The roles of schools and missions in the era of ‘civilising and christianising’ the Aborigines were to ‘change and reshape their minds and hearts and make them anew....a likeness of their own (European-Christian) image.’ (Attwood. (1989) p.1) In order to this, missionaries and government appointed employees came to a conclusion that the Aborigine had to relinquish their own customs in order to learn, except and adopt the European customs, rituals and faith. Some missionaries and government employees did not believe and accept that this was right.
An example of the rejection to the belief is the Love’s who worked very closely with the Worora people at the Kunmunya Mission (McKenzie. (1969)) Bob Love was a pastor and teacher, who also had to manage the stations operations, even though the legislation at the time prohibited Aborigines from practising their own culture and language, the Love’s embraced the Worora language and converted two scripture readings .
Ramahyuck missions’ manager, Mr Hagenauer, devised a system where every hour within the day, is taken up by some activity, so that there would be no time for the Aborigines to practice their own law and culture. Engaging Aborigines in European duties and customs was seen as the best way in which to ‘civilise and Christianise’ the Aboriginal people.
The managers and missionaries of the time often saw themselves as the parental figure in the life of the Aborigine. That they needed to be taken care of and told how to do so, even though the main idea behind the missions was to educate Aborigines so that they could be a part of the wider community. The Government of the era, realised that, the Aboriginal race was not going to die out like they thought, so they now had an obligation to provide education, housing, and health needs thinking that putting them on stations, missions and reserves would solve the racial discrimination Aboriginal people endured, and satisfy those that did not want the Aboriginal children in the so called public schools, which were funded and run by the government.
References:
Attwood, B. (1989) ‘And God said...let them have dominion’. In The Making of the Aborigines. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. Retrieved August, 8 from
https://blackboard.nd.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_3478_1%26url%3D
McKenzie, M. (1969) The Loves at Kunmunya. In The Road to Mowanjum. Angus & Robertson. Retrieved August, 18 from https://blackboard.nd.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_3478_1%26url%3D
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2 comments:
Hi Michelle. I certainly agree with your comments on the Ramahyuk mission. It seems that the missionaries were used by the British Empire as their instruments for civilising the world. I was curious about the name Hagenauer, which sounds very Germanic and so I checked out the background of the Moravians. The authorities in the eastern states must have been running short of people to educate and convert the Aboriginals for them to to be invited over from outside of the empire. With Teutonic efficiency (I'm being steroetypical now) they carried out their task but only with the grudging consent of their charges.
What seems to me to be missing from Attwood's account is the fact that the missionaries weren't just doing the government's work of civilising and educating but they were also empire building like all religious groups do. The bigger the membership, the more influence and power and more role models to convert more to their own particular denomination.
There's no doubt that the authorities, the missionaries and the Aborigines benefited in some ways from the missions but unfortunately the Aborigines had little choice in the arrangement, their participation was a survival tactic.
Michelle I disagree with you to a certain extent when you say 'The Government of the era, realised that, the Aboriginal race was not going to die out like they thought'. The Ranahyuk mission was operating in the mid 1880's when it was believed that they would die out. The time of the Loves arrival at Kunmunya was still one in which it was anticipated that the miscenagation would led to the extinction of the aboriginal people
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