1905+Act+as+it+affected+Aboriginal+Peoples+of+the+Kimberley+-+Julian

The 1905 Aborigines Act was to have an impact across the whole of Western Australia. While it made its authority felt in the southwest of the state, it was to have a devastating effect on the lives of the families in the Kimberley region. The resources selected for this review share the common thread of the Act and draw on the belief that the Chief Protector of Aborigines had, and the impact this had on the families and children in the Kimberley.

In his book //Australia’s Coloured Minority// (1947), A.O. Neville outlines his reasons for his application of the 1905 Aborigines Act. He argues for the cause of institutions and the need to have places where the half-caste children can become involved in training and receive an upbringing so that they may be successfully included in the white community. In particular he feels that the children living in the north of the state have greater need of this as their surroundings are undesirable(Neville, p. 75). His desire to have children separated from their full-blood parents was to impact on the lives of many families across the Kimberley from Halls Creek in the east to Broome in the west.

Of the institutions created under the 1905 Act, Moola Bulla in the Kimberley was to have a lasting impact on the families from the Halls Creek area. The stories in the book //Moola Bulla: in the Shadow of the Mountain// (1996) detail the lives of some Aboriginal people, and how they came to be at Moola Bulla native welfare settlement. The storytellers speak of being taken away from their families by the police, who under the Act had the power to remove children that were not full blood Aborigines. Once at Moola Bulla they were given the education and training that A.O. Neville believed so important. Little consequence was thought about the impact that this would have on the families of those taken.

media type="youtube" key="z4U0HHdoXhQ" height="315" width="560" May Butcher is a Jaru woman whose sister Daisy Howard was taken from her family and placed in the Moola Bulla institution. In the video file //Talking Country: Jaru// (2008) May Butcher recounts the long journey her family would take during holiday times from work on station country south of Halls Creek to see her sister at Moola Bulla. The story is one of courage and love. Courage for the long journey taken and love for her sister who was taken under the auspices of the Act.

media type="youtube" key="nCODhXKjdUk" height="315" width="560" The story of Gladys Gillian is told in episode five of //The First Australians// (2008). Her story is another journey that came from the application of the Act in Kimberley. Taken from her full blood mother and white father she is sent to More River Native Settlement in the south of the state. Here she is educated and inculcated in the habits of domicile service. Showing promise, she is moved to A.O. Neville’s half-caste children’s home in Perth where she receives further education. The Act and A.O. Neville as Chief Protector of Aborigines control all aspects of her life.

The short feature film //Sisters, Pearls & Mission Girls// (2004) is a moving story about the Beagle Bay Mission in the West Kimberley and how this was affected by the application of the 1905 Act. As the town of Broome was going through a boom time brought about by the pearling industry, this brought with it an increase in the population and a large number of Asian workers to harvest the pearl shell. The Asian workers were exempt from the White Australia policy but they could not bring their wives. To satisfy their natural needs they turned to the prostitutes and local women. This brought about a large number of children of mixed race. This brought the children under the control of the 1905 Act. These children were removed from their mothers and sent to the Beagle Bay mission. Whilst in the care of the mission, the government paid an allowance to assist in the upbringing of these children. The people that the Act affected in Broome bear no resentment to the Sisters who raised them in the mission but to the government who until recently refused to acknowledge the past injustices.

From these five resources presented, it is evident that the 1905 Aborigines Act had a lasting effect on the people of the Kimberley. It separated children from their families with all intent on keeping the half-caste children away from their parents.

**Reference List** Batty, D. (Director). (2004). Sisters, Pearls & Mission Girls [DVD]: Rebel Films. Cole, B. (Director). (2008). The First Australians [Television Series]. Australia: SBS Television. Goolari Media Enterprises (Producer). (2008, 24 April). Talking Country: Jaru. [Video file] Retrieved from [] Kimberley Language Resource Centre. (1996). Moola Bulla: Native Welfare Settlement. In A. Hunter & R. Bin Salleh (Eds.), //Moola Bulla: In the Shadow of the Mountain//. Broome: Magabla Books, pp. 122-191 Neville, A. O. (1947). //Australia's Coloured Minority: Its Place in the Community//. Sydney: Currawong Publishing PTY LTD.