BACKGROUND
In NSW from 1883, when the Aboriginal Protection Board was established, right up to 1969 when it was supposed to be abolished, thousands of Aboriginal children were taken from their parents and placed in training institutions. In 1911 the Board described Aboriginal children as a positive menace to the state, and in 1921 the Board's report stated "the continuation of this policy of dissociating the children from camp life must eventually solve the Aboriginal problem". Training homes were set up to train Aboriginal children as domestic servants and farm labourers. These included:
- a school girls' dormitory at Warangesda station on the Murrumbidgee in 1883;
- Cootamundra girls' home in 1911;
- Kinchela boys home near Kempsey in 1924.
From 1915 to 1939 any station manager or policeman could take children from their parents if he thought it was for moral or spiritual welfare. In the space marked "reason for taking the child", some managers wrote, "for being Aboriginal". After 1939 only a magistrate could order the removal of Aboriginal children but a clause said children could be removed not just for the reason of neglect but if the child was said to be uncontrollable.
Many children had been taken out of the area and had their name changed (often through the church via a baptism) which then allowed the ward records to be destroyed. Parents were discouraged from seeing their children in a deliberate effort to break family bonds. Institutions and foster homes punished children for talking about their real families.
Before the government adopted a policy of assimilation - to "breed out" the Aboriginal race - there was a widespread practice of moving them off their traditional lands to make way for the lucrative practices of settlement, agriculture and mining.
1. MISSIONS AND RESERVES
In the 1870s, as Gulgong was just getting started, missionaries in New South Wales lobbied the government to reserve lands for their use (for the stated purpose of converting the Aboriginal populace to Christianity). Missions were established missions at Maloga and Warangesda.In 1881 a Protector of Aborigines was appointed. He recommended that reserves be set aside throughout the State to which Aboriginal people should be encouraged to move.In 1883 the Aborigines Protection Board was established to manage the reserves and control the lives of the estimated 9,000 Aboriginal people in NSW at that time. The Board took over the reserves at Maloga and Warangesda.By 1939 there were over 180 reserves in NSW.
- Managed reserves, also called stations, were usually staffed by a teacher-manager and education of a sort, rations and housing were provided.
- Unmanaged reserves provided rations but no housing or education and were under the control of the police.
Use this interactive map to find the name of a mission or reserve, in a particular area: Aboriginal reserve/mission mapWhen looking for records relating to family members who may have been moved to a mission or reserve, the names of board members and staff may be useful search terms as they will have been named in official documents.
Aboriginal Welfare Board:
- Mr J P Glasheen
- Mr Grahame Drew
- Mr C J Buttsworth
- Mr A W G Lipscombe
- Superintendent R H Blackley
- Mr Ernest Wetherell MLA (Member for Cobar)
- Professor A P Elkin
- Michael Sawtell
- Mr Groves
WELLINGTON
The Wellington Valley in New South Wales was colonised in 1817 and, for the first 20-year period of its settlement, represented the furthest outreach of the British colony.
This early settlement had Australia's first Anglican mission. The Wellington Valley Mission Papers represent one of the largest and most important sources of colonial frontier history in NSW. These records are highly significant for local Indigenous people as well as historians, as they prove the continuity of Indigenous presence that stretches from settlement to the present day.Mission records from these times also reveal Wellington Valley Mission "procured" children for re-education and separation from their families and cultural milieu. This is where the sad history of the stolen generation had its beginning.Source: Wellington Project 2005-2012
Wellington, group portrait
Click here to see zoomable image.
"Nanima" Aboriginal Reserve at Wellington
NANIMA, WELLINGTON NSW
In 1832 the first inland Aboriginal mission was established in Wellington NSW, which became the Nanima “mission” (Reserve) in 1910. The “mission” became the longest continually operating Aboriginal reserve in Australia.
By 1844, the media seemed well convinced that missionaries were having no luck converting Aboriginal people, and in this article, quoted a letter from Wellington to prove it:
Mr. Editor - There appeared in your able and impartial journal some time back, an article treating on the Wellington Aboriginal Mission... I, for one, have lived with the Church Mission stationed at Wellington Valley, for two years, and can speak to the fact, that during that time, there was not a shadow of an attempt to convert a single native, although there were several lengthy reports made about converting "piccaninies," and so on - proceeding to speak of the honesty of purpose with respect to what manner the public money was handled by these men of feigned conversions, at Wellington Valley - For the last ten years, the missionary, according to his own account, travelling over boundless tracts of country, produced on the 24th of October last, six natives; wonderful conversion of these last ten years!
Nanima School
Nanima Students, 1930
Nanima School, Wellington, October 1965
Source: State Library of NSW
Nanima School, Wellington, October 1965
Source: State Library of NSW
Inspection by the Aborigines Welfare Board, Nanima Reserve, Wellington, October 1965
Source: State Library of NSW
Accounts of Survivors of Nanima Mission:
1899 - [CATHOLIC MISSION]Then there is the aboriginal Catholic missionary camp a few miles from Wellington, in the spiritual and temporal welfare of which the Archdeacon [D'Arcy] takes much interest. From the illustration [above] it will be seen that the aboriginals at the Catholic mission are decently clad, and apparently a contented lot. The dusky son of the soil on the right is Jacky Reidy, one of the aboriginal cricket team, which went to England in 1877.
Catholic Aboriginal Mission, Wellington
The CATHOLIC ABORIGINAL MISSION, in which Archdeacon D'Arcy takes an abiding interest, stands upon the banks of the Macquarie River, a couple of miles away from Wellington. The venerable gentleman has baptized between 50 and 60 of these dusky children of Adam, and taught them the meaning of Marriage, Baptism, and other Sacraments. They go to Mass, Confession, and Communion, and though it is impossible to divest them of all their bush habits, they reach a fair stage of civilization. No bad characters are allowed in the camp. A dozen of the aboriginal children attend the day school, and when they do they receive their dinner at the presbytery, ' where,' says Archdeacon D'Arcy,"I am glad to say that poor Protestant children also sometimes come for food.''The Government granted 24 acres of land for the use of the aboriginal Mission, and also gave the iron and wood out of which the houses of the inmates are made. A photograph of the aboriginals shows them to be a well-dressed and healthy-looking body of adults and children.
2. FOSTER HOMES
In 1957 the government started placing Aboriginal children with white foster parents to sever them from their roots. By fostering children out, the Board saved money as they didn’t have to provide upkeep. The foster families had two incentives: they could claim child endowment and also use these children to do work around the home. The foster records contain terms like "Very poor intelligence" and "not worth the paper it is written on".
"When dealing with birth, death and marriage records quite often people applied for birth certificates not knowing they had two separate certificates. I only discovered this in 2005 when trying to locate families for the stolen generations. But what amazed me, even more, was that organisations trying to locate families or people doing family history don’t even know that hidden records exist for foster children."Source: Anonymous
3. PUBLICATIONS
Published from 1952 to 1975, Dawn was a publication produced by the NSW Aborigines Protection Board (later the Aborigines Welfare Board). It has been described as somewhere between patronising and propaganda but it may prove a useful resource for tracking down lost family members.
The “Dawn” magazine provides an unprecedented primary resource, which allows for the development of an understanding of the concept of Assimilation and how the Government was promoting it. Published on a monthly basis, Dawn was the magazine that was being sent out to all Indigenous Australian people. It was created by the Protection Board, and was aimed at promoting Assimilation to Indigenous Australian people. It presented this information in a manner that placed a large emphasis on White Australian culture and the advantages of gaining this culture and becoming a part of it. Focuses on education, on sporting achievements, on roles outside of the home, demonstrated to Indigenous Australian people the possibilities that were available to them, if only they embraced the culture of the White Australian people. This was aimed at illustrating to Indigenous Australian people the advantages of Assimilation.
AIATSIS has provided a list of the names of people who are mentioned in the Dawn and New Dawn magazines published by the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board between 1952-1975.
This alphabetical index could be a useful tool for family research. The magazines themselves are another resource, especially the photo section (where people could contribute photos of themselves or their families); the letters to the editor; and the pen pal sections.Useful government websites
- ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS NSW (Family records)
- LINKUP NSW
