[“Care of Natives”, The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), Sunday 03 July 1927, page 6]

CARE OF NATIVES

Some Humane Suggestions

The Danger of Segregation

“Sympathiser” writes:

In an issue of the morning paper I noticed points from a very interesting letter written by Harriet Patricia Lenihan, of Cork, Ireland, late of Bernier Island Lock Hospital. Evidently, this lady has had considerable experience among the aborigines.

I would like to endorse the sentiments contained in her letter as regards segregation. No matter what may be done for them regarding food and kindness shown them, the one passion is for their country. To imprison them on reserves of a million acres means sure extermination. The native has had his times for hunting certain game, and certain times of the year for vegetable food; therefore he requires to roam over large areas; to collect seeds, roots, etc. At other seasons he visits the estuaries and rivers for fish and crocodiles.

It has often been said the aborigine has very little feeling for his fellows, but to hear the mournful cry for weeks every night after the death of one of the tribe is a thing never to be forgotten by anyone with a grain of humanity.

Mr M. C. Durack has said it would be cruel to shift natives from stations where they had lived all their lives. I agree with that gentleman in his statement. There are many stations where the natives are employed where all their aged relatives are fed and cared for and found in medicine when sick. These natives belong to the particular part, and consider it their home. To remove them would mean shortening their lives.

In most cases the native is very well cared for on the stations. The average squatter knows what an asse the native is, and treats him kindly. The industry throughout the north of Australia has been built up with his assistance; his ill-treatment comes from another quarter.

As an instance of the native’s regard for his children, I remember an aged native being brought from Roebourne prison about 40 years ago to East Kimberley. He had been convicted for killing a sheep. I was the only one who knew anything of his dialect; therefore he confided to me his troubles; they seemed to be centred on two picaninnies he left behind. He was afraid he would never see them again, which he did not, for he seemed to get melancholy and pined away after some months and died at Turkey Creek.

Another instance of the natives’ devotion to their country: I was bringing a mob of horses over from the North-West to West Kimberley about 25 years ago. I had a native with me, a young fellow about 22 years of age. One morning when we were packing up at a station about 20 miles from Port Hedland an old gin came crying and beating her head. I asked the boy what were her troubles. He told me she was his mother, and that she said he was going to another country and might die, but if he lived he must come back and take his father’s job drawing water for sheep. He contracted fever very badly in Kimberley. His only trouble seemed to be that he wanted to die in his own country. However, he recovered, and I brought him back to Port Hedland on the Paroo, where he got a great reception from his countrymen.

I think it is the duty of this country to care for the natives as much as possible in their declining years. They are not the thick heads some woull have us believe This has been proved at New Norcia, where the Brothers taught the natives bootmaking, wheelwrighting, and many other trades.

If the Government gave the existing institutions substantial assistance to teach the natives to be useful, their labor, I am sure, would be appreciated in the Far North.