Aboriginal Healing,
Sharing Culture |
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'... they will at last begin to receive some spiritual education and training
which may not yet be too late to stabilise sufficiently their characters to a point where they may have some understanding of what is right or wrong...' Mr S.G. Middleton in letter to The West Australian |
Justification and OutcryMr. Middleton tries to justify the school’s closure in a letter to The West Australian newspaper. He talks about sending the boys to missions and says:
'... they will at last begin to receive some spiritual education and training which may not yet be too late to stabilise sufficiently their characters to a point where they may have some understanding of what is right or wrong...' Letters to newspapers question the government’s decision; they also highlight the Whites’ remarkable work with the children. The West Australian highlights a report by Mr. Sully, in which he describes the disgusting conditions at Carrolup and recommends closure of the settlement. The article also states that the Department of Native Affairs intends Carrolup to become a training and education centre for boys. John Stokes, who has done so much to promote the Carrolup art and football, writes a long letter to The West Australian highlighting the achievements of the Carrolup boys and Noel and Lily White. He questions Mr. Middleton’s belief that the art is of little use to the boys’ future livelihoods. Mrs. Rutter has continued her exhibitions in England in the latter part of 1950. She is informed of the school's closure by her good friend Mary Durack Miller, who is to play a significant part in our Story from now on. Mrs. Rutter writes to the prestigious Times Education Supplement in January 1951, describing what has happened at Carrolup. Mrs. Rutter continues to exhibit her collection of Carrolup artworks in the UK throughout that year, and in 1952. Royal houses in the UK and Holland are enchanted by the beauty of the art.
A pastel by Parnell Dempster adorns a wall at the Pastel Society in London, proudly talked about by Mrs. Rutter.
Back in Western Australia, whilst some of the Aboriginal boys are sent to missions, others are left at Carrolup. The Department of Native Affairs opens a training centre for Aboriginal rural workers, Carrolup Farm School. The school is renamed Marribank Farm School in June 1951. It is closed by the government in May 1952, and later taken over by the Baptist Union. |
Shattered DreamsThe boys' dreams of a better future are shattered by the school closure and their later experiences in a white dominated society which considers them 'inferior'. Writing in 1960, Revel Cooper says the decision to close the school, '… closed the pathway to a better way of life for coloured people.'
Revel’s dreams of a better life become a nightmare after he leaves Carrolup. Aged only eighteen years old, he is accused of murder and has to face a white judge and jury in the Supreme Court of Western Australia. The jury cannot reach a decision, so he faces a second trial for wilful murder a week later. At this trial, Revel is found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison. The judge recommends Revel is sent to a country prison farm where he can work on his art, but he is sent to the maximum security Fremantle Prison instead. Revel is soon joined in prison for a short time by Reynold Hart and Parnell Dempster, who are beaten by the police into confessing to a crime they did not commit. On their release, Reynold and Parnell start living with Frank and Myrtle Amos, who love them like sons. The white couple apply to adopt the boys, but are refused because there is 'no precedent'.
Mary Durack Miller continues to update Mrs. Rutter of what is happening to Revel, Reynold, Parnell and other Carrolup artists over the next few years. In the U.K., Mrs. Rutter is swindled of her savings by a conman and in 1958 she has to sell her Carrolup artworks to American television magnate Herbert Mayer. He, in turn, gifts the collection to Colgate University in upstate New York. The art is to remain there in obscurity for decades. Mrs. Florence Rutter passes away in 1958, her dreams shattered. In late 1961, Noel White becomes the first teacher at Fremantle Prison Special School. There, he sees “his boys” teaching younger inmates in the prison, the beginning of the rise of Noongar prison art. A Chance DiscoveryIn 2004, a chance discovery by Howard Morphy, a visiting Australian academic, leads to John Stanton travelling to Colgate University in Upper New York State with Noongar men Athol Farmer and Ezzard Flowers. They arrange for about 20 pieces of the children’s art to be temporarily returned to Western Australia in 2006 for the Koorah Collingah (Children Long Ago) Exhibition in Katanning, as part of the Perth International Arts Festival. [Podcast at 21'20", John Stanton & Ezzard Flowers]
Colgate University eventually makes the decision to permanently return the artworks to Noongar country. In May 2013, they are moved to Curtin University in Perth, where they are housed in the John Curtin Gallery as ‘The Herbert Mayer Collection of Carrolup Artwork’. > Our Project |