EPISODE 5

A S T U D Y G U I D E b y L i b b y T u d b all

http://www.metromagazine.com.au

http://www.theeducationshop.com.au
OVERVIEW OF THE SERIES

First Australians chronicles the birth of

contemporary Australia as never told before,
from the perspective of its f 
irst people.
First Australians explores what unfolds
when the oldest living culture in the world
is overrun by the world’s greatest empire.
Over seven episodes, First Australians
depicts the true stories of individuals –
both black and white – caught in an epic
drama of friendship, revenge, loss and
victory in Australia’s most transformative
period of history.
The story begins in 1788 in Sydney, with the
friendship between an Englishman (Governor
Phillip) and a warrior (Bennelong) and ends
in 1993 with Koiki Mabo’s legal challenge
to the foundation of Australia. First
Australians chronicles the collision of two
worlds and the genesis of a new nation.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the programs may
contain images and voices of deceased persons.

SCREEN EDUCATION 2
The seven episodes in the series
cover key events, people and places
throughout all Australia:
Episode 1: ‘They Have Come To Stay’
Sydney and New South Wales (1788–
1824)
The first Australians and the British, the
most powerful Empire in history, come
face to face in Sydney on 26 January
1788. Their differences are immense but
apprehension quickly turns to curiosity.
Friendships form, some between
powerful men such as Governor Arthur
Phillip and the Aboriginal Bennelong.
But by the time this pair leave for
London three years later, relations
between the two races have soured.
The bloodshed worsens as settlers
spread out across the land.
Episode 2: ‘Her Will to Survive’
Tasmania (1803–1880)
The land grab moves south to
Tasmania. In an effort to protect the real
estate prices, it is decided to remove
the Tasmanian Aboriginal people from
the island. The Government enlists
an Englishman for the job, who is
helped by a young Aboriginal woman,
Truganini.
Episode 3: ‘Freedom For Our Lifetime’
Victoria (1860–1890)
The threat of extinction hovers over the
first Australians of Victoria at the time
Wurundjeri clan leader Simon Wonga
seeks land from the authorities. He
soon gives up and leads his people to
the banks of the Yarra River, claiming
a parcel of land, Coranderrk. With
the help of a Scottish preacher, and
inspired by the farming practices of the
settlers, the community prospers – until
the authorities step in and resist self- Episode 6: ‘A Fair Go for a Dark Race’
determination. South-Eastern Australia (1937–1967)
Episode 4: ‘There is No Other Law’ Across the continent, the first
Central Australia (1878–1897) Australians are governed by ‘protective
legislation’ which binds them to
Throughout the history of white
reserves, controls their wages,
settlement, individual white men, good
residency, ability to marry and travel.
and bad, have significantly affected
Yorta Yorta man William Cooper forms
the first Australians. Supported by
the Australian Aborigines League in
pastoralists keen to make their fortune,
1933 to continue his life-long campaign
the homicidal police officer Constable
for equality. His nephew also becomes
Willshire, brings mayhem to the
a political animal; Doug Nichols, a
Arrernte nation in Central Australia.
Church of Christ pastor who becomes
With the authorities turning a blind eye,
a champion for those affected by the
the telegraph operator Frank Gillen
Maralinga nuclear bomb tests in the
stops him. Gillen’s other legacy is
1950s.
comprehensive records of the Arrernte
people’s way of life. Episode 7: ‘We are No Longer
Shadows’ Queensland and the Torres
Episode 5: ‘Unhealthy Government
Strait Islands (1967–1993)
Experiment’ Western Australia (1897–
1937) Eddie Koiki Mabo fights for Australian
law to recognize that his people own
Jandamurra is born on a cattle station
Murray Island, where they have lived
in the Kimberley in the 1870s. His
for generations. In 1992, six months
hybrid life takes a bloody turn when he
after his death and a decade after the
trades in his status as a police tracker
statement of claim was first lodged in
for his own people. Gladys Gilligan is
Queensland, the highest court in the
one of more than 50,000 half-caste
land decides in Mabo’s favour. The
children plucked from her family and
outcome overturns the notion of terra
sent to a mission. The Chief Protector of
nullius, that is, the notion that the land
Aborigines, A.O. Neville, institutionalizes
belonged to no-one at the time of white
her first son, orders her to be arrested,
settlement.
and denies her the right to marry three
times, but she remains resolutely The series provides rich information,
independent. and raises controversial and
challenging issues and ideas about
Australia’s past, present and possible
futures.
SCREEN EDUCATION 3
CURRICULUM
APPLICABILITY
First Australians is suitable for middle
and senior secondary students
studying:

• Australian History
• Studies of Society and Environment /
Human Society and its Environment /
Social Education
• Indigenous Studies.
This study guide provides discussion
points, additional material and
classroom activities to help teachers
and students develop an understanding
of Australia’s past and the experiences
of Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Australians through these rich
resources.
Introduction to the guide
The ‘Exploring the story’ section is
designed to help middle secondary
students follow and understand the
narrative.
THINKING ABOUT ‘Sorry’ to Indigenous Australians for the
suffering caused by the government
THE PERIOD policy which removed children from
their families, in what became known
This episode focuses on the period
as the Stolen Generations. At the end
from the 1890s to the 1930s In Western
of this episode, we see how Prime
Australia, and tells two distinct stories
Minister Rudd and his government
about Jandamurra and Gladys Gilligan,
became the first to admit past policies
two Indigenous Australians whose
towards Aboriginal Australians were
lives were dramatically affected by the
wrong. He made an official apology to
attitudes and actions of the people,
the government and the policies of the
the Aboriginal people whose families
were destroyed, and who have been so
times in which they lived. The episode
affected by the Stolen Generations.
concludes with the actions of the Rudd
government in 2008, when the Prime
Minister officially apologized and said

The ‘Exploring the series as a

representation of history’ section is to
enable senior students to apply critical
analysis to the series as a historical
source.

The ‘Exploring issues and ideas’ and the

‘Telling the story’ sections can be used
at the teacher’s discretion with both
middle and senior secondary students.

It is recommended that teachers show

each episode in segments rather than
in a single sitting, particularly for middle
secondary students. The study guide
suggests suitable breaks or pause points.

Episode 5:
‘Unhealthy Government
Experiment’
Jandamurra is born on a cattle station
in the Kimberley in the 1870s. His
hybrid life takes a bloody turn when he
trades in his status as a police tracker
for his own people. Gladys Gilligan is
one of more than 50,000 half-caste
children plucked from her family and
sent to a mission. The Chief Protector of
Aborigines, A.O. Neville, institutionalizes
her first son, orders her to be arrested,
and denies her the right to marry three
times, but she remains resolutely
independent.

SCREEN EDUCATION 4
Key facts about the period:
• At this time, Aboriginal Australians
lived in hundreds of clan groupings
with their own distinct languages and
cultures that varied depending on
the region where they lived, and their
local environment.

• Clusters of families with special

kinship traditions lived with close
links to the land.
• Archaeologists now believe that the
First Australians may have inhabited
this continent for at least 60,000 and
up to 100,000 years.
• The arrival of Europeans had a more
devastating effect on First Australians
than anything that had previously
happened in their history.
• Europeans did not see that First
Australians had any rights to the land,
and simply took over waterholes, and
the land.
• Every aspect of the land; the
landscape, trees, rocks, birds and
animals, were central to the First
Australians’ traditional life and
culture.
• The spread of the pastoral industries
profoundly changed Aboriginal
Australians’ lives because of their
impact on the land.
• Open conflict between First
Australians and Europeans broke
out across Australia: in NSW from
1788 to the 1840s; in Tasmania from
1804 to the 1820s; in South Eastern
Australia in the 1830s and 1840s;
in South Western Australia from
1829 to 1845; in central Queensland
in the 1850s and 1860s; in North
Queensland from the 1870s to the
1890s; and in the Kimberleys and
other outback areas from the 1880s
to the 1930s. While First Australians
frequently fought back, they lacked
gun power and resources. Recorded
history does not document all the
conflict, but in many areas across
Australia, ruthless killings wiped out
whole clans.
from their homelands, for example
to the penal settlement on Rottnest
Island.
Many Europeans on these frontiers
of violence simply took Aboriginal
women in relations not of agreement
or care, but of force, violence
and rape. Aboriginal women were
detained in the huts of Europeans
by being chained to the furniture.
Other Europeans abused women and
then moved on into other parts of
Australia. Children borne from these
relationships were labelled as ‘half
castes’ and became the victims of
government policies which removed
them from their families in many
cases to childrens’ ‘homes’ many
thousands of kilometres away.
– Richard Broome,
Aboriginal Australians, 1982, p.56.
Some focus questions that
any study of this period
should try to answer
• Why did white pastoralists move
through Western Australia?
• What attitudes existed towards
Aboriginal people at this time?
• Why did conflict increase between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
people?
• Why did Aboriginal people like
Jandamurra struggle to ‘live between
two worlds?
• Why did the authorities use
Aboriginal people as ‘black trackers’?
• Why did the authorities decide to
remove ‘half-caste’ children from
their families?
• What was the role of the Protection
Board and A.O. Neville in Western
Australia?
• What was life like for children who
were sent to places like the Moore
River settlement?
• Why did the Australian government
apologize to Indigenous Australians
in 2008?
There is a list of references in this
guide for further reading and research.
However, you will find the answers to
many of these questions in the film. You
will be asked after watching the episode
to decide how this film contributes to
your knowledge and understanding of,
and your empathy with, the people who
were part of this historical period.

• In Western Australia, First Australians

who stole cattle to feed their families
were often shot, or if captured, were
chained and sent to prisons often far

SCREEN EDUCATION 5
EXPLORING
JANDAMURRA AND
GLADYS’ STORIES
The stories progress through several
stages, so students should be able to
pause during the film to reflect on the
stages of the story being told about
Jandamurra and Gladys, and what their
stories reveal about the struggles and
events that other Aboriginal Australians
also faced.

Stage Key focus Aspects of the story to consider

1 The context: WA 1. At the start, how does the filmmaker create an impression of the size of Western Australia?
and increasing 2. What do you learn about the police presence and why it increased in WA?
police control
3. Why would Aboriginal Australians have killed cattle and sheep in this period?

2 ‘His warm tears’
Jandamurra’s life
4. Begin to jot down key ideas that can later be developed into a timeline, class wall chart and
character profile recording what happens in Jandamurra’s life in north Western Australia. Different
members of your class could record notes under these headings: Jandamurra’s special skills and
powers, his character, his attitudes to non-indigenous people, and to his own people at various
times, his roles in life, his relationship with Bill Richardson, and why he was ultimately killed.
5. What were the key reasons why you believe that Jandamurra chose, in the end, to fight for his
people?

3 Gladys Gilligan’s 6. Who was Gladys Gilligan?

life and 7. Jot down key ideas that can later be developed into a timeline and wall chart depicting what
experiences happens in Gladys Gilligan’s life in this time. Different members of your class could record
notes under these headings and questions: Why was Gladys taken away from her family, what
was her character, what was her life like at the Moore River settlement? How and why did she
escape? What happened to her after Moore River, and at the end of her life? What was her view
of A.O. Neville?
Note: Her story is told in several stages of the episode.

4 Jandamurra: his 8. What roles did Jandamurra undertake?

life and roles 9. Why was he respected in both worlds?
10. Why did this respect change?

5. The killing times 11. What happened to Aboriginal people in WA in these times?
12. Why was the life on Rottnest Island so difficult for Aboriginal Australians?

6. Outright war 13. Record the series of events where the ‘guerrilla war’ erupted into outright war between
Aboriginal people and the WA authorities
14. What part did Jandamurra play in these events?
15. What happened to those who survived?
16. Why do you think that Jandamurra became so famous and a hero to his people?

7 Life at Sister 17. In addition to learning about the Moore River settlement where stolen children were taken, the
Kate’s episode recounts what life was like at Sister Kate’s home, where very fair-skinned children were
taken after they had been picked out as very white by Mr Neville. How would you describe
the experiences that Jerry Walker endured? What insights does Sue Gordon provide into what
happened at Sister Kate’s?

8. The Native and 18. The story returns to Gladys and what happened when she went to Perth. In what ways did Mr
half Caste home Neville still control Gladys’ and other First Australians’ lives at this at this point?
in Perth
Comment particularly on his instructions in 1927 on White City.

SCREEN EDUCATION 6
 9. Mary 19. Mary Montgomery Bennett was a wealthy feminist white woman who was appalled by the
Montgomery treatment of Aboriginal women and the policy of removing children from their families. Note
Bennett down what happened after she forced a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the policy of removal.
20. What impact did the nation-wide policies have on Aboriginal people?

10. Gladys 21. Why wasn’t Gladys allowed to marry, and how did she beat the system?
22. What finally happened to Gladys?

11. The apology 23. What did Prime Minister Rudd say when he apologized to the First Australians?

After watching EXPLORING Aboriginal Australians

the episode
Complete these tasks either as
individuals, as pairs or as group work.
Your responses could be presented
either written or given as oral reports.
• Decide how the episode has
helped you gain knowledge and
understanding of, and empathy
with, the First Australians who lived
in WA in this period.
• Imagine that a television guide
has asked you to summarize the
episode in a few sentences. How
will you describe it?
ISSUES AND
IDEAS FROM THIS
EPISODE
Jandamurra: Living at the
crossroads of two worlds
• Why did Jandamurra have to live at
the crossroads of two worlds? Which
world did he ultimately decide was
more important to him and why?
• Why do you think that, at various
stages, Jandamurra was respected
and admired by people in both
worlds?
fighting back
In this episode, we learn that the late
1800s to 1910 is known as the ‘killing
times’.
• Why did this happen?
• Why did the Aboriginal people
succeed at first, but then later face
defeat?
• Find out more about the frontiers of
conflict in other parts of Australia.
You can consult references listed in
this guide that are available in many
school and public libraries and on the
internet.

• What do you think is the message

in this film about the impact of the
movement of white settlers into
Western Australia, and the impact
of government policies on the
nature of First Australians’ lives?

• The television guide also wants

you to write a short comment or
evaluation of the episode. Write
your own assessment piece.

• Go back to the focus questions

listed in the ‘Thinking about
the Period’ section. In a class
discussion, talk about which of
these questions this episode of
First Australians has helped you
answer.

SCREEN EDUCATION 7
Human Rights
The treatment of the First Australians
across Australia frequently denied them
the most basic human rights.
This episode shows and discusses what
happened at this time when hundreds of
Aboriginal people were collected up by
police and jailed in places like Rottnest
Island.
• Why did this happen?
• What were conditions like in the jail
on Rottnest Island?
• Find out more about Aboriginal links
to this island that is known to local
Aboriginal people as Wadjemup. The
Island is believed to be a spiritual
place and is of particular significance
to Aboriginal communities. Visit
<http://www.rottnestisland.com/
en/History+and+Culture/default.
htm> and explore the links about
the colonial past and the penal
settlement.
• Develop and present a short
documentary on Aboriginal links to
Wadjemup.
Aboriginal Women’s Rights
This episode also provides insights into
the rights of women in Western Australia
at this time.
• What does this episode reveal about
the particular difficulties that women
faced during the period 1897–1937 in
Western Australia?
• Consider this question from the
viewpoint of different groups of
women: women in willing or unwilling
relationships with white men,
mothers whose children were taken
away, stolen children.
• Reconsider the views of Marcia
Langton in particular on this issue.
The Stolen Generations
In the past, students in Australian
schools had limited access to resources
which provided factual accounts of the
impact of the Stolen Generations on
the First Australians’ lives. This episode
increases understanding through the
story of Gladys Gilligan.
• How might these effects have
continued into following generations?
• Why do you think people in power,
many of whom were good people
who cared about what happened
to the First Australians, have been
prepared to implement such policies?
• Find out why generations of children
were stolen.
• In this episode, through the story
of Gladys’ father, we gain insights
into why so many fathers may
have stopped contacting their
children who had been stolen. What
understanding have you developed
of why Gladys’ father stopped
communicating with Gladys?
• Complete some further investigation
on the Stolen Generations using the
internet.
The power of the Chief
Protector: Mr Neville
Note: The text in the following section
is drawn from The National Centre for
History Education website <http://
hyperhistory.org>. Visit this site to
see further discussion of A.O. Neville,
activities on the film Rabbit-Proof
Fence (Phillip Noyce, 1992), and links
to further resources on the film which
provides further insights into the Stolen
Generations).
… The Chief Protector of Aborigines,
A.O. Neville was the key policy maker in
the WA government in the development
SCREEN EDUCATION 8
of the policies to remove half-caste
children form their families. He was
Chief Protector in that state from 1915
to 1940. In 1936, the West Australian
parliament passed legislation that gave
Neville the power to implement his
‘breeding-out’ policy.
• Why did Neville and other
governments in Australia want to
implement this policy?
The new law made sexual relations
between Europeans and Aborigines
without permission an offence. People
could be imprisoned if they broke
this law.
• Suggest reasons why Neville
introduced this law.
In 1937, the top administrators in
Aboriginal affairs came to Canberra
from all over Australia to discuss
Aboriginal welfare policies. Neville
played a leading part in this
conference. He told his audience
that the ‘half-caste’ problem could
be solved, principally by removing
children from their Aboriginal families.
He emphasized the importance of
removing the children before they were
six years of age.
• Why was it seen to be so necessary
to remove children who were so
young?
There was much discussion about the
practical problems of child removal
and how these problems (e.g., parental
opposition) might be overcome; there
was also discussion about the details
of institutional life for the children and
the control of their futures, notably
control of whom they could marry. The
main outcome of the 1937 conference
was the adoption of a policy of
assimilation. Assimilation aimed to
absorb mixed-descent Aboriginal
people into mainstream Australian
society.
• In a class discussion, talk about your
views on this policy of assimilation.
The report of the 1937 conference
stated:
… the destiny of the natives of
aboriginal origin, but not of the full
blood, lies in their ultimate absorption
by the people of the Commonwealth
and it therefore recommends that all
efforts be directed to that end.
Policy-makers expected that mixed-
descent Aborigines would assimilate.
They thought that the ‘white blood’
in mixed-descent Aborigines enabled
them to be educated in European
ways.
• Discuss this statement: ‘The
government views on “mixed blood”
Aborigines was racist and unfair.’
After his retirement, A.O. Neville wrote
a book called Australia’s Coloured
Minority. Its Place in the Community
(Sydney Currawong Publishing Co.,
1948). Here are two excerpts from
Neville’s book:
… I make no apologies for writing
the book, because there are things
which need to be said. So few of our
own people as a whole are aware of
the position [of the coloured people
of Australia]. Yet we have had the
coloured man amongst us for a
hundred years or more. He has died
in his hundreds, nay thousands, in
pain, misery and squalor, and through
avoidable ill-health. Innumerable little
children have perished through neglect
and ignorance. The position, in some
vital respects, is not much better today
than it was fifty years ago. Man is
entitled to a measure of happiness in
his life. Yet most of these people have
never known real happiness. Some are
never likely to know it. The causes of
their condition are many. Mainly it is not
their fault, it is ours, just as it lies with
us to put the matter right. (p. 21)
• From what you know about Neville
and the way he is represented
in Episode 5, does this excerpt
surprise you? Why or why not?
Explain your answer and compare
your viewpoint with classmates.
Thirty or forty years ago there existed
a better type of half-caste. These
were robust, meat-eating people
– the women big like the men and
as vigorous. The family heads were
mostly first-cross people. They traveled
the country with their camel carts,
horses, buggies and what not, in family
groups, and they were good, hard
workers. They were a people apart,
and intermarriage was inevitable. The
offspring were not equal to the parents;
they ran to seed through intermarriage
and became lethargic. But with the
admixture of further white blood they
recovered some of the original traits,
acquiring part of the good qualities of
both races; the physical improvement
being notable. It is because the
success of our plan of assimilation is
so allied with the question of who shall
marry whom, and because colour plays
so great a part in the scheme of things,
that we must encourage approach
towards the white rather than the black,
through marriage. (p.68)
• In your own words, construct a view
of what you think Neville is really
arguing.
• What do you make of these
statements? Sources: <http://hyper
history.org/index.php?option=dis
playpage&Itemid=455&op=page>.
• Do some further research to assess
the child removal policy in your
state using the state-by-state data
at <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/
other/IndigLRes/stolen/>. For the
historian studying child removal
policy, perhaps the main task is to
unravel the racial and the welfare
motives that drove the policymakers.
What are the motives at work in the
documents?
SCREEN EDUCATION 9
EXPLORING THE SERIES AS A REPRESENTATION OF HISTORY
First Australians is a representation of history. This means that it is somebody’s version of what happened. Every secondary account of
history is a representation. The creator of the version has chosen what to include and what to exclude from all the possible elements
and sources, and has chosen the sequence in which they will be presented. In the case of film, the creator, the writers, director and
editor, have also chosen the sound, lighting, expert commentators, images and other filmic elements that constitute the final product.
If senior students are to use this film as a source of information and ideas in their study they must be prepared to critically analyse and
evaluate it as a historical source.

The use of expert commentators

One of the features of First Australians is the use of commentators. We need to consider who they are, how they present information,
and how the filmmaker uses them in the overall representation.

1. Think back to the commentators. What was their role?

2. How did you respond to them?
3. Why do you think the filmmaker chose them?
4. Why do you think they are used in the film?
5. What insights do each of them give into the lives of the First Australians in this episode?

Now look at this brief biographical information on each of them and answer the questions that follow.

Professor Marcia Langton is a leading
Indigenous scholar, commentator and
activist, Professor of Australian Indigenous
Studies at the University of Melbourne. She
has published extensively on Aboriginal
affairs issues including land rights, resource
management, social impacts of development,
indigenous disputes, policing and substance
abuse, and gender and identity.
Noel Nannup is a Yamatji/Nyoongar
man, with extensive knowledge about
traditional culture and stories. He is
dedicated to teaching and sharing
indigenous information about the rich
cultural heritage of his people.
• What insights does Noel share?
Phillip Prosser is Gladys Gilligan’s
son and in this episode shares his
memories and insights into his
mother’s story.
• What information is he able to share,
and how does this assist in the
development of our understanding
of her life?

• What insights does Marcia share?

Steve Kinnane is a descendent of the
Miriwoong people of the East Kimberley.
His work has centred on investigations of
Aboriginal history, removal of children and
the surveillance and control of Aboriginal
community members by various state
regimes.
• What does Steve tell us about the ‘Killing
times’ from the late 1800s to 1910?
Dr. Gordon Briscoe is from the Marduntjara/
Pitjantjatjara peoples of Central Australia He
is now an Indigenous activist and researcher.
He helped form an Aboriginal Progress
Association in the late 1950s, worked for the
Aboriginal Legal Service in the late 1960s,
and helped establish a health service for
the urban Aboriginal population in Sydney
in the 1970s
• What insights does Gordon share?
Doris Pilkington Garimara is best known
for her 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof
Fence, a story of three Aboriginal girls,
among them Pilkington’s mother Molly
Craig, who escaped from the Moore River
Native Settlement in Western Australia
and travelled for nine weeks to return to
their family.
• Find out more about Doris Pilkington.
• What insights does she share in this
episode?
• View the film Rabbit-Proof Fence.
See the study guide available
through ATOM.

SCREEN EDUCATION 10
• Comment on why each historian
and commentator might have been
chosen to be part of this episode.
• Do you think they are appropriate
and believable experts? Justify your
view.
Different representations of
Jandamurra
The website <http://www.australiasnorth
west.com/en/Kimberley/Jandamarra.
htm> provides a succinct summary of
Jandamurra’s story, and another can be
found at <http://www.bluekingbrown.
com/aboriginal/prominant.htm>.
John Nicholson’s book Kimberley
Warrior: the story of Jandamurra (Allen
& Unwin, 1997) about Jandamurra and
the struggle for justice by the Bunuba
peoples in the late nineteenth century is
suitable for school students.
• Read at least two of these
representations and compare them
with the film and its depiction of
Jandamurra and his story.
• In what ways are the representations
similar and different?
• Which representation do you think is
accurate? Explain your view.
If you complete an internet search for
tours of Jandamurra’s country, the land
of the Bunuba clan, you will see that
there are many camping and adventure
companies that visit the area where he
lived.
• Find out where these tours visit and
why.
• Do you think these tours are a good
idea? Why or why not?
• Some of the tour groups label
Jandamurra as an ‘outlaw’. Is this
appropriate, why or why not?
• Others compare Jandamurra with
Ned Kelly. Do some further research
to decide is this comparison is fair,
just, accurate or inaccurate.
Different representations
of living at Moore River
settlement
(Note: The complexity of the following
discussion of extracts means that this
activity is suitable for senior or more
able History students)
Michele Grossman raises important
questions about how Gladys Gilligan
represented her own experiences at
the Moore River Native Settlement.
In her discussion, ‘When they write
what we read: Unsettling Indigenous
Australian life-writing’, (Australian
Humanities Review, Issue 39–40,
September, 2006, see <http://www.
australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/
Issue-September-2006/grossman.html>
where this article is publicly available.
After viewing Episode 5 of First
Australians, senior students should read
the following extracts from Grossman’s
article:
SCREEN EDUCATION 11
… At the beginning of 1930, a
young Aboriginal woman named
Gladys Gilligan forwarded a written
composition entitled ‘The Settlement’
to A.O. Neville, ‘Chief Protector of
Aborigines’ in Western Australia and
senior administrator of Aboriginal affairs
in that state from 1915 to 1940. The
‘Settlement’ in question was the Moore
River Native Settlement1 at Mogumber,
established by Neville in 1918 and
‘home’ to hundreds of Aboriginal
children until its closure in 1951. Along
with more than 60 other government
settlements and missions that operated
between 1842 and 1965, Moore River
Native Settlement was a key player
in the institutionalised removal and
separation of Aboriginal children
from their families and their enforced
assimilation under Western Australia’s
Aborigines Act 1905,2 policies from
which it is estimated ‘“not one”
Aboriginal family in the state … escaped
the effects’. (Haebich 2000: 228)3
The Moore River Native Settlement,
like that of nearby Carrolup in its first
incarnation (1915–1922), was run
according to principles that Haebich
characterises as the ‘hallmarks of
[Neville’s] administration – economy,
efficiency and control’ (2004: 260).
The settlements were funded on a
‘shoestring budget’; living conditions,
bleak from their inception, resembled
internment camps, with children
living ‘in dormitories in a compound
supervised by white staff,’ and exposed,
particularly at Carrolup, to disease,
limited rations and regimes of excessive
physical labour (Haebich 2004: 260–61).
By 1934, according to Haebich, the
‘Moseley Royal Commission described
the [Moore River] settlement as a
“woeful spectacle”’: the buildings
were overcrowded and vermin-ridden,
the children’s diet lacked fresh fruit,
vegetables, eggs and milk and their
health had been seriously affected. The
Commissioner concluded that in its
present condition Moore River had ‘“no
hope of success” in its work with the
children’ (2004: 262).
As the research of a number of
historians and anthropologists has
demonstrated,4 government policies
throughout the assimilation era were
enforced through an interlocking matrix
of institutional, welfare and legislative
schemes. One of Neville’s contributions
to the state’s management of
Indigenous peoples in Western Australia
was the Native Settlement Scheme,
a program of ‘social engineering and
segregation intended principally for
Aborigines of mixed descent’ (Haebich
2000: 259) that echoed earlier schemes
devised by colonial administrators
in other parts of Australia to rescue
Aboriginal ‘savages’ and rehabilitate
them as industrious subjects of Empire.
… The localised and decentralised
nature of educational programs and
opportunities for Indigenous children,
many of which were run by an
assortment of missions and churches
and overseen by state governments
with varying philosophies and practices
of Indigenous welfare in general,
virtually guaranteed that educational
programs for Aboriginal children would
be inconsistent at best. In a comment
published in a local Western Australian
newspaper in 1922, Phillip Morrison, a
Nyungar man, observed of the Moore
River Native Settlement:
I see little boys and girls humpin’ sugar
bags full of gravel for long distances
from the pits to the camp to make
footpaths, instead of bein’ at school.
… We can’t let our children [from the
Katanning district] go there for schoolin’.
Too far to go – anyhow only teach them
to carry gravel and wood. (quoted in
Haebich 2000: 261–262)5
Morrison’s remarks here leave little room
for doubt about the subordination of
education – which in any case merely
reprised the ‘three Rs’ at Moore River,
rather than following Western Australia’s
general state school curriculum – to the
imperatives of disciplining Aboriginal
schoolchildren through labour and
‘training’ in preparation for lives to be
spent in domestic service (girls) or as
stockmen and labourers on pastoral
stations (boys).6 Despite this, one of
the most frequently cited justifications
for removing children – particularly
those deemed ‘half-caste’ … from
their families and relocating them to
settlements like Moore River, was the
need to provide schooling for Aboriginal
children, as attested by the recollections
of many former inmates in Susan
Maushart’s Sort of a Place Like Home:
The Moore River Native Settlement
(1993: 22–41).
… Gladys Gilligan’s sojourn at Moore
River guaranteed her involvement in
schemes designed to demonstrate
the effectiveness of rehabilitating
Aboriginal ‘natives’ through pedagogy
and discipline. According to Gladys
Gilligan’s cover-note to Neville
(Maushart 1993: 13), the set-piece
she wrote had been solicited by the
Chief Protector during an earlier visit
to Moore River. Gladys Gilligan had
lived and worked at Moore River Native
Settlement since 1921, after being
taken at age seven from her home at
Moola Bulla, a government-managed
Aboriginal cattle station located in the
East Kimberley region. ‘The Settlement’
was composed when she was 16 or
17 years old, and had already provided
‘years of unpaid service as a pupil
teacher at the settlement school’
(Maushart 1993: 271–272). The essay
produced by this ‘graceful, well-spoken
prodigy’ would have been intended, at
least by Neville, to serve as ‘a charming
advertisement of what the settlement
system was capable of accomplishing’
(Maushart 1993: 271–272), much as
Gladys herself served when she was
‘displayed with pride to white visitors’ to
Moore River (Maushart 1993: 271).
To read ‘The Settlement’ against the
background I have outlined above is
to enter a realm of contradictory and
elusive textual motives and motifs.
The settlement condemned by the
Moseley Royal Commission as a ‘woeful
spectacle’ four years after Gladys
Gilligan composed her text is described
by her thus: ‘The settlement lies on the
bank of a river called the Moore River,
the hills surrounding it making it look
quite a pleasant little home’, neat, tidy,
ordered and bucolic, with ‘a patch of
young pines of one year’s growth, which
are all growing rapidly’.
There is no mention of vermin,
overcrowding, or poor health
amongst the children. In fact, the
daily regimen described by Gladys
Gilligan is punctuated by interludes of
wholesome play and leisure, including
cubby houses, fishing, swimming,
and mushroom picking, interspersed
SCREEN EDUCATION 12
with hair combing, sewing for girls,
arithmetic and the Lord’s Prayer at
tea-time. The children are collectively
described as ‘skipping’, ‘chattering’,
and ‘scampering’; they are obedient and
know how to ‘stand quite still’, ‘form
… straight lines’ and ‘march into their
places quietly’ when cued by the bells
that ring at various points in the day.
The children are ‘seen to’ by Matron
and by Nurse, and they are said to
appreciate:
the goodness of the government
and Chief Protector in providing
food and clothing, and are thankful
for the kindness of the Matron and
the Superintendent and Staff for the
good work they have done for them,
particularly the teacher who has taught
them to read and write which is the
most important thing to know. (Maushart
1993: 21)
There are no sugar bags full of gravel,
no labouring to make footpaths in
Gladys Gilligan’s portrayal of ‘The
Settlement’. The entire composition
is testament, on its face, to the ‘good
works’ of ‘Superintendent and Staff’ on
behalf of these children, who are spared
the suffering of ‘some of our colour
who are still uncivilised [and] are being
cruelly treated by some of the bad white
people.’
stands quite still until the Nurse who’s
on duty comes in. Grace is said, and
they sit down and have dinner. … The
same is done at teatime … (Maushart
1993: 18-19)
… From the opening sentence, the text
makes it possible to contemplate the
fissure between how things appear
to outsiders and how they are, or are
experienced, by insiders at Moore River:
The Settlement lies on the bank of a
river which is called the Moore River, the
hills surrounding it making it look quite
a pleasant little home [emphasis added].
Within the stifling strictures of the set-
piece [Gladys’ essay] (that drearily
familiar model of school composition
set for generations of pupils in England
and the colonies to demonstrate their
‘good learning’ and progress in letters),
it is possible to read this as a subtle
but defiant subterfuge that, like the
careful lingering over the regimentation
of the bells, speaks poignantly to the
possibility of Gladys Gilligan’s struggle
to say what she could about life at
Moore River while avoiding censure,
punishment or humiliation. It also
speaks to the complexities of how
Gladys Gilligan may understand and
negotiate her own subject position as
an Aboriginal person… as the slippage
between ‘they’ and ‘our’ indicates (‘they
sit down and have dinner’, ‘some of our
colour’ [emphasis added]).
… While the piece functions
superficially as textual confirmation of
the assimiliationist imperative – that
is, that the task of suppressing and
excising all traces of ‘Aboriginality’ and
transforming Aborigines into ‘white’
citizens of the nation – at another level,
as I have suggested above, it brings into
sharp focus the kinds of subversions
and resistances that may be manifest in
even the most apparently compliant and
conventional of literary texts.

There are, however, the bells. Bells

ring constantly in ‘The Settlement’, a
minimum of nine times a day, excluding
awakening and breakfast. In a narrative
that is opaque when it comes to details
about some things – there are no
specifics given about what kind of food
is served up at mealtimes, for instance,
although each daily meal is mentioned
– the bells and their ringing come in
for a good deal of attention in Gladys
Gilligan’s brief composition. ‘At 8:30 the
sewing bell rings and the girls go down
to the workroom immediately they hear
it ring’, ‘then at nine the school bell
rings’, ‘then the school bell rings again
at eleven’, and when:

the dinner is ready at twelve … the

bell is rung three times, to make sure
everybody hears. The first bell rings
when the dinner is being given out,
when the second bell rings everybody
comes to the dining room. When the
third bell rings everyone goes in and

SCREEN EDUCATION 13
• How did the Moseley Royal
Commission describe the Moore
River Settlement?
• What was Neville trying to achieve at
the Moore River Settlement?
• What impressions did Phillip Morrison
give of the Moore River settlement in
a local Western Australian newspaper
in 1922?
• How does Christine Walton explain
why Gladys wrote the essay about
the Moore River settlement?
• What is meant by the phrase that
Gladys had already provided ‘years
of unpaid service as a pupil teacher
at the settlement school’?
• Why do you think that Gladys would
have written a representation leaving
out many of the negative aspects of
life at the settlement?
• What is the significance of the
discussion of the bells in the daily
routine?
• In your own words, explain what you
think Grossman means when she
says:
From the opening sentence, the text
makes it possible to contemplate the
fissure between how things appear
to outsiders and how they are, or are
experienced, by insiders at Moore
River.
• What insights do these extracts
provide into the difficulties educated
First Australians would have faced
in expressing the truth about the
experiences that they endured?
Conclusion
• First ask each member of the class to
note down one fact or incident they
learn about in the film that is new to
them or they had not heard about
before.
• Next, in a class discussion, talk
about what you think are the main
strengths and the main weaknesses
of this episode of First Australians as
a representation of history.
• How important do you think it is for
wider audiences of Australians to
see this series, and in particular this
episode of First Australians?
TELLING THE
STORY (FILM
STUDY)
First Australians uses a variety of
elements to tell the story.
1. What are the main problems that you
think face a filmmaker in creating a
documentary about Jandamurra and
Gladys Gilligan?
2. Divide up your class and allocate
individuals or pairs to comment on
the role that each of these elements
plays in this episode:
• Narrator
• Experts
• Archival images
• Voices reading documents
• Impressionistic modern film
elements
• Sound effects
• Music
• Editing
• Camera movement over static
images
• Narrative structure – focus on
individuals
3. Prepare a new scene for the film in
which you would incorporate new
information. Try to follow the style
of the episode. Use the columns
on page 15 to help you summarize
your presentation of the scene. For
example, you might decide to use
more details about Gladys Gilligan
and her written composition entitled
‘The Settlement’ that she sent to A.O.
Neville. You could include someone
reading her comments, and then
someone else discussing why she
might have presented a rosy view of
life at the Moore Rover settlement.
SCREEN EDUCATION 14
 Aspect of Images Readings Experts Current film Other
the story

4. Do you think the filmmakers have achieved a good result?

SCREEN EDUCATION 15
FURTHER
INFORMATION and
REFERENCES
Bain Attwood, The Making of the
Aborigines, Allen & Unwin, Sydney,
1989.
Tony Birch, ‘Half caste’, Australian
Historical Studies, 1992, pp.99, 458.
Bringing Them Home, Report of the
National Inquiry into the Separation
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Children from Their Families,
Commonwealth of Australia, April 1977.
The full report is available at <http://
www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/
rsjproject/rsjlibrary/hreoc/stolen/> or
<http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/
IndigLRes/stolen/>.
Gordon Briscoe, and Len Smith (eds),
The Aboriginal Population Revisited:
70,000 years to the present, Aboriginal
History Monograph, 2002, p.10.
Richard Broome, Aboriginal Australians,
Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1982.
Michael Dodson, ‘The end in the
beginning: Re(de)finding Aboriginality’,
Australian Aboriginal Studies No. 1,
1994. Reprinted in Michele Grossman
(coord. ed.), Blacklines: Contemporary
Critical Writing by Indigenous
Australians, Melbourne University Press,
Carlton, Victoria, 2003, pp.25–42.
Michele Grossman (coord. ed.),
Blacklines: Contemporary Critical
Writing by Indigenous Australians,
Carlton, Victoria, Melbourne University
Press, 2003.
Michele Grossman, ‘Beyond orality
and literacy: Textuality, modernity and
representation in Gularabulu: Stories
from the West Kimberley’, Journal
of Australian Studies, 2004, pp.91,
133–147.
Anna Haebich, Broken Circles:
Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800-
2000, Fremantle Arts Centre Press,
Fremantle, Western Australia, 2000.
Anna Haebich, For Their Own Good:
Aborigines and Government in the
South West of Western Australia, 1900–
1940, 2nd edition, University of Western
Australia Press, Nedlands, Western
Australia, 1992.
Rosalind Kidd, The Way We Civilise:
Aboriginal Affairs – the Untold Story,
University of Queensland Press, St
Lucia, Queensland, 1997.
Steve Kinnane, Shadow Lines,
Fremantle Arts Press, Fremantle, 2003.
Steve Kinnane, Black Lives, Government
Lies, University of New South Wales
Press, Sydney, 2000.
Marcia Langton, ‘Culture wars’ in
Michele Grossman (coord. ed.),
Blacklines: Contemporary Critical
Writing by Indigenous Australians,
Melbourne University Press, Carlton,
Victoria, 2003, pp.81–91.
Andrew Markus, Australian Race
Relations, 1788–1993, Allen & Unwin, St
Leonards, NSW, 1994.
Susan Maushart, Sort of a Place
Like Home: The Moore River Native
Settlement, Fremantle Arts Centre
Press, Fremantle, Western Australia,
1993.
D.J. Mulvaney, ‘The Australian
Aborigines 1606–1929: Opinion and
Fieldwork’ in Susan Janson and Stuart
Macintyre (eds), Through White Eyes,
Allen & Unwin/Australian Historical
Studies, Melbourne, 1990, pp.1–45.
Henry Reynolds, Frontier, Allen &
Unwin, Sydney, 1987.
Tim Rowse, After Mabo: Interpreting
Indigenous Traditions, Melbourne
University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1993.
The Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission website
<http://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_
justice/bth_report/index.html> has
special sections devoted to ‘Frequently
Asked Questions’, ‘Who Spoke Out at
the Time’ on child removal, and stories
of people who were removed during the
Stolen Generations.
SCREEN EDUCATION 16
Endnotes 4. A by no means exhaustive list of
work in this arena includes, for
Rodan continues:

While she was at Moore River, Mr.

1. This and subsequent references to
Gladys Gilligan’s writing and her time
at Moore River are drawn from Susan
Maushart’s remarkable documentary
history, Sort of a Place Like Home:
The Moore River Native Settlement
(1993). See especially ‘Introduction:
One: The place’ (13–21) and Chapter
5. The original citation for Morrison’s
6, ‘One Half-Caste Girl’ (271–315).
2. For a detailed discussion of Western
Australian policies concerning the
government and administration of
6. Debbie Rodan cites the following
the area’s Aboriginal inhabitants and
the complex network of institutions,
settlements, homes and missions
that supported this, see Haebich
(2004: 208–287). The Summary of
Aborigines Act 1905 is reproduced by
Haebich in Table Two of this chapter
(220).
3. See also Western Australian
Government, 1996.
example, Haebich (2000) and her
Neville came to visit the mission.
earlier work on Western Australia
Nannup recounts that when she was
(1992), Andrew Markus (1994; 1990),
in the sewing room on one visit she
Maushart (1993), Rowse (1992;
overheard Mr Neville ‘standing talking
1998), Ann McGrath (1995), Heather
to the sewing mistress’. She heard
Goodall (1996) and Rosalind Kidd
him say: ‘Ohh, it’s all right, as long as
(1997; 2000).
they can write their name and count
money … that’s all the education
quotation is The Southern Districts they need’. (Nannup 1992: 71: Rodan
Advocate (Katanning, WA), 4 2000).
September 1922.
Rodan also includes an account from
Connie Nungulla McDonald, which:
from Alice Nannup’s When the
recounts that at Forest River mission
Pelican Laughed to provide some
school the missionaries taught
insight into the circumscribed role of
the girls ‘to learn the 3R’s; going
education for Aboriginal children at
to church to learn about God and
Moore River:
learning to cook at home, learning to
Moore River did nothing for me sew, learning to set a table, learning
by way of schooling; I had to learn to run a household so that when a
through experience and picking up girl got married she would know how
little bits here and there on my own. to run and look after her home and
Really, all I ever did there was work. I family’. (McDonald and Finnane 1996:
had chores to do before school and 14; Rodan, 2000).
chores to do after. I tell you, they
never allowed me to be idle. (Nannup
1992: 69; Rodan 2000).

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SCREEN EDUCATION 17