Reynold Hart

01/02/2023

73rd Year Anniversary of a Special Visit

Seventy-three years ago yesterday, 71-year old Englishwoman Mrs Florence Rutter and her friend Vera Hack arrived for a two and a half day visit of Carrolup Native Settlement. This visit was not only special in its own right, but it triggered a series of important events that still resonate […]
10/05/2021

Development of the Carrolup Children’s Art

In a previous blog, I described how the children’s art was initially just one aspect of a school curriculum that used drawing as the necessary means of communication in almost every subject. Early in 1947, Noel introduced a scheme where he and his wife spent time with the children five […]
07/04/2021

Boans Exhibition of Carrolup Drawings, Part 2

In a previous blog, I described how the Carrolup children’s art was exhibited in the ‘Crystal Section’ of Boans, the largest department store in Perth, from October 21 to October 24, 1947, thanks to the initiative of teacher John Stokes. The exhibition of over 400 Carrolup drawings was opened by Western […]
03/03/2021

A Pivotal Role: Noel White

Teacher Noel White [left side, just behind children in the above photograph] played a pivotal role in the development of the Carrolup children’s art, as described by John Stanton in the film clip below. Noel first connected with the children and helped them overcome their fear. He provided […]
18/03/2020

Boans Exhibition of Carrolup Drawings

In an earlier blog, I described the early public acclaim the children of Carrolup received for their drawings and other work. John P Stokes, who had been editor of the Lord Forrest Centenary Booklet, in which five of the Carrolup children had their work included, asked the Department […]
28/01/2020

Carrolup and Florence Rutter, Part 1

One of the fascinating elements of the Carrolup Story is that the Aboriginal child artists had an ‘ambassador’ for their work, a 71-year old Englishwoman, Mrs Florence Rutter. Mrs Rutter was given permission by the Western Australian government to exhibit and sell the children’s art, first around Australia […]
22/08/2019

Walking Alongside As Equals

In my last Healing blog Do Things With Us, Not To Us: Chris Sarra, I posted the words of one of the country’s leading educators talking about the interaction between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Here are three key paragraphs: ‘I can assure you that we as Aboriginal people […]
30/07/2019

1948 Carrolup School Football Team… and Art Display

Last year, I posted a blog about the ‘never ever beaten’ [1] Carrolup School Football team, describing their trip to Perth in September 1949 where they twice beat Thomas Street School at Subiaco. Here is what we know about the Carrolup School football team from before 1949: There […]
16/07/2019

Child Artists of Carrolup: Reflections

Mary Durack Miller, in association with Florence Rutter, wrote a book about the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup entitled, Child Artists of the Australian Bush, which was published in June 1952. Florence Rutter met the child artists through her two visits to Carrolup in 1949 and 1950 and exhibited their artworks […]
04/06/2019

Silencing the Doubters

In June 1948, three of the Carrolup boys caused a sensation in the south coast town of Albany. Here is what happened, as described in our forthcoming book The Aboriginal Child Artists of Carrolup. “Education Inspector Charles ‘Sammy’ Crabbe organises a Convention of Departmental Teachers in Albany in […]
29/05/2019

Art Continues After Closure of Marribank

The Baptist Union took over Carrolup in 1952 after its closure, renaming it Marribank Baptist Mission to avoid the negative connotations of the former Native Settlement. It was renamed Marribank Family Centre in 1980, and was run throughout the Baptist period as a residential home for Aboriginal children […]
11/05/2019

Workshop Presentation Sparks Painting Gift

When I commenced the Carrolup Project back in 1985, one of its purposes was to flush out surviving drawings and paintings by the child artists of Carrolup. Media coverage in the Great Southern Herald, the Katanning newspaper, assisted in this task. When the Noongar trainees Tina Hansen and […]
07/05/2019

Carrolup Art Reaches Europe

Just a reminder that you can find links to a summary of the Carrolup Story in 12 parts here. These summaries start with the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal people and end with the ‘missing’ Mrs Rutter collection of Carrolup art being permanently returned to Noongar Boodja (Country) […]
30/04/2019

Noelene White’s Memories: The Art

Noelene White, daughter of Carrolup teacher Noel White, has worked closely with us on our project. In fact, John and Noelene have known each other for nearly 35 years. In an earlier blog, we included a section from the chapter Noelene White’s Memories in our forthcoming book which focused on […]
10/04/2019

The Dormitory Frieze

One of the most remarkable artefacts surviving at Carrolup/Marribank today is one element of a frieze that encircled one of the bedrooms in the westernmost of the two children’s dormitories—the left one viewed from the front of the buildings. According to Carrolup artist Parnell Dempster, the frieze comprised […]
26/02/2019

Mrs Florence Rutter Visits Carrolup

One of the fascinating elements of the Carrolup Story is that the Aboriginal child artists had an ‘ambassador’ for their work, a 71-year old Englishwoman, Mrs Florence Rutter. Mrs Rutter was given permission by the Western Australian government to exhibit and sell the children’s art, first around Australia […]
12/02/2019

Early Public Acclaim

How did the drawings of the Aboriginal children of Carrolup first become known to the general public? Here is a summary of some of the initial ‘successes’ of the children, which you can follow in more detail by reading the newspaper article to which we have linked. You […]
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