Hi Jayb, Belly, SPQR,

I've been trying to get a web-site up with all of these information sources on it, but I'm an old person, so I naturally have been having trouble doing that effectively. But you might have better luck:

http://www.firstsources.info/

I've tried, over the years, to find and transcribe the major documents in Aboriginal affairs in South Australia: the Select Committee of 1860, the Royal Commissions of 1899 and 1913-1916, Rev. George Taplin's 20-year Journal, the Point McLeay Superintendents' letter-books 1880-1900, the Protector's correspondence and Annual Reports 1901-1937 and - coming shortly - selections frrom the Minutes of the Advisory Council of Aborigines (1918-1939) and other key documents.

All that amounts to around five thousand pages and constitutes a body of material from which - I believe - one can make inferences and draw conclusions over policy.

After all, in a real sense, every letter of the Protector is a statement of policy, what he - and the Government behind him - believes is a reflection of the right course of action.

So:

* a vast network of ration depots, with depots closing and opening as people move from place to place;

* a clause in every pastoral lease recognising traditional Aboriginal land-use, 'as if this lease had not been made';

* support for Aboriginal schools during the nineteenth century, at Encounter Bay, Adelaide, Goolwa, Kingston, Point Mcleay, Port Lincoln, Point Pierce (Pearce), Kopperamanna/Killalpaninna and Mount Gambier;

* provision of about a hundred 'canoes', 15-ft boats, 5-ft beam, to Aboriginal people on all waterways, including perhaps the Cooper's Creek, along with modern fishing gear, hooks, lines and netting twine;

* allocation of around fifty leases of land to Aboriginal people, men and women, usually 160-acre blocks, on 14-year leases, rent-free, occasionally, with implements - one time some lessees provided with milk-cows as well;

* free medical attendance and medicines and Hospital admission of serious cases.

[TBC]

[continued]

* provision of a wide range of items as rations including:

Sugar
Axes
Rice
Netting Twine
Tobacco
Needles
Soap
Threads
Sago
Fishing Lines
Blankets
Fishing Hooks
Blue serge
Spoons
Blue serge shirts
Quart pots
Cotton shirts
Pannicans
Galatea cloth
Billy cans
Tomahawks
Bags and tarpaulins for wurlies
Occasionally, tents

As well, half the cost of guns and their repair; and half the cost of the repair of boats.

Yes, folks, in South Australia, Aboriginal people were always allowed to have guns.

In sum: no, it's not as if Aboriginal people won X-Lotto, but neither is it 'stale bread and water, bowed down by iron chains' either.

Let's run with what can be demonstrated to hae been the evidence of actions for or againstv Aboriginal people, and suspend belief of assertions which are not backed up by evidence. And then, of course, try to find the evid3ence, one way or the other.

For evidence of the thriving nature of indigenous discourse, you may like to check this site out:

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=251249296&gid=3451857&commentID=146516646&trk=view_disc&fromEmail=&ut=1BD_28KSzS3BQ1

Thanks,

Joe

Oops, of course flour and tea as well.

Nicolas Rothwell has a wonderful article in this weekend's Australian, which goes against this approach to an extent.

Nicolas raises the issue of whether or not 'the absence of evidence doe not necessarily mean the evidence of absence.'

I would be interested in what posters have to say about that principle. After all, for many aspects of history, there may be no tangible evidence, and yet ......

Thanks for an interesting post. NSW had a similar ration distribution system but, I think, not so extensive as in SA. The NSW records also include detailed censuses of the Aboriginal people receiving rations and other support from about 1880-early 1900s, with the population broken down by male/female adult/children, 'fullblood'/'halfcaste' (later population figures are not so detailed). These document the radical decline in population through this time, mainly due to a decrease in children surviving. I've documented a family history in NSW where about 6-7 children died of TB during this period; only one survived to have children and only one of those survived.

By enabling the Aboriginal people to stay put, and providing support during droughts etc., the ration stations may have a had an unintended down-side in that the impact of introduced disease was probably more more severe in such sedentary populations.

Do the SA records include similar census data?

Hi Cossomby,

In SA, the Protector put together Annual Reports more or less every year from 1901. He always included a population count, and as you say, by adult/children, male/female/ full-blood/half-caste. He also included populations on the Mission stations.

So it is no problem to calculate that the Mission populations never totalled more than 20 % of the total population, usually around 16 %. So 80-84 % of the total Aboriginal population were always living away from the Missions.

Ergo, no 'herding onto Missions'.

You could be right about the health effects of people gathering for long periods near ration depots, but depots were provided with medicines, and in many cases, a Medical Officer was paid an annual stipend to provide medical attendance for all Aboriginal people within a region.

Dr Kennedy, for example, was contracted to provide medical attendance for all Aboriginal people up and down the North-South railway, and within 20 miles of the railway towns of Oodnadatta and Hergott (Marree). Many other regions had such Medical Officers at various times - Goolwa, Border Town, Mannum, Murray Bridge, Kingston, Denial Bay (Ceduna) and Mission Superintendents were also provided with medicines.

Sick people were usually given what they called 'Medical comforts', meat, milk and bread. Old people were provided with firewood in regions where the timber had been stripped. At least, that's what the record shows.

Of course, it appears from the genealogies that Mission populations had a more secure existence, with cottages and some employment provided, as well as the wherewithall to grow their own crops and raise their own animals, for rations.

I'm sure it wasn't all beer and skittles, but neither was it stale bread and water either. It was quite common for kids at the Schools, at least at Point McLeay, to spend ten years or more at school.

[TBC]

[continued]

And at any time, there would have been around fifty Aboriginal people with leases of land, 160 acres, rent-free - some families held those leases for thirty and forty years, including the family of Tom Adams, Michael O'Loughlin's ancestor, as described in a recent 'Who Do You Think You Are?' who still held land well into his seventies.

It's been a fascinating journey typing up these letters - so many surprises :)

Cheers,

Joe
www.firstsources.info