Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website, and its links, contain images and voices of people who have passed away.

Traumatised Aboriginal children living in the squalor of a 1940s government native settlement in Western Australia are inspired by their white schoolteacher to create beautiful landscape drawings that gain international acclaim, challenge a government’s racist policies, and inspire four generations of Noongar artists.

 

About the project
Testimonials

Available now as a downloadable eBook

Connection uses ‘faces’ and ‘voices’ of the past to take you into a world where Aboriginal children rise above great adversity to create beautiful landscape drawings that are acclaimed on both sides of the world. Connection is a story of trauma, and the overcoming of trauma. A story that resonates in today’s world of the oppressed and their oppressors. A story of Hope, Heart and Healing.

'… the book is nothing short of incredible.'
Carlie Atkinson, CEO, We Al-li Programs

More about the book
Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe

Latest Blogs

11/11/2024
Author: David Clark on 11/11/2024
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The Carrolup Story Website: Our 6th Birthday

On Saturday, my colleagues John Stanton, Ash Whitney and I celebrated the 6th Anniversary of the launch of this website, which highlights the amazing story of the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup. We launched the website on 9 November 2018, the birthday of Noelene White, the daughter of […]
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11/09/2024
Author: David Clark on 11/09/2024
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My Carrolup Talk, Four Years Ago Today

Four years ago today, I gave the following talk about the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup at the Royal Western Australian Historical Society. Here is what I posted on 15th September that year. ….. ‘On Friday, 11th September 2020, I gave a talk entitled Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate […]
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03/09/2024
Author: John Stanton on 03/09/2024
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Historic Book Returned to The Kodja Place, Kojonup

On 30 August 2024, I had the privilege of repatriating a copy of the book Child Artists of the Australian Bush, written by Mary Durack Miller and Florence Rutter and published in 1952, about the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup. My friend and colleague at the South Australian Museum, […]
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‘There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children.’

Nelson Mandela

Children at Carrolup, early 1940s

Slideshow of photos relating to the story of the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup. The background song 'Carrolup' was written by Dilip Parekh, a Fremantle-based musician, in 2007 and performed by Dilip 'n the Davs. You can hear the full song here.

Journal of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society

David gave a talk about the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup at the Royal Western Australian Historical Society on 11 September 2020. He also wrote an article for Society’s Annual Journal Early Days. You can download a pdf copy of the article.

‘Healing is not just about recovering what we have lost or repairing what has been broken. It is about embracing our life force to create a new and vibrant fabric that keeps us grounded and connected, wraps us in warmth and love and gives us the joy of seeing what we have created.’

Helen Milroy

The children of Carrolup in their schoolroom with the White family and visitors from Katanning. Photographer: Noelene White, late 1948 or early 1949. Noel & Lily White Collection.

Healing

04/09/2024
Author: David Clark on 04/09/2024
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Stop Pathologising Young People!

I have been concerned for some time about how many people and institutions have been pathologising young people. I share this concern with my good friend Lisa Martello-Hart from Kojonup, who is working with young people with impressive results. I’ve been thinking for a good while, and talking with […]
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13/03/2023
Author: David Clark on 13/03/2023
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Helping People Overcome Emotional Distress: The Power Threat Meaning Framework

After nearly twenty years working as a neuroscientist, I closed down my university research laboratory at the beginning of the millennium. I no longer believe in the biomedical approach to helping people overcome addiction and mental health problems. I believe that long-term use of psychiatric drugs causes more […]
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07/03/2023
Author: David Clark on 07/03/2023
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‘The Connected Community: Discovering the Health, Wealth, and Power of Neighborhoods’ by Cormac Russell and John McKnight

The most common approach to ‘helping’ communities has involved focusing on the community’s needs, deficiencies, and problems. This depersonalising approach disempowers and often causes other forms of harm to community citizens. The alternative path to community development, Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), focuses on a community’s assets, capacities, and abilities. Significant community […]
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Healing Video Gallery

‘Land is a story place. Land holds the stories of human survival across the generations. Land shapes people, just as people shape their countries.’

Judy Atkinson

Leaning tree by Milton Jackson, pastel on paper, 41 x 33cm, c.1949. Noel & Lily White Collection, Berndt Museum of Anthropology. [WU7568]

Gallery

A Native Corroboree by Reynold Hart, pastel on paper, 75 x 112cm, 1949. The Herbert Mayer Collection of Carrolup Artwork, John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University.

Art

Photos

Cover of book of schoolwork prepared by the Carrolup boys for school inspector Charlie Cook, 1950. Noel & Lily White Collection.

Memorabilia

Videos

Parnell Dempster with his pastel drawing book. Photographer: Vera Hack, January 1950. Noel & Lily White Collection.

‘Stories help us develop empathy. They allow us to understand another person’s world from their perspective.’

Lewis Mehl-Madrona

Story

09/11/2018
Aboriginal prisoners in neck chains at Wyndham, Northern Western Australia. State Library of Victoria.
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
Categories

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 […]
09/11/2018
Exhibition of Carrolup art at Boans department store, The West Australian , 23rd October 1947. The boys from left to right are Claude Kelly, Barry Loo, Reynold Hart and Parnell Dempster. Noel & Lily White Collection.
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
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Acclaim

In 1947, the children’s drawings attract public attention locally at the Katanning Show, and further afield in Perth. ​Three children (Reynold Hart, Dulcie Penny and Vera Wallam) have their articles accepted in the Lord Forrest Centenary Booklet—in competition with other children from all over the state—whilst Parnell Dempster has a […]
09/11/2018
The 1948 Carrolup School football team with their teacher, Noel White.
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
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Football

Carrolup Native Settlement school’s football team attracts particular attention in 1948, beating local teams playing ‘a particularly unique style of football within the Australian code.’ After one match, pupils of Katanning school are given an impromptu demonstration of the art skills of six members of the Carrolup team. The […]
09/11/2018
Mrs Rutter with Prince Rudy Dinah and a group of Carrolup girls. The girl second from the left is Mildred Jones. Photographer: Noel White, 31st July 1949. Noel & Lily White Collection.
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
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Florence

In July 1949, a 71-year old Englishwoman Mrs Florence Rutter briefly visits Carrolup and purchases five pounds worth of drawings and designs. She exhibits the drawings and designs in eight cities around Australia and New Zealand, and receives many orders for the children’s artworks. The Department of Native Affairs agrees […]
09/11/2018
Parnell Dempster's Down to Drink adorns a wall at the 45th Annual Exhibition of the Pastel Society in London, 1951. Mrs Rutter proudly discusses the drawing with Mr and Mrs Richter. Mary Durack Miller Collection, J. S. Battye Library of West Australian History, 1951.
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
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Europe

Initially, Native Affairs Commissioner Mr S G Middleton writes enthusiastic letters to Mrs Rutter. She organises an exhibition in Appeldoorn, the Netherlands, where the art is acclaimed. People’s perceptions of ‘Stone-Age’ Aboriginal people are changed. However, an open conflict breaks out between the new supervisor at Carrolup, Mr […]
09/11/2018
Article by school headmaster John Stokes, The West Australian , 24th February 1951. Noel & Lily White Collection.
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
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Outcry

Mr Middleton tries to justify the school’s closure in a letter to The West Australian newspaper. He talks about sending the boys to missions and says: ‘… they will at last begin to receive some spiritual education and training which may not yet be too late to stabilise sufficiently their characters to a point where they may […]
09/11/2018
Untitled [Landscape with Fallen Tree] by Parnell Dempster, pastel and graphite on paper, 23 x 29.1cm, 1953. The Herbert Mayer Collection of Carrolup Artwork, John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University.
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
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Shattered

The boys’ dreams of a better future are shattered by the school closure and their later experiences in a white dominated society which considers them ‘inferior’. Revel Cooper says the decision to close the school: ‘… closed the pathway to a better way of life for coloured people.’ […]
09/11/2018
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
Categories

Search

Social Anthropologist John Stanton first learns about the Carrolup children’s art in 1976 when he sees two Revel Cooper landscapes framing Ronald and Catherine Berndt’s study door at the University of Western Australia. He reads Child Artists of the Australian Bush by Mary Durack Miller and Florence Rutter, […]
09/11/2018
Ezzard Flowers, John Stanton and Athol Farmer inspecting the ‘lost’ Carrolup Collection at the Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University, 12th April 2005. Berndt Museum of Anthropology. [WU/P32228]
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
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Discovery

In 2004, John Stanton’s close Australian friend Professor Howard Morphy is invited to visit Colgate University in Upper New York State by the Director of Colgate’s Picker Gallery. The Gallery set aside some Aboriginal artefacts for him to look at. When Howard arrives, the Gallery Curator, Diane Butler, mentions that […]
Hunters by Revel Cooper, pastel on paper, 29 x 38cm, c.1948. Stan, Melvie and Gael Phillips Collection, 1947 – 65, Berndt Museum of Anthropology. [WU7304]

‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’

Margaret Mead

Project

Summary

Importance

Development

About us

The Carrolup Story project brings together kindred spirits who believe strongly in the healing power of Story. The project is based on the core values of authenticity, belonging, connection, courage, creativity, empathy, empowerment, safety and trust.

More about us

David Clark

David Clark is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology who has spent the past twenty years developing initiatives that empower people to improve their social and emotional wellbeing. He developed Sharing Culture, an online educational resource to help Indigenous peoples heal from historical trauma and its consequences (e.g. addiction, mental health problems).

John Stanton

John Stanton, former Director of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia (UWA), commenced the Carrolup Project in 1985 at the request of the Marribank Community, present-day Carrolup. He has worked in the cultural heritage sector with Aboriginal communities throughout the state and beyond since 1971, and is an Adjunct Professor at UWA.

Ash Whitney

Ash Whitney of Wired up Wales is an experienced web developer based in Wales (UK) specialising in WordPress development. Ash has 19 years web development experience and a client base that includes customers from small business, government, publishing, charity, community organisation, academic and health sectors.

Berndt Museum

The Berndt Museum of Anthropology at The University of Western Australia (UWA) holds one of the most significant collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural material in the world, manifesting in art, objects, archives, manuscripts, film and sound and photographic collections.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any enquiries