Remembered By Heart: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing by Sally Morgan Page A
Authors: Sally Morgan
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Bodney. He was the old tribal top man back in the 1950s, responsible for Perth. I remember to this day when the Queen came, she had to be given the boomerang of peace by old Bill to say that she could come to his country, because that was his place. He was on the airstrip when she came to Australia.
I finished my primary school in East Perth and I went on to high school. It was for boys and I left halfway through the second year, as soon as I turned fourteen. In those days you were allowed to leave school at fourteen. I could have gone on to do wonderful things. I was told by the headmaster that I would have made an excellent accountant. But in thosedays, you had to know somebody who could get you into accountancy. We didnât have those sorts of contacts.
In those days there was plenty of work around for young blokes straight out of school. I started off working with my brother in a timber mill just up the road from us in Charles Street. The Tower Hotel was on the corner. The old fella next door had a little bit of a timber yard at the back and I worked there for about a year and a half. Then I left and went and worked for an old fella in a nursery.
At this time weâd moved to West Perth. I left school in 1959. We were there for only a short while and got our first State Housing house in Barney Street, Glendalough. Later, I was the last member of the family to live in that house. We lived there until 1986.
Once we were in that house in West Perth, Mum set it up as a halfway house for the kids coming out of Sister Kateâs. There was a need which she saw. Kids coming out of Sister Kateâs had nowhere to go when they turned fourteen or they finished high school, because then they had to get out.
Not far from us, on the corner of Fitzgerald and Carr Streets, was a place called McDonald House. McDonald House is part of the Aboriginal history. They taught the kids, in a TAFE type situation, to do things like bookkeeping, accounting, etc. It was the first sort of Aboriginal access in Perth. There were limited numbers of kids getting places there, so Mum set up this halfway house. No government funding, just did it off her own bat. The kids who wanted to get into there came and stayed at our place. We had a bigfour-bedroom house. Mum put beds in, about four or five kids in each room like a little dormitory set up.
They stayed with us. There was plenty of work around so they were able to support themselves and they had a place to come home to, three meals a day or prepared lunches. Then as places became available in McDonald House they went there and they were able to go on with schooling. That worked really well. Mum certainly made use of her time.
Abridged from
Karijini Mirlimirli
edited by Noel Olive, 1997.
Eric Hedley Hayward
OPPORTUNITY
At the beginning of the 1950s, in line with the changes in government attitude and legislation about social programs for Aborigines, a scheme had been introduced so Noongar students could go to high school in Perth.
How it worked was that officers of the Native Welfare Department identified boys and girls capable of taking up the opportunity, and after a selection process involving the officers, teachers and parents, a committee in Perth made the final selection. Those who were doing well at school and were willing to leave their families were selected first.
This was a great opportunity for Noongars. At that time, living conditions, school costs and the general marginalisation Noongars experienced in the country were factors, we believed, that made it almost impossible to be successful in regional high schools. Few Noongars in the country were achieving results comparable to Wadjalasâ,and this new opportunity gave us a chance to do so. So, many Noongars thought the idea of kids going away to better themselves was a good one, and, certainly, parents knew they would never have been able to pay for what was on offer from the Native Welfare Department.
But some
I finished my primary school in East Perth and I went on to high school. It was for boys and I left halfway through the second year, as soon as I turned fourteen. In those days you were allowed to leave school at fourteen. I could have gone on to do wonderful things. I was told by the headmaster that I would have made an excellent accountant. But in thosedays, you had to know somebody who could get you into accountancy. We didnât have those sorts of contacts.
In those days there was plenty of work around for young blokes straight out of school. I started off working with my brother in a timber mill just up the road from us in Charles Street. The Tower Hotel was on the corner. The old fella next door had a little bit of a timber yard at the back and I worked there for about a year and a half. Then I left and went and worked for an old fella in a nursery.
At this time weâd moved to West Perth. I left school in 1959. We were there for only a short while and got our first State Housing house in Barney Street, Glendalough. Later, I was the last member of the family to live in that house. We lived there until 1986.
Once we were in that house in West Perth, Mum set it up as a halfway house for the kids coming out of Sister Kateâs. There was a need which she saw. Kids coming out of Sister Kateâs had nowhere to go when they turned fourteen or they finished high school, because then they had to get out.
Not far from us, on the corner of Fitzgerald and Carr Streets, was a place called McDonald House. McDonald House is part of the Aboriginal history. They taught the kids, in a TAFE type situation, to do things like bookkeeping, accounting, etc. It was the first sort of Aboriginal access in Perth. There were limited numbers of kids getting places there, so Mum set up this halfway house. No government funding, just did it off her own bat. The kids who wanted to get into there came and stayed at our place. We had a bigfour-bedroom house. Mum put beds in, about four or five kids in each room like a little dormitory set up.
They stayed with us. There was plenty of work around so they were able to support themselves and they had a place to come home to, three meals a day or prepared lunches. Then as places became available in McDonald House they went there and they were able to go on with schooling. That worked really well. Mum certainly made use of her time.
Abridged from
Karijini Mirlimirli
edited by Noel Olive, 1997.
Eric Hedley Hayward
OPPORTUNITY
At the beginning of the 1950s, in line with the changes in government attitude and legislation about social programs for Aborigines, a scheme had been introduced so Noongar students could go to high school in Perth.
How it worked was that officers of the Native Welfare Department identified boys and girls capable of taking up the opportunity, and after a selection process involving the officers, teachers and parents, a committee in Perth made the final selection. Those who were doing well at school and were willing to leave their families were selected first.
This was a great opportunity for Noongars. At that time, living conditions, school costs and the general marginalisation Noongars experienced in the country were factors, we believed, that made it almost impossible to be successful in regional high schools. Few Noongars in the country were achieving results comparable to Wadjalasâ,and this new opportunity gave us a chance to do so. So, many Noongars thought the idea of kids going away to better themselves was a good one, and, certainly, parents knew they would never have been able to pay for what was on offer from the Native Welfare Department.
But some
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