Mounsey on page 395 of Aboriginal Education -A new Dawning, refers to ‘education institutions set up by the Aboriginal Protection Boards (APB)or previously Protector of Natives (PN), were established through the authority of religious groups, received financial support from the government and primarily provided instructed programmes that were considered useful skills for Aboriginals to gain’. Mr Burrage managed the APB’s Moonahcullah Station, but he also had a teaching position at the stations Aboriginal school.

Attwood et al (1994) on page 4, claims that these churchmen or missionaries believed that ‘as a superior race, Europeans had a Christian duty towards Aborigines and the latter, were capable of being ‘Christianised and civilised’. Removal of Aboriginal children to these reserves or stations was thought, by Europeans’ as the only way and means to successfully assimilate Aborigines to European practices. (Attwood et al (1994) p.4)The Burrage’s felt obligated to the Aboriginal people to provide a good education and keep peace and order on the APB’s Moonahcullah Station.

Religious groups frequented these stations, reserves or missions to spread the word of their God, and ‘domesticate and raise’ Aboriginals ‘through religious instructions, secular training, and virtues of hard work, thrift and sobriety through frequent, repetitious and forceful means’. (Attwood et al (1994). p. 4) Typical of the era, Mr Burrage found conflicts between duties of managing the station and maintaining his teaching obligations, but was sympathetic and adopted the sociocultural theory to teaching Aboriginal children through provision of nature studies in his teaching program. This was before changes in curriculum to cater for the different learning style of Aboriginal people.

The Burrage’s were sympathetic to the plight of the Aboriginal people, and even though Mr Burrage was employed to uphold the policies and legislation put in place by APB, he made allowances for the Aboriginal people. The ignorance and stereotyping of Aboriginal people by Europeans forced some to come and go from the stations on a regular basis but that did not concern the Burrage’s as mentioned on page 156 when Mr Burrage is told by an inspector to expel an Aborigine off the station. Mr Burrage opted to send the Aborigine for a holiday, as he regarded this Aborigine to be a good citizen.

Ethnohistory of the era from Burrage’s children can only be relied upon as there are no documentation of the Burrage’s in any of the recollections of Aboriginals of that era, only Elsie’s inference that ‘Dad was very good to the children ....they enjoyed their schooling’ (Attwood et al (1994). p. 153) It may be said that the Burrage children may have been ‘concerned with justifying their parents’ ideas and attitudes and actions, especially in the face of recent criticisms of such people.’ of that era. (Attwood et al (1994). p. 211)

These educational institutions set up by the Aboriginal Protection Boards (APB) and those employed by the APB, such as the Burrage’s, had the Aborigines interest at heart, ‘primarily providing instructed programmes that were considered useful skills for Aboriginals to gain.’ (Mounsey. (1980). p.395) Policies and legislation set in place hindered interaction of European and Aboriginal people on a social level and formal education always came second best to the duties that needed to be fulfilled to ensure working order of the stations, reserves or missions.



References:
Mounsey, C. F, (1980) Aboriginal Education-A New Dawning. In R. & C. Berndt. Aborigines of the West. Their Past and Present (pp394-404). University of WA Press: Perth.

Attwood, B., et al, (1994) “Excerpts taken from...”A Life Together, A Life Apart: A History of Relations Between Europeans And Aborigines. Melbourne University Press.

Your Story or Mine-AB272 Wk 3

Henry Ford’s claim that ‘history is bunk’ refers to Australia’s history being written from white social memory, and with no input from the indigenous of Australia. The white social memory refers to how documentation of events from the view point of the European settlers is written with biased opinions and built upon the systematic and technically rigorous examination of documented records. (Nugent. 1968. p. 36) The involvement of indigenous Australians in the writing of history before the nineteenth century is minimal and their knowledge of events, not included in history but their “local knowledge” of where these historical events took place are evident in the many memorial plaques that are being erected and telling a new history involving the indigenous Australians.

In the context of Aboriginal history and education, the ‘Aboriginal eyewitness’ reinforces the ‘changing use and meanings of Aboriginal testimony about historical events, particularly as they are deployed, or indeed dismissed, in the new context of public memory and history’. (Nugent. 1968. p. 39). Colonist required Aboriginal knowledge to preserve their own past, only referring to the indigenous for where events happened but never what happened from their point of view, and continues to do so in the twentieth century, preferring to research ‘old ways’ through sorting through collections of pre-contact materials and not drawing on living Aboriginal people as sources of information. (Nugent. 1968. P. 43)

Aboriginal Education was overseen by a European appointed “Protector of Aborigines”. From 1905 onwards Aboriginal people had every aspect of their lives controlled by the protector. Government agencies and church groups decided that Aboriginal children needed to be educated, some would say assimilated to European ways. No involvement of Aboriginal people was sought about what to teach children or how to teach their children, but that they were to be ‘Christianised and civilised and taught ‘useful’ skills. (Mounsey. 1980. P. 30) This attitude is built on the European understanding of history, that ‘because of their limited mastery of English literacy and numeracy, Aboriginals were only educable only to fourth or fifth grade’, an assumption assumed because of one view of history.

The late 1960’s inclusion of recorded oral histories of Aboriginals bought with it a new history which depicted the relationship between Aboriginal and non Aboriginals from the view point of the Aboriginals, a classic example of this is Mission Training (Mowaljarlai, D. & Malnic, J.) and ‘A Lousy Six-pence’ (Nugent. 1968. P. 38) This acceptance of the oral stories, motivated Aboriginal people to become involved in decisions concerning Aboriginal people, especially in areas of education and history.

"The history and achievement of Aboriginal people must occupy its rightful place in literature, textbooks and educational programmes offered in Australian schools and not portray the stereotypical view of ‘culturally deprived, lazy, dirty, drunken, modern day Aboriginal but embrace the environmental and cultural differences of all Australians.”(Mounsey. 1980. p.403)
Documentation from Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal sources supports the fact that Aboriginal people wanted their children to ‘acquire mastery of functional literacy and numeracy skills and develop self-sufficiency and gain an independence from domination and manipulation by non Aborigines". (Mounsey. 1980. p.404)

Australian History is a shared history and should be a collaborative project involving non-Indigenous forms of history and the Indigenous forms, whether oral, painting or dreaming stories. A consensus should be met in relation to time, place according to each cultures view of time and space .As Mounsey states on page 404, ‘The success of many Aborigines has come from the contributions they have made to Australian society in general rather than from their contributions to their own communities....and the demand to have a say in the determining of what will be taught to, and about Aborigines in Australian Schools’ shows Aborigines want the right to be included in Australia’s History as Australians. (Mounsey. 1980. p.404)


References:

Mounsey, C. F, (1980) Aboriginal Education-A New Dawning. In R. & C. Berndt. Aborigines of the West. Their Past and Present (pp394-404). University of WA Press: Perth.

(Mowaljarlai, D. & Malnic, J.) Mission Training. In Yorro Yorro Spirit of the Kimberley. Magabala Books. Magabala Books: Western Australia.

Nugent, M. (1968) Aboriginal History: Historical Encounters. Aboriginal History, volume 30, 33-47