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Student Research

Katie Goldhammer 2007 (Masters of Museum Studies: ELS802 Special Research Project)

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Object 2: Photograph

Photograph: Old Granny, Aboriginal Woman
Goulburn Tribe, Coranderrk, 1897
(Object 42000094, Australian History Museum, Macquarie University)

Photograph Caption

"Due to constant official and private attrition against the Coranderrk community some older women were left without family support and relied on ration depots for their survival" (Object 42000094, Australian History Museum, MU)

Context of Photograph

"Could we have our freedom to go away shearing and harvesting, and come home when we wish, and also to go for the good of our health when we need it; and we aboriginals all wish and hope to have freedom, not to be bound down by the protection of the board". (Petition from the people of Coranderrk, 22 September 1886, "Corranderk" Koorie Heritage Trust, 2004)

Missions

From the mid-nineteenth century stretching on for the following one hundred years, Aboriginal peoples suffered through the mission era. Missions were established around Australia under a Christian guise of protection and betterment for native peoples. However, during this time, "Aboriginal people were heavily restricted in their access to land and freedom of movement," ("Missions" National Parks, 2004) splitting families, causing disease, and depleting the welfare and wellbeing of an entire culture.

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, mission were taken over by the government and run as reserves. The establishment of missions and the subsequent history of reserves and stations was the colonists' way of dealing with an unfamiliar culture to the detriment of the very people they were trying to assimilate into a new culture to this land.

Further Research

Coranderrk: a Mission Community
Establishment:
In 1860 the Central Board to Watch Over the Interests of the Aboriginal People in the Colony of Victoria was established made up of church and government officials. The settlement of the mission at Coranderrk followed shortly thereafter in 1863 ("Timeline" Koorie Heritage Trust, 2004). Coranderrk was officially established by the Victorian Colonial Governor when forty Aboriginals left Mohican Station, also in Victoria, looking for a place to resettle.

Successes:
Things were going great; the population jumped to one hundred and five making it the largest mission in the state of Victoria. There were houses and a school as well as a building for a baker and a butcher in the community, all of these innovations under the cooperative direction of superintendent, John Green ("Coranderrk" Koorie Heritage Trust, 2004).

The mission's "social and educational function as preparing the people, by their efforts in tuition and conversion, to participate in European Society" (Rowley, 1970, 246), became evident by the successful settlement of a migrant people. A thriving hop farm at the center of the community was the crowning achievement of this successful functioning community in a European settler style. Was not that the point, and what the Europeans wanted to see, the healthy assimilation of natives?

Half-Caste Act and Government Agenda:
By 1874, the farming community of Coranderrk was proving just a bit too successful. Officials began thinking of moving residents off the land because of the prosperity of the farm and because of a push from the surrounding community that the land "was too valuable for Aboriginal people" ("Coranderrk" Koorie Heritage Trust, 2004).

This new agenda towards native peoples began to take effect because of the Half-Cast Act of 1886 ("Timeline" Koorie Heritage Trust, 2004). In an effort to get native farmers off now valuable land and to close missions in the state, it was mandated that only 'full-bloods' and 'half-castes' over age thirty-four could receive assistance, for example food and shelter, on the missions. Half of the land of Coranderrk was taken back by the government; 4,863 acres down to 2,300 ("Timeline" Koorie Heritage Trust, 2004) forcing people out of their homes and landless, splitting families and community function.

Effects of Displacement:
Women such as, Old Ganny,in the photograph dated 1897, could no longer rely on relatives for shelter or food as the population of Coranderrk station was in decline because of the Half-Caste Act of 1886. The dwindling population slowed activity at the farm and school, as did the illness of superintendent, John Green, and "ill health amongst the (now neglected) residents and the selling off of land" ("Timeline" Koorie Heritage Trust, 2004).

The mission or reserve "controlled the people by controlling the assets, and especially the stores and rations" (Rowley, 1970, 251). No longer able to support or feed themselves by the farming methods encouraged by colonialists, displaced by government mandates, homeless, many elders long respected in their culture suffered the fate of Old Granny, accepting rations and barely living.

Station Closure:
The station of Coranderrk was officially closed in 1924, but there could have been another way. Freedom to move from station to station at will, autonomy and wages on reserves may have "prevented much social disruption" (Rowley, 1970, 249), to Aboriginal families and communities during these one hundred years. In 1998, a drastically reduced amount of the original Coranderrk land was returned to descendents of the original community but only after it was purchased by the Indigenous Land Corporation ("Timeline" Koorie Heritage Trust, 2004). Unfortunately, this is no help to displaced individuals of the past.

 

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