subiaco for the next two posts on orphanages and children's institutions in Subiaco and the next post about Winnie an Aboriginal girl who found herself in St. Joseph's Orphanage in 1946 after being kicked by the pet cow in the south west of Western Australia.
This history is from the document 'Aboriginal Histories in the City Subiaco' produced for the City of Subiaco in 2008 ( by Jebb, M. A. & Stella, L.). No copyright infringement intended.
'...Stolen Generations : Aboriginal Children in Subiaco
European attempts to educate, employ and assimilate Aboriginal children in the Perth area began in the 1840's with Anglican schools at Fremantle and Guildford, a Wesleyan Mission school run by Reverend Smithies in Perth, Bishop Rosendo Salvado's New Norcia Mission and the Sisters of Mercy school for Aboriginal children may have found themselves shifting form place to place with different schools and employers. Some may have been shifted outside their country, locked into the mission school and unable to leave. What happened to the parents is difficult to ascertain, but likely they were trying to work nearby, visiting when they could, and were amongst the people noted by Jesse Hammond and James Kennedy as living in Perth in the 1860s.
When Smithies arrived in the colony in June 1840, he was met by Francis Armstrong and rowed back to Perth by two 'ochred Aboriginal youths wearing kangaroo skin cloaks'. His school for native children was part of the wider British Government's policy response to the 1837 Inquiry into the condition of Aboriginal Peoples in the Colonies. Governor Hutt instructed Smithies to 'prevent all violence and injustices which may be attempted against' the Aboriginal people, as well as to 'promote religion and education among the native inhabitants'. Six weeks after his arrival Smithies had taken eight children into his care (see Appendix Two, copy of lists of children). These children slept at night at the house of Francis Armstrong and at first, were taken into Wesleyan homes in Perth settlement during the week days. One of them, Weel-Beer was listed as staying with Mr. Trigg who owned the lime kiln south of Herdsman Lake.
The Governor granted Smithies 1/- per child to provide for their food and for an apartment for them to sleep in near the current Wesleyan buildings at the end of Hay Street. With a few years, older Aboriginal people were moved to work in the gardens on two Mission allotments between Wellington and Roe streets. In 1843 older Aboriginal people were moved again to Guililup (now Wanneroo) which Smithies referred to as 'Alder's Lake'. The mission, partly because it was too wet in winter, but mostly because of illness and deaths amongst the children. Parents withdrew the children and the remaining group moved to York. It closed in 1855.
An Anglican school for Aboriginal girls was opened at Middle Swan in the 1840's. Girls were taken from there to Albany in the 1850's. Reverend King's school for Aboriginal children at Fremantle was also moved to Albany in 1850. In 1871 the children were transferred to Perth to land 'adjacent to Bishop's House' (corner of St Georges Terrace and Spring Street) that became known as the Bishop's 'Native and Half Caste' Institution. In 1888 the children were moved to the Swan Native and Half Caste Mission on the Middle Swan site. This became the main Anglican mission in the Perth area for Aboriginal children. When children reached the age of seven they were transferred to Swan Boy's Orphanage and apprenticed to employers. When the home was closed in 1921 many of the children were employed in the local Middle Swan and Guildford are, but many Aboriginal children were removed to the newly opened Moore River Settlement under the instruction from the Chief Protector of Aborigines who wish to transfer them from Perth. This 'effectively ended more than 80 years of Anglican work with Aboriginal children who were predominantly Noongar - that is to say children of Aboriginal children from the Perth metropolitan area and the greater South West...'"
