Layer

NameWA Journey Ways - A Daring Escape
Description

Before, and for some time after the 1967 referendum Aboriginal people were subjected to law and social policy that controlled every aspect of their lives. They were excluded from all the supports (hospitals and public housing) and payments (wages, pensions, dole, child benefit) given to non-Aboriginal people. They were subjected to curfews and condemned to absolute poverty. Many lived in ancient camping grounds or reserved lands until they were cleared out. Frequently police and Welfare Officers would raid the camps to steal children who would be taken to settlements. 

TypeSite
Content Warning

This layer contains historical information about Aboriginal people that may be distressing.

ContributorJacqui Wright
Entries3
Allow ANPS? No
Added to System2023-07-25 13:33:32
Updated in System2023-08-14 15:42:03
Subject indigenous, aboriginal, western australia, stolen generation, journey ways
CreatorDenise Cook in 'Journey Ways' project, Dr Francesca Robertson, Dr Noel Nannup, Alison Nannup.
PublisherWA Journey Ways is a collaboration of Kurongkurl Katitjin, Edith Cowan University and WA Main Roads.
Contactbill.pascoe@newcastle.edu.au
Citation

Cook, D., 'That Was My Home: Voices from the Noongar Camps in Fremantle and the Western Suburbs’,  UWA Press, 2019.

DOI
Source URLhttps://batchelorpress.com/node/386
Linkbackhttps://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/community-environment/aboriginal-engagement/aboriginal-journey-ways/
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LanguageEN
LicenseCopyright. Do not re-use without permission.
Usage Rights

Some material condensed from Denise Cook’s PhD (Murdoch University, 2018) now available in a book ‘That Was My Home: Voices from the Noongar Camps in Fremantle and the Western Suburbs’, Denise Cook, UWA Press, 2019. Other material as referenced. Permissions provided for TLCMap. Do not re-use without permission.

Date Created (externally)2023-07-25

A Daring Escape

Placename
Bassendean
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.903056
Longitude
115.955833
Start Date
1930
End Date
1939

Description

Native Welfare Department made a sort of raid on the camps and in the Bassendean and Guildford areas and all people who werenā€™t working, unemployed and things, they just grabbed them all, kids who didnā€™t go to school, and just chucked ā€˜em in a big sort of cattle trucks and took them all up to Moore River Settlement. And ā€˜causeĀ  two of my sisters were rounded up at my grandmotherā€™s place and they grabbed them too, and my aunty and chucked them all on aĀ  truck and took ā€˜em up to Moore River.Ā 

Sources

TLCMap ID
tc2164
Linkback
https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/community-environment/aboriginal-engagement/aboriginal-journey-ways/
Created At
2023-07-26 10:25:31
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:50:10

A Daring Escape

Placename
Moore River Camps
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.038056
Longitude
116.045833
Start Date
1930
End Date
1939

Description

"Aboriginal people camped on the river near the settlement in order to be near their relatives and to feed the starving children through the fence because the food at the settlement was so bad. My mother, she went up there and run away with them. She gotĀ  on a train and went to the Mogumber Siding and jumped out and snuck into the Moore River Settlement at night and went into the camps along the river side, along the Moore River. And of courseĀ  she asked an old lady there about her girls because she was oneĀ  of the old ladies that got knocked off from Guildford too ... AndĀ  she told them what dormitories they were in. And of course sheĀ  waited ā€˜til nightfall and she snuck in and got them out and took offĀ  and headed for the coast from the Moore River Settlement alongĀ  the river.

Sources

TLCMap ID
tc2165
Linkback
https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/community-environment/aboriginal-engagement/aboriginal-journey-ways/
Created At
2023-07-26 10:25:31
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:50:10

A Daring Escape

Placename
Swanbourne Camps
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.973028
Longitude
115.770219
Start Date
1930
End Date
1939

Description

"And she walked for days and ā€˜cause they came out looking for them ... and ā€˜cause [the tracker] was trying to track ā€˜em down because ... mother was a bit smart and ā€˜cause when they come out of the river, sheā€™d say look, you know, in the sand plain country, walk backwards, you know, donā€™t walk forward, just walk backwards. And ā€˜cause she fooled him with her tracks and they thought that she was going the opposite way, but she was going back the other way. Sheā€™s too clever for him. And theyā€™s climbing the trees and watching and having a good laugh because they see him on horseback with the Superintendent and trying to track ā€˜em down but theyā€™re going the wrong way. She come right back to the coast and come right back to Swanbourne, to the camps." (DNA, 105/37, Native camps in the Metropolitan Area, SROWA, Cons 993, fol.1510. 93 Corrie Bodney, oral history, 22 February 2007, 6. Cited in Cook, 2016)." Ā Ā 

Sources

TLCMap ID
tc2166
Linkback
https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/community-environment/aboriginal-engagement/aboriginal-journey-ways/
Created At
2023-07-26 10:25:31
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:50:10
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