Aboriginal people

12/01/2022

On Being a Social Anthropologist

Here is a copy of the Address that John gave to the Rotary Club in Kojonup on 28 October 2021, after being invited by Alan (‘Bear’) Warburton. NB. Click on small images to increase their size. I have come to this meeting of Kojonup Rotary with a deep […]
13/07/2020

Carrolup Native Settlement

I continue including sections of our book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe, this one focused on the setting up of Carrolup Native Settlement. ‘The economic situation of Aboriginal people living in the South West deteriorates during the first decade of the 20th Century. From 1911, many Aboriginal […]
02/07/2020

Facets of Colonisation, Part 3

In my last two blogs you can see here and here, I have included sections of our book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe that described various elements of the colonisation process in Western Australia. Description of the colonisation process, which impacted so badly on Aboriginal people,  provides a context […]
27/06/2020

Facets of Colonisation, Part 2

In my last blog, I described elements of the process of colonisation in Western Australia and their impact on Aboriginal people, taken from the Prologue of our book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe. Here are some more facets: ‘No piece of government legislation stirs more negative emotions […]
02/06/2020

Why is the Story of Carrolup Important?

‘The first step in re-establishing healthy communities is to acknowledge and understand the impact of the colonial legacy on the lives of Aboriginal people today and the various pathways necessary for healing from historical trauma, using both cultural and contemporary understandings and processes.’ Pat Dudgeon, Helen Milroy and Roz […]
17/10/2019

Jan James: My Path To Connecting Aboriginal People

On May 31st this year, I (and many others) lost a very special friend. I wrote a blog about this beautiful person entitled An Extraordinary Human Being: Jan James R.I.P. I know I am not the only person who considers Jan to be extraordinary. ‘Jan James was a genealogist, […]
10/10/2019

Reducing Suicide By Connecting To Culture

Suicide amongst Aboriginal peoples in Australia was almost non-existent a few generations ago. ‘When the first suicide occurred we didn’t have a word for it. In the Arnhem they had to find a new word for it.’ Elder David Cole.  However, today it is at one of the […]
20/08/2019

‘Do Things With Us, Not To Us!’: Chris Sarra

Dr. Chris Sarra is the Director-General of the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships. He is an internationally recognised Indigenous education specialist and is the founder and Chairman of the Stronger Smarter Institute. Nearly four years ago, I posted a blog on my Sharing Culture website which […]
27/06/2019

To Regain Our Pride: Revel Cooper

In 1968, one of the best known Carrolup artists, Revel Cooper, wrote a seminal article in the Aboriginal Quarterly whilst he was serving time in H.M. Training Prison in Geelong in Victoria. In this article, Revel emphasises the importance of pride to Aboriginal people. In To Regain Our […]
17/06/2019

The Carrolup Story: Our 100th Blog Posting

This is the 100th blog posting that John and I have written for our Story Blog (65 so far) and Healing Blog (34). We thought we would celebrate the occasion by showing you the most viewed blog postings since we launched the website in November 2018. Here’s the […]
28/05/2019

Noelene White’s Memories: Life at Carrolup

I’ve included two sections so far that focus on the memories of Noelene White – daughter of Noel and Lily White – as described in our forthcoming book The Aboriginal Child Artists of Carrolup. You can find those blogs here and here. I now include some further memories, related […]
20/02/2019

Importance of the Carrolup Story

“The first step in re-establishing healthy communities is to acknowledge and understand the impact of the colonial legacy on the lives of Aboriginal people today and the various pathways necessary for healing from historical trauma, using both cultural and contemporary understandings and processes.” Pat Dudgeon, Helen Milroy and […]
29/01/2019

Racism and Social Darwinism

This is the third of a series of articles focused on the social, political and cultural context in which the story about the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup took place. [Please note, some people may find the ideas described in this article to be upsetting and offensive]. A […]
22/01/2019

Mr Neville: Removing Aboriginal Children From Their Family

This is the third of a series of blogs that considers the social, political and cultural context existing prior to our story of the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup. I focus on the policy of removing Aboriginal people from their families, which resulted in what we now know […]
14/01/2019

The Control of Aboriginal People: 1905 Aborigines Act

It is essential to consider the social, political and cultural context in Western Australia to fully appreciate the Carrolup Story and the achievements of the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup. We have devoted early chapters of our forthcoming book – Aboriginal Child Artists of Carrolup – to this […]
17/11/2018

Addiction and Psychological Pain

During the many years I spent working in the addiction and mental health field, first as a neuroscientist and later helping empower people to facilitate their recovery (healing), I rarely heard the word ‘trauma’ being used. I would often visit addiction treatment services in the UK and very […]
09/11/2018

Colonisation

The colonisation of Australia by Europeans had a massive negative impact on a peoples and culture that has existed for over 50,000 years. The first settlers brought diseases that wiped out large numbers of Aboriginal people, as they had no immunity to European diseases. Many of the survivors existed […]
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