Acknowledgements
A sincere thanks from both of us to all those people who helped us with advice, time and information, particularly all those who are included in the list of participants. We hope that you will enjoy this small contribution to the Koorie history of the area. Thanks also to Harvey Johnston of NPWS (NSW) for his patience, to the staff of Pioneer Park, Griffith, for allowing us to include a number of photographs in this report, to AIATSIS and Balranald Local Aboriginal Land Council for additional photographs, and to our families for their help and support.
Copyright in this report is vested with National Parks and Wildlife Service (NSW). All participants, however, retain rights to their own intellectual property.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this booklet contains images of deceased persons.
Reprinted July 2023 | Graphic Design work by The Articulate Pear Pty Ltd
In Remembrance of Penny Taylor
June 1941 - January 2020
For the many descendants of Warangesda this volume contains some of the thoughts, hopes and dreams of your family. Small oral histories of 28 people tell the story of life at Warangesda and afterward. The work was commissioned by National Parks and Wildlife Service in 1993, in recognition of the importance of the place to Wiradjuri people of the region. They asked Penny Taylor to do this study. In this short preface I would like to tell you a little about her.
Penny worked at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies [AIATSIS] from 1979 to 1993. She came from England via Perth and from a line of teachers. History and Anthropology were the boxes you might try to put her in, but her irrepressible nature saw her engaged in all manner of study. At the Institute her lasting contributions were the book and project ‘After 200 Years: Photographic Essays of Aboriginal and Islander Australia Today’, and her role as History Research Officer. She helped hundreds of Aboriginal people across the country with their goal to write about their lives. Many of the autobiographies, biographies and local histories published from the late 1980s onward were helped by Penny.
We moved to Adelaide in 1993 and this opportunity came along while we were settling there, and before she was asked to lecture at the University of South Australia, in what became the Unaipon School – one of the earliest Aboriginal Studies units in the country. I had been used to our dining room table full of photos, just as Penny was used to me working on archaeological materials there. We would pore over images and work on text; Penny writing in such a clear and straightforward manner that it never impeded the words of others. For while this volume was pulled together by Penny and Pat Undy of Darlington Point, and Penny wrote much of the introductory text, it was authored by all those people that they interviewed. I have the original notes that Penny took and transcribed. It is easy to see that the words were mainly theirs, although edited for clarity.
Penny passed away in January 2020. She was my wife of more than 35 years.
I am pleased that NPWS, through the efforts of Gary Currey in particular, has decided to re-publish this volume. I know what a treasure she was – to me and our family; to Aboriginal people across the country; and to this country that became our home.
Colin Pardoe
Robert (Bob) Harris, Griffith 32-34
Gordon Kirby, Dareton
Christine Johnson, Robinvale 39-43 Clancy Charles, Griffith
Grace Gowans, Darlington Point 49-52
Jean Cliteur, Darlington Point 53-55
Pam Edwards, Darlington Point 56-58
Heather Edwards, Darlington Point 59-60
Florence Carroll, Darlington Point 61-63
Beryl Smith, Darlington Point 64-65
Shannon Smith, Darlington Point 66
Alice Williams, Griffith 67-72
Jenny Goolagong, Griffith 73
Stanley White, Darlington Point 74
Dot Ingram, Leeton 75-77
Dennis Ingram, Leeton 78-81
Ossie Ingram, Narrandera 82-84
Doreen Christian, Griffith 85
Theresa Edwards, Balranald 86
Tommy Lyons, Narrandera 87-88
Neville Lyons, Narrandera 89-90
Carrol Higgins, Narrandera 91
Jim Ingram (Snr), Leeton 92-95
Pat Undy, Darlington Point 96-98
Leanne Undy, Darlington Point 101
Mary Briggs, Shepparton 102-103
Len (Bushy) Kirby 104
Archie Bamblett, Sydney 105
Penny Taylor, Adelaide 106-109
Section Three 111
Appendix 1. A sample page of an index to the Mission Managers’ Diary.
Appendix 2. A sample interviewee release form.
Appendix 3. Some relevant extracts from the writings of Ernest Gribble, Gribble’s son who grew up at Warangesda.
Appendix 4. Another interview with Mrs Isobel Edwards.
Section One Background to Project
Lost History to us
In the image below (also appearing in large format on page 117) is an illustration which symbolises what Warangesda means to Pat Undy, one of the authors of this report.
Pat created this artwork as part of her University studies and it represents her personal feelings about the lost history of Warangesda.
The original work is screened on a large piece of fabric. It has been photographed and reduced in size to fit this report. Below, Pat explains in her own words the meaning of her art.
“In the background is the earth, the basis of life and spirituality for Aboriginal people. On the right hand side, the grader symbolises white people’s destruction of important sites; Warangesda is one of them. Mum used to say that the old people travelled in the whirlywind and the whirlywind in the middle symbolises the lost history of Warangesda which is only known to the old people who have passed away. The photos in the whirlywind show some of the remaining buildings at the old mission. In the centre are Mrs Isobel Edwards and my mother Mrs Ettie Charles, two of the last old people who grew up at the mission, revisiting their childhood home. Sadly, both of them are now passed away. The figure on the left is the Spirit Woman, Mother Earth and my parents’ photos are next to her as they have both passed away and she is looking after them. On the right hand side, the smaller photo of a father figure counterbalances her. The seeds that the Spirit Woman is dropping are knowledge that she’s giving to the young people to help them to grow up strong and proud, and to relearn the lost Koorie history of Warangesda. The blank spaces represent the unknown, both the unknown past and the unknown future. In the circle are some of the young descendants of Warangesda. The baby in the middle is my grandson, crying for everything we’ve lost, while the smiling children point a way to a better future for us all.”
Pat Undy
Introduction
Background to the Project
Earlier this year, Penny Taylor and Pat Undy were invited by National Parks and Wildlife Service, New South Wales, to collect oral histories relating to the ongoing Warangesda Mission Conservation Project. NPWS (NSW) received funding from the Heritage Commission through its National Estate Grant Program (NSW).
NPWS (NSW) had already held discussions with the relevant communities and gained their support for the Project. Jeff King, the current owner of Warangesda was happy for the Conservation Project to proceed. Arrangements had already been made with the Narrandera CDEP to carry out basic preservation and maintenance at the Mission site and a conservation architect had been contracted to advise on the work. The NPWS historian based in Sydney had already carried out extensive research into the documentary history of Warangesda, examining old records and all the relevant literature. We (Penny and Pat) were not expected to duplicate any of this work. NPWS wanted us to ‘meet with, interview and record the recollections of Aboriginal people with oral and family histories relating to Warangesda.’ Where possible, we were to find out ‘the location of buildings and features at Warangesda that are no longer present, such as houses, sheds, orchards, gardens, rubbish dumps etc)’. We were also asked to ‘provide guidance on the direction Aboriginal people wish the building conservation programme to take’.
One of us (Pat) is a descendant of Warangesda from the Charles and Hamilton families. Pat’s mother, Ettie Charles (nee Hamilton) was born and grew up at Warangesda and Pat has spent several years doing her own research into the history of the Mission as well as making sure that local Aboriginal history is taught in the schools.
NPWS (NSW) tried to find a Koorie historian to work with Pat on the project, but the people they approached all had other commitments so they contacted Penny as she has worked for several years in the area of Aboriginal history, particularly in training Koorie researchers at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra. She already knew quite a few people in the region from her work on the ‘After 200 Years’ Photographic Project. Before starting this project, she spent a couple of weeks reading written material on Warangesda so that she had some background for the oral interviews.
Methodology
Harvey Johnston, Regional Archaeologist at NPWS (NSW) Buronga had made a few suggestions on people to interview, so on her way to Darlington Point, Penny spent a day in Dareton and another in Robinvale and called in at Hay asking around if anyone had any memories of Warangesda and recording interviews with Gordon Kirby and Christine Johnson.
From then on, Pat arranged most of the interviews drawing on her existing research and knowledge and we also followed many other leads and suggestions that people gave us. We visited homes for the aged, the main Aboriginal organisations in the area, and spent three weeks tape recording oral histories, making notes, and talking to lots of people in Darlington Point, Narrandera, Leeton, Griffith and Wagga Wagga. We visited Colleambally to talk to Laura Harris, (Gribble’s granddaughter) and Pat visited people in Shepparton and Cowra. Not everyone was able to keep the appointments we had made and although we tried to talk to as many people as possible, we realise that some people may have been left out and apologise for that. Our main focus was on older people, but we also discussed Warangesda with a number of young people to find out their views on what should happen to the former mission site. We talked to Jeff and Margaret King, the current owners of Warangesda and also to a number of older non-Aboriginal people in the area who might have memories of Warangesda. We have provided a list of all the people we talked to; even though we didn’t make recordings of everyone, we’ve tried to include their views and opinions in the report as far as possible.
Warangesda Mission closed nearly 70 years ago. Archie Bamblett is one of the last remaining people born on Warangesda, and he pointed out that he was far too young when the Mission closed to remember anything about it. He reckoned you’d have to be well over 80 to remember much. Mrs Isobel Edwards, who passed away earlier this year, was probably the last former resident of the Mission with detailed memories. Luckily Pat had made a video with her last year and had visited the Mission several times with Mrs Edwards and her own mother so she had learned a lot from them.
We have to admit that we were unable to find other people who possessed the detailed memories that NPWS had hoped for, particularly regarding the lay-out of the buildings, building materials, furniture and so on. We were not particularly surprised by this. It is rare that detailed memories of events and individuals, let alone the minute detail of daily living environments can be reconstructed from oral memory after a period of seventy years.
In oral tradition, people are usually less concerned with specific detail than with the transmission of stories which explain and give meaning to contemporary life and provide guidance for living. Detailed oral memories, as opposed to generalised attitudes and impressions, rarely last more than two generations. There is a limit to the amount of detailed information a person can remember and as each generation selects knowledge from the preceding one to include in their own stories to their children and grandchildren, some is lost and new stories are added to the collective family history.
We need also to recognise that there are circumstances which encourage the retention of oral histories and others which work against it. Imagine a past when people grew up in relatively small communities, before motor transport, before electric lighting, before television, video players and other forms of mass entertainment. People lived close to their parents, grandparents, and other elderly relatives. Old people were respected and their information and opinions valued. Evenings were spent round a camp fire with little else to do but tell yarns and stories from the past which would be reinforced by hearing them over and over.
Times have changed. Housing styles, changed living patterns, specialised homes for the aged, the impact of television, have all contributed to a decline in storytelling. Now stories tend to be passed on only to those of the younger generation who seek out their old people, choose to spend time with them, coaxing them to tell their stories.
There are also other reasons, grounded in Wiradjuri history, why there are fewer oral histories about Warangesda than we might otherwise expect. Warangesda Mission may have been founded with worthy intentions as an independent self-sufficient Aboriginal township. In its last twenty years, however, it came more and more under the punitive control of the Aboriginal Protection Board. Increasingly, like other missions in NSW, it was subject to divisive policies which denied access to some on the basis of skin colour. Men were expected to leave their families and find work elsewhere. Children were removed from their families and sent to homes throughout the state, often never to return. For many people, then, it was not a place of happy memories to recount to your children and grandchildren. Finally, even those who had put down strong roots there and wanted to remain, were driven off by the enforced closure of the Mission and its resumption as a pastoral lease. This too left a legacy of bitterness and loss.
Following the closure of the Mission, people were dispersed over a wide area. Some moved to other missions, reserves and stations, often in their traditional areas of Wiradjuri country. Many though kept on the move, this being the only way to avoid the clutches of the Aboriginal Protection Board. The daily struggle for survival did not encourage nostalgia about a Mission that had rejected them. In our conversations, we found that the people who had moved across the river to the Sandhills and the river flats at Darlington Point had retained more memories of Warangesda than most. Even so, one woman who grew up there told us that her father had forbidden her ever to visit Warangesda or utter its name. She assumed, therefore that it was a horrible place full of bad memories.
One point we need to make is that it is impossible to separate oral and documentary information in the 1990s. Aboriginal people in this area became literate from the first days of the Mission School. Everywhere we went in the course of this project we were shown or referred to written sources. We saw a copy of Peter Read’s thesis, several copies of his book ‘A Hundred Years War’ in both draft form and final publication. We also saw many copies made from the register of births at Warangesda which Robert Carroll and Roley Williams had copied from the offices at Hay. People had copies of the Mission Managers’ Diary, Gribble’s ‘Black But Comely’ and we became part of an ongoing exchange network, passing on copies of material that we had found and letting people know about other sources and how they might obtain them. There is tremendous interest in written documents and they are widely used in tracing family trees and learning about the Aboriginal past.
For this reason, a clear distinction between oral and documentary information is not possible or fruitful and we came to expect that a significant amount of information we received would have been influenced by written sources. We also heard of many ongoing Aboriginal research projects, some on Warangesda, others by individuals writing their autobiographies or family histories.
As we talked to people, there were a lot of regrets that the old people who might have known stories about Warangesda were no longer alive. We found out, though, that Peter Read’s recordings of many of these old people are in the AIATSIS Library in Canberra. These were recorded in the late 1970s and early 1980s and may contain more detail about Warangesda. We contacted the Institute, but Peter’s tapes had not yet been catalogued and so they were unable to tell us which ones might have information about Warangesda. The Institute was planning to catalogue these tapes soon, so they should be available in the near future.
We decided that it was important to interview descendants of Warangesda whether they knew much about the mission or not. Stories of life in the past are always valuable, whether they are about the 1920s or the 1950s or even the 1980s. Many of the stories in this report are about life after the mission closed and are a wonderful record of Koorie history in the middle years of this century. They tell of the travelling days in the old horse and buggy, life on the riverbank with lots of detail about how people built their houses and lived in those days. There are stories about life at the Point, or experiences on other missions, or working on stations, as well as a number of stories about particular individuals and events. It would be a tragedy for the next generation if these stories were to be ignored because their value was not recognised at the time. We also recorded as much as possible on people’s feelings and attitudes towards Warangesda.
After we had collected the stories, Penny transcribed the tapes or wrote up the stories from her notes. A few people had not wanted to talk into a tape recorder but had been happy to have their thoughts written down. Then she wrote up the stories leaving out the questions and interruptions and editing the stories slightly to make them read easily. Pat checked most of the stories with individuals to make sure we hadn’t got anything wrong (Penny did a few) and we made any alterations they wanted. Pat also provided the two pieces of art work in Section One. Then we put the stories together with the photographs we had taken or collected.
All the people interviewed signed a form allowing us to use their stories and agreeing that copies of the tape could be put in the AIATSIS Library as well as in the NPWS Sites Register for future generations to listen to. A copy of this form is in Appendix Two. This form makes sure that people retain copyright and control over their own stories except where agreed.
In the rest of Section One, we have summarised the main themes that emerged from the oral histories and have given recommendations and suggestions for follow-up work. In this section, we have tried to represent and summarise people’s views as fairly as possible. For that reason, we have included our own opinions separately in Section Two.
Section Two contains the oral histories we collected. These are written in people’s own words and we are not responsible for any inaccuracies that other people might find. We did not think it was up to us to try to check or correct any details that people gave as it was their personal memories that were important. We apologise for any mistakes we may have made in the spelling of the names of individuals or places. We did try to check these but some names, particularly of old stations, were hard to track down. Readers will find, too, that our spelling of tribal names and words in language is not consistent. We appreciate that many people in communities are trying to standardise spelling for easier teaching, but a number of people felt that the way linguists have spelled words is confusing and not at all like the way the old people used to say the words, so we have followed individual’s wishes on how they want their words written as much as possible.
In Section Three, we have included Appendices with some material we came across that was not widely available in the region and that we thought people might find interesting.
List of Participants
Below is a list of the people we interviewed or had conversations with about Warangesda Mission. Obviously there are many omissions, but three weeks isn’t very long to catch up with everyone. Some people, such as Arthur (Hookey) Watts and Barry Christian were out of the area while we were doing the work. Ethel (Sister) Christian was away in Sydney working on her own book. We went to Wagga to see Cecil Grant and Tunnie Murray only to find that they had been called away unexpectedly. Some people we failed to catch at home no matter how many times we tried. Others were busy with family events like new babies or sick relations. If you can think of anyone else whose story should be documented, please contact Pat Undy.
Balranald
Margot James
Reg Murray
Ronald Murray (Uncle Ridley)
Dave Edwards
Sharon Murray
Hay
Ian Woods
Terry Baulch
Mary-Lou Graham
Robinvale
Mavis Best
Christine Johnson*
Shirley Haney
Sheree Bowden
Griffith
Robert Carroll
Edward (Teddy) Christian*
Clancy Charles*
Colin Charles
Delphine Charles
Jenny Goolagong*
Doreen Christian*
Robert (Bob) Harris*
Kay Kennedy
Alice Williams*
Stewart King
Colleambally
Lorna Harris (nee Gribble)
Darlington Point
Grace Cowans*
Tommy Gowans
Pat Undy*
Michael Undy
Leanne Undy*
Colleen Undy
Paula Undy
Hector Turner
Bronwyn Jefferey
Beryl Smith*
Shannon Smith*
Kelly Edwards
Marcia King
Alynthea Kennedy
Pam Edwards*
Isobel Edwards*
Florence Carroll*
Jean Cliteur*
Heather Edwards*
Jack Howell
Stanley White*
Rhonda Howell
Jeff and Margaret King
Leeton
Dot Ingram*
Dennis Ingram*
Jim Ingram (Snr)*
James Ingram
Leo Watts
Lionel Higgins
Dareton
Des Jones
Arthur Kirby
Gordon Kirby*
Christine (Doocie) Mitchell
Narrandera
Ossie Ingram*
Joy Ingram
Carol Higgins*
Neville Lyons*
Tommy (TL) Lyons*
Lorna Ingram
Val McKay
Lillian Lyons
Veronica Charles
Wagga Wagga
Roley Williams
Jimmy Charles
Val Weldon
Other
Sue Haw (nee Howell), Murrabit
Mary Briggs*, Shepparton
Manuel Cooper, Shepparton
Archie Bamblett*, Sydney
Belle Weaver, Shepparton
Penny Taylor*, Adelaide
* Interview included in booklet
Themes of Warangesda Oral History
A number of themes emerged in the course of our interviews and conversations.
1. Warangesda is a powerful symbol
During our conversations with people, it soon became apparent that Warangesda is a powerful symbol for many Koories in the region. Many people referred to it as ‘the heart or heartland of our culture’ and it is a place that gives rise to strong emotions, ties people to their ancestors, and is seen as a spiritual centre. Like all symbols, however, it has many meanings for people, and the way it is viewed depends to a great extent on people’s personal histories and aspirations. We have identified below some of the different views expressed about Warangesda but it should be stressed that some individuals hold a range of these views.
For some people, Warangesda is a source of strength and community; it is the place where the Wiradjuri and others from nearby groups gathered together to survive the tough years at the end of the last century and where they learned a new kind of independence and the skills to combat the oppression of their people. Many families, particularly those who managed to escape the tentacles of the Aborigines Protection Board by travelling, working on stations or living on the riverbank value the independence and self-sufficiency which was encouraged by Gribble in his original plans for the mission.
Ladies and children of Warangesda, 1882.
Some others, who were forced by the dispersal in the twenties and thirties to seek refuge in country that was not their own, look back on Warangesda with nostalgia and a sense of loss. They remember the mission with its family cottages and gardens, the sense of community and village life and feel that something was missing in their lives after the closure of the mission.
Other people view Warangesda with bitterness. Many Koories, particularly those who lived for years on other government-run reserves or missions such as Erambie in Cowra, see Warangesda as the beginning of a regime of oppression which was to continue for many years to come. It was the place where their families first experienced the dormitory system, the removal of children, the separation of fathers from families, arbitrary punishments and the total control exercised by often brutal and insensitive managers and matrons.
Some people, such as Jim Ingram Senior, look back on Warangesda as a place of contradictions. He sees it as a safe home, a heartland, but also as a concentration camp. He distinguishes between the Gribble years and the years when the Board took over. For the first twenty years of its existence, people strove to maintain Gribble’s ideals. Warangesda was to be an independent township where families lived together, had their own blocks of land, grew their own food, ran their own shops, had their own school and were self-sufficient. All this was anathema to the Board which increased its power and control during the early years of this century. Able-bodied men were forced from their homes; fair-skinned people were denied entry; after 1913, the Board had the right to remove children and break up families. For Jim, it is important to remember the good things and the bad, the white people who stood up for Koories as well as the ones who put them down, and the contradictions of Warangesda need to be explored as part of the education of both Koories and non-Aboriginal people.
For a small number of people we spoke to, Warangesda meant very little. The distance in time, the movements of people, as well as all the other events of the last seventy years had caused Warangesda to be a dim memory. ‘Oh, it’s somewhere over the Point isn’t it?’ people might say, or ‘I don’t know anything about it’. What was noticeable, though, was the recent upsurge of interest in the mission. Many Koories commented that they hadn’t known much about it, but had got really interested in finding out more in the last couple of years. For so many years, Aboriginal history has been seen as unimportant and neglected in the schools. Now that things are changing and Koorie history is being valued and put on the school curriculum, interest is rapidly growing. Warangesda is also a symbol of the rebirth of Koorie history and a desire to educate all Australians in the black history of their nation.
Finally, Warangesda is also a political symbol. It is a part of land rights, the desire to reclaim Aboriginal land that was stolen, and a symbol in the rebuilding of the culture and prosperity of the Wiradjuri nation.
2. The Aborigines Protection Board
We have mentioned the Board in our comments above about Warangesda. The APB, though, is a powerful memory even for those people who remember very little about Warangesda. It crops up in conversations, even today, as a symbol of Government control over Aboriginal people. People recognise that many staff of the APB, even though their actions were evil, thought that they were acting in the best interests of Aboriginal people, to ‘protect’ them. Similarly today, although Government policies may be well intentioned, Koories resent the level of bureaucratic control that hampers their own decision-making and see it as not so different to the Board. As Alice Williams points out, even actions by some Koorie organisations can remind people of the dreaded days of APB control over their lives.
3. Before and after Warangesda
Obviously Warangesda was the starting point of our conversations with people, and we have already said that it is often described as the heart of the Wiradjuri, a place of great significance. But the history of the Wiradjuri began thousands of years before Warangesda, and will continue far into the future. It could be dangerous to focus too much on Warangesda and neglect the rest of Wiradjuri history. Archie Bamblett, for example, wanted to know why all this fuss was being made about Warangesda. He thought that the Poisoned Waterholes and Murdering Island were equally important and should be remembered. In the histories that we recorded, many other events and places in Wiradjuri history, long after Warangesda had closed, were remembered. The history of life on the Sandhills at Darlington Point and Narrandera, painful memories of life on Erambie Mission, the development of Three Ways at Griffith, life on the riverbanks of the Murrumbidgee, the Lachlan and the Murray, the days of the horse and buggy or working on outback stations - all these play an important role in Wiradjuri history. Many people describe riverbank history as a time of great freedom, a final golden era when people could travel around and build their tin and bag houses where they wished, away from the eyes of the APB, and before the days when shire councils forced people off the river and into the towns.
So, as well as being the heartland of the Wiradjuri, Warangesda also came across as the hub of a large wheel extending over Wiradjuri country and beyond into Yorta Yorta, Baakindji, Ngiyampaa and other territories. After the closure of Warangesda in 1924, people dispersed over a wide area, and what interested us was where people went and why. We know that people came or were brought into Warangesda from the Namoi and Lachlan Rivers, from Cummeragunja, Cootamundra, Jerilderie and many other places. Reading between the lines of many of the stories, it is clear that many families moved back to the areas they had originally come from, to their home country. So, many Ngiyampaa people like Bob Harris moved back to their traditional country to work on the stations there. The Kirby’s travelled widely, but Balranald became the focus of many of their movements.
Aunty Pat Undy and other descendants of Warangesda.
The Ingrams travelled a beat that always took in Euabalong where their mother’s country lay. Whether people moved north, south, east or west, we were tempted to see in this evidence of a relationship with country that perhaps predated Warangesda Mission. People had left their country where life had become dangerous to seek haven in the mission; but traditional ties to land had in many cases survived the forty years of the mission. Many marriages too seem to have followed traditional patterns, with many families marrying into other families from their own country.
See foldout map on page 17, Pat has tried to give a visual picture of the range of places Wiradjuri people moved to after the dispersal, and since.
4. Wiradjuri spirituality
Another theme that came through strongly in the stories was the spirituality of the Wiradjuri. This is expressed in the many stories we recorded of spiritual experiences, whether they are dreams and visions of the old people or stories of terrifying hairymen trying to steal children. For many people, too, Christian beliefs are of great significance and are an extension of the old spirituality rather than a break with the past. The Christian love and compassion that inspired Gribble and later missionaries such as Miss Campbell has survived; the authoritarian Christianity that tried to oppress people and force them to reject their Wiradjuri culture and spirituality has been rejected.
5. Relationships with non-Aboriginal people
Although we were recording the Koorie oral history of Warangesda and the years that followed, relationships with non-Aboriginal people comes through as an important theme. While both Gribble and his son Ernest were men of their times, they were exceptional in their respect for Aboriginal people and their culture and in their fight for justice. Gribble always worked together with the people on every task, and argued and debated with them, encouraging independent thought, something later APB officials deplored.
From the early days of Warangesda, nonAboriginal people like Mary Cameron and Mary Jane Stark had married Koories and raised their families on the mission. There seems to have been a number of happy marriages between black and white in the early years of the century, a pattern that continued over the years. In their histories, a number of people talked of the poor white families who also lived along the riverbanks and shared their lives with Aboriginal people. While this does not deny the racism that existed in many aspects of life, such as segregated cinemas, and the banning of Koories from certain cafes and swimming pools, it appears from the stories as if there were many whites who lived and worked alongside Koories, more happily perhaps than they do today. Is it possible that race relations were in some ways better then?
Despite the efforts of the Assimilation Committee remembered by Alice Williams, Griffith is recalled as a racist town.
Robert Carroll In the Aboriginal Land Council Office, Griffith.
Darlington Point, however, seems to have been exceptional. Virtually everyone describing their early years at the Point stressed that ‘we were all the same, black, white or brindle’. Why this should be so is not clear. Perhaps it was the small size of the population there which forced everyone to pull together. Or perhaps this too is a legacy of Warangesda and the efforts made by Gribble to involve the local community in supporting Aboriginal rights. After all, Warangesda Aborigines had a school before the non-Aborigines at the Point, and the local white children attended the mission school in the early days if they wanted an education.
Later, when the mission school lacked a teacher, Koorie children attended the Darlington Point school, despite the efforts of a minority of the white population to exclude them. Stanley White remembers regular cricket matches, the town versus the mission, but he also spoke of the discriminatory laws that denied Aborigines access to the hotel.
Some non-Aboriginal people, though, are remembered with universal hatred. Donaldson, the man responsible for the removal of large numbers of Koorie children lives on in people’s memories today as do other brutal managers and matrons. Nevertheless, both the oral and documentary history of Warangesda provide an opportunity to reflect on the history of race relations and to consider Jim Ingram’s words from ‘Roots’ that ‘not all white men were evil, and not all black men were good’.
Descendants
Recommendations and Suggestions
1. The future of the mission site
While we do not consider it our role to recommend what should happen to the mission site at Warangesda, we try to give below a summary of the wishes of the people we spoke to. Certainly everyone we talked to saw Warangesda as a vitally important site which should be preserved both as a place of spiritual and emotional significance to Wiradjuri people and as a record of Aboriginal culture and history at the turn of the century. Although earlier land claims, such as the one in the late 1970s, had sought ownership of the whole station property, for most people we talked to in 1993, the area of greatest significance was the mission village itself. Bob Harris, for example, stated: ‘We’re not greedy, we only want the heart.’
People were generally pleased that as a first step in the conservation of the site, NPWS was proposing heritage listing of that area to ensure that there would be no further destruction or deterioration of the site and its buildings. They were also pleased, in principle, that preliminary conservation work was being undertaken. Almost everyone we talked to considered Aboriginal ownership and control of the mission village site to be a crucial aim for Wiradjuri people. Most people felt that such ownership should be vested not in any one community, but in all the major communities where Warangesda descendants now live.
Many of the older descendants of Warangesda told us that the station was given by Queen Victoria to John Gribble in trust for the Aboriginal people who lived there. There is considerable bitterness about the way they were driven off in the twenties and people remember the resistance that was put up by the last residents when their houses were demolished. Warangesda is considered to be Aboriginal land in two senses. First it is an important Wiradjuri site, a ceremonial area with pre-invasion significance; secondly, having been granted to them, it was stolen back and given to a non-Aboriginal.
Despite this, people generally did not express any immediate urgency that the mission village site be repossessed. This is principally due to the loyalty and respect which many local Koories, particularly those living at Darlington Point, have for the current owner, Jeff King, and his wife Margaret. It is recognised that Jeff and Margaret have their own historical attachment to Warangesda going back nearly seventy years. More importantly, people recognise that Jeff and Margaret do understand the significance of Warangesda for the Wiradjuri and have demonstrated this by readily allowing access to the site by Aboriginal visitors, subject to the normal courtesy of an advance phone call. While people have confidence in the current owners, there is, however, some considerable anxiety about what might happen in the future and many people urged that long term Aboriginal ownership be negotiated while there are sympathetic non-Aboriginal owners.
We questioned people as to their long term wishes for the site, while pointing out that at present there was no funding for such a project. The texts in the rest of this report give a number of people’s ideas on this in their own words, however they represent a range of opinion which we will briefly summarise. We will also add here comments by others who are not represented in the longer stories that follow.
A very few people wanted the area to remain unchanged and felt that any development beyond minimal conservation would destroy the atmosphere of Warangesda, the sense of the past, and the closeness they feel to the old people and their spirits when they go out there.
Another larger group was keen to see development of the site, for economic as well as cultural reasons. This group comprised a number of younger people as well as older people with experience in running organisations. Roley Williams at the Regional Land Council, for example, would like to see the site purchased, run by a representative all-Aboriginal management committee, developed as a resource and training centre and library, perhaps becoming a Koorie university in the future. Lionel Higgins, grandson of Rose Clayton from Warangesda (the widely remembered little Nana Higgins) would like to see Warangesda restored as a cultural centre for teaching local history to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Leo Watts whose mother Vera Murray grew up at Warangesda, would like to see the site become a major cultural and tourist centre. He observed that many tourists visiting Leeton look for Aboriginal information and artefacts. He suggested that Warangesda could become a major centre for training in the arts and crafts. He would like to see people producing art and artefacts with a distinctive regional style for sale both at Warangesda and in the neighbouring towns. Robert Carroll too thought it important that the site became financially viable. While he values the cultural significance of the area, he commented that funding wasn’t going to continue for ever and that in the long run the place must become self-supporting through education and tourism. Many people hoped that development of the site would lead to increased employment opportunities for younger Koories. The biggest group of people, however, hoped to see a development of Warangesda somewhere between the two preceding ideas. They wanted to see the existing buildings carefully restored. Some wanted to see just a few other buildings reconstructed exactly as they had been at one moment in the past to give the younger generation an idea of how their ancestors had lived at the turn of the century. Others wanted to see the whole village reconstructed exactly as it had been, but all wanted it done sensitively and many expressed concern at over-commercialising the place. Retaining the right spiritual atmosphere was important, as well as showing respect for the generations who lived there. For example, many wanted to see Warangesda visited by schoolchildren, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal as a learning experience. Older people realised that although they could recall what life was like in the early days, youngsters today had no idea of living conditions at the beginning of the century and found it hard to imagine it from books. Some suggested that it would be good for youngsters to be able to sleep over in the old dormitory restored to its original state. People expressed worry at the thought of big modern buildings or large concrete carparks being built in or adjacent to the village. Some felt that a huge influx of tourists and the sort of facilities they might require could destroy the atmosphere of Warangesda.
A number of people mentioned Pioneer Park at Griffith as an example of the sort of compromise development that would encourage cultural tourism and education without being overcommercialised. We visited Pioneer Park and while there took some of the photographs that illustrate this report. Although Pioneer Park is a commercial venture and people pay for admission, going there is like strolling through a historic village, a step into the past that allows people to observe and reflect at their leisure. An ‘Aboriginal Pioneer Park’ was seen as a possible development, where people could learn Koorie history. Visitors could walk round the mission, into cottages furnished just as they were. They could learn about the families who lived there from family trees and photographs on the walls. They could read old documents like the mission managers’ diary and visit the old dormitory and perhaps see on the wall a list of all the children who were taken away.
Most people wanted to see the entrance to the mission through the peppercorn tree avenue restored. In addition to being historically correct, people thought it important that Jeff and Margaret King be spared the noise of constant visitors driving past their home.
As a final specific comment, everyone we spoke to wanted the shearing shed attachment to the old school removed and the school restored to its original state. Although the shed is a historic building in its own right, it is not Koorie history and has nothing to do with the mission. Ossie Ingram thought too that in the restoration of the school it was important to retain the signatures of the many Aboriginal visitors over the years. These are important pieces of living history which also demonstrate the ongoing attachment of Wiradjuri people to Warangesda (see page 25).
2. A central keeping place
A number of people suggested that if things are going ahead with Warangesda, there needs to be a special group or steering committee set up of representatives from all the main towns and communities where Warangesda descendants now live. That is up to local Koories to decide in their own time. Given however the tremendous Koorie interest in Warangesda, as well as in Koorie history generally, we strongly recommend that local communities discuss the value of a central keeping place for historical materials. Many individuals have their own collections of books and documents, but people trying to document their family histories are not always aware of this. The Education Resource Centre at Griffith was suggested as a possibility, but this is not a Koorie organisation. Roley Williams has built up a very complete collection of material at the Regional Land Council at Wagga Wagga and we gave him copies of other materials we had found that he did not already have. One difficulty with Wagga is its inaccessibility and a centre which is nearer Leeton, Griffith, Narrandera and Darlington Point would be more suitable. In the long run, Warangesda would be the ideal location. In the meantime, it would help Koorie researchers if local communities could designate a suitable centre where materials could be safely stored, and borrowed or copied by researchers.
In addition, we recommend that people make sure that a copy of any material they come across or write is deposited at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra. Many local Koories have visited the Institute and a lot of the material currently circulated in the communities has come from the Institute which has been a Koorie-controlled organisation for several years. They have the facilities to store and conserve print, tape and photographic material so that it will be available in generations to come. While we think it important that there is a local keeping place, it is always good to know that there is a back-up copy elsewhere in case of loss or fire. As a final reason, a lot of Koories who were taken from their parents as youngsters visit the Institute searching for their families so the more material there, the better.
3. Additional materials
We recommend that the Regional Land Council contact the Institute for copies of the tape recordings made by Peter Read which relate to former residents of Warangesda. The Institute tries to make copies of material available either free of charge or at a cheap rate to one organisation in each region. If copies of these tapes are safely kept at Wagga, people could take blank tapes in and make their own copies of recordings of family members.
Bill Gammage also made tapes in the Narrandera area. We recommend again that someone from the RALC contact him at the University of Adelaide to see if he still has these tapes and is prepared to send copies.
People we spoke to are also keen to see the results of the documentary research carried out by the NPWS (NSW) historian. Our project was limited to oral history only, but many people are looking forward to seeing the results of the documentary research which they had heard about from Barbara Le Maistre. We explained that she would be writing up the history of Warangesda but a number of community members expressed a wish to also receive copies of the primary source materials that she researched in Sydney. We explained that issues of sensitivity were involved here and were
firmly told that it was not up to non-Aboriginal people or organisations to determine what materials should or should not be returned. Several people said that they already had experience dealing with the kind of biased or hurtful information contained in historic documents and felt that appropriate community members were best placed to broker access to such materials and could be trusted to do it sensitively.
4. Old photographs
We came across a number of old photographs of former Warangesda residents when we visited people’s houses. Some were framed and on mantlepieces, others were in albums or boxes. We recommend that local community organisations or the RALC try to arrange to have copy negatives made and store them somewhere safe so that they can be reproduced for family members in the future. People are always reluctant to part with the originals and fear that they will get lost, but if they are taken straight to a photographer for copying, the originals can be returned in a couple of days. Again, it is a good idea to send a copy of a print to the Institute for cool storage as even copy negatives can deteriorate over time, especially in hot weather. As you will see elsewhere in this report, Balranald LALC is already doing this.
5. Consultation
If NPWS (NSW) is to continue its involvement with the old mission site, it is important to ensure that adequate consultation takes place. We appreciate that this is not always easy and that discussions had taken place with organisations in each community centre. Nevertheless, most people did not seem to be clear what NPWS was proposing for the site, or what legislation, if any, might be involved, and this included Jeff King. Some people, particularly those who want to see the mission Aboriginalowned, were anxious about the future implications of NPWS involvement and whether their plans might prevent Aboriginal ownership at some point in the future.
People at Darlington Point, and even some from Narrandera, were unaware that the Narrandera CDEP were to be working at the old mission, lopping and removing trees. This caused consternation to a group of people who visited the mission at the same time as us.
There also needs to be consultation about the primary source material collected by the NPWS historian. Many people would like to see these documents made available to community members, but given the legitimate concerns of the organisation responsible for the archives, it is important for NPWS to let people know what materials exists and how they can be accessed by interested individuals.
6. The Mission Managers’ Diary 1887-97
This is a vitally important document for Warangesda descendants containing the names of hundreds of residents as well as a wealth of detail of everyday life. We made several photocopies available to people, but the typescript at AIATSIS does not lend itself to very clear copying. It is an extremely lengthy document, and given the number of people trying to find family information an index would be extremely useful. Ideally, the manuscript should be entered into computer in a way that would allow it to be searched for individual names or points of interest.
Pat Undy has begun working on an index and her son Michael kindly typed up a sample page. Transfer of the diary on to word processor and/or the funding of someone like Pat to prepare a user-friendly index would be a worthwhile project. We recommend that a relevant community organisation or NPWS seek funding for this important task.
School
Teacher’s cottage.
teacher’s cottage construction sequence (by Peter Kabaila, 1993).
Sketch of teacher’s cottage and school house in 1993 (drawn by Edward Radclyffe).
Ongoing Research
While we were working on this project, we met a number of people, mainly Koories, who are doing their own research. Some are researching the history of Warangesda Mission, others are Warangesda descendants who are researching family histories and writing books. A number of people asked us to keep a list so that everyone can keep in touch and share information if they want to. There are bound to be many other people doing research, but below is the list of ongoing research that people told us about.
Balranald LALC
Christian, Ethel (Sister)
Clayton, Iris
Edwards, Heather
Oral histories of the area
Book in progress
Family research
Proposed book on her mother’s life
Edwards, Pam University project on Warangesda Harris, Lorna*
Ongoing research into the Gribble family
Haw, Susan Book on her family (nee Howel)
Ingram, Lorna
Kabaila, Peter*
LeMaistre, Barbara* (NPWS)
Scarlett, Philippa*
Ongoing research
Honours thesis at ANU on Warangesda
Documentary history
Documentary research
Schilling, Kathleen Warangesda research
Undy, Michael Research into local bush medicines
Undy, Pat Warangesda research
Wheldon, Val
* non-Aboriginal
Book on her life
On the walls of the old school at Warangesda, many former residents have signed their names on return visits. These signatures and dates are valuable historical Information. Ossie Ingram thinks they should be preserved.
Bushy Howell’s signature in the school, written on a return visit in 1952.
Susan Haw, nee Howell, in the old dormitory during a visit to Warangesda as part of her research into her family history.
Bibliography
Aborigines Welfare Board. 1941. Manual of instructions for managers and matrons of Aboriginal stations and other field officers.
(Carroll, R. & R. Williams) n.d. Register of Births at Warangesda, 1885-1923, copied from original by Robert Carrol and Roley Williams.
Clyde, L. 1979. In a strange land: a history of the Anglican diocese of Riverina. Hawthorn Press, Melbourne.
Curthoys, A. 1982. Good Christians and useful workers: Aborigines, Church and State in NSW 1870-1833. In What rough beast? The State and social order in Australian history. Sydney Labour History Group. Allen and Unwin, Sydney.
Edwards, C. and Read, P. 1989. The lost children. Doubleday, Sydney.
Fletcher, J. J. 1989. Clean, clad and courteous. Black Books, Sydney.
Horner, J. 1974. Vote Ferguson for freedom. Australian and New Zealand Book Co., Sydney.
Gribble, E. R. Extracts from his diaries, typed up by Mrs Lorna Harris.
Gribble, E. R. 1932. The problem of the Australian Aboriginal. Angus and Robertson, Sydney.
Gribble, E. R. 1933. A despised race: the vanishing Aboriginals of Australia. Australian Board of Missions, Sydney.
Gribble, J. B. 1884. Black but comely: glimpses of Aboriginal life in Australia. Morgan and Scott, London.
Gribble, J. B. Extracts from his diaries, 1873-1892, typed up by Mrs Lorna Harris, JB’s granddaughter.
Harris, J. 1990. One blood: 200 years of Aboriginal encounter with Christianity, a story of hope. Albatross, Sutherland, NSW.
Harris, W. K. 1913. Outback in Australia, or three Australian overlanders. Garden City Press, Letchworth. Long, W. A. 1960. Treasure in an earthen vessel: the story of Bobbie Peters, hunchback native pastor. Mt Isa Printing Service.
Read, P. 1988. A hundred years war: the Wiradjuri people and the state. ANU Press, Canberra. Thorn, B. (ed) 1964. Letters from Goulburn: A selection of letters from Mesac Thomas, first bishop of Goulburn 1863-1892. Canberra.
Treseder, J. 1891. Report of his visit to the Aborigines Mission Station at Coomeragunga and Warangesda. Unpub. ms AIATSIS.
Tucker, M. 1972. If everyone cared. Ure Smith, Sydney. Warangesda Land Council. 1980. Warangesda land claim. Narrandera, NSW.
Warangesda mission managers’ diary, March 1887–April 1897, given to Reay, M. and typed by Barwick, D. AIATSIS.
West, A. 1982. Darlington Point Public School 1882-1982. NSW Education Dept, Sydney.
Whyman, K., Morgan, L. and Hepworth, T. 1981. The Wiradjuri. Riverina C.A.E.
Old buildings at Whitton, a place that features in Warangesda history.
Descendants