David Clark

10/11/2020

NAIDOC Week and Two Birthdays

It’s NAIDOC Week, a celebration of the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC Week is normally in July, but was postponed this year until now, because of Covid. So, it’s time to celebrate! John and I are also celebrating because today is our […]
03/11/2020

Key Steps in Healing: Judy Atkinson

As some of you know, I was inspired to work in the healing trauma field in large part by Judy Atkinson’s wonderful book Trauma Trails: Recreating Song Lines – The Transgenerational Effects of Trauma in Indigenous Australia. I was reminded of Judy’s book when I was interviewed about […]
02/11/2020

Carrolup Talk in ‘History West’ Magazine

My apologies for the long period of time since I last blogged. I’ve been busy working on a book of addiction recovery stories, which focuses on the original story and seven-year updates of people’s lives I originally published on my Recovery Stories website. Last week, I received the […]
13/10/2020

Shocking History Impacts on Health & Wellbeing

As I wandered around York this weekend, on a weekend away, I was constantly reminded of the film project that my good friend Mike Liu and I conducted with Professor Marion Kickett, Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University. Marion, Mike and I spent a day […]
22/09/2020

Mrs Rutter in England, Early 1951

Today, I thought I’d try a novel approach to help me decide what I should write about from our book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe for this blog. I had an online random number generator select a number from 1 to 65 and I had to chose […]
15/09/2020

My Carrolup Talk in Perth

On Friday, 11th September 2020, I gave a talk entitled Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe at the Royal Western Australian Historical Society in Perth. This talk was originally to be given in May, but had to be postponed due to Covid-19. I had been looking forward to […]
14/09/2020

Life-saving Optimism

Here is an by intriguing article by Chigozie Obioma entitled Life-saving optimism: what the west can learn from Africa from the Guardian online in 2018.  ‘Nigeria, like most African nations, has been taught and dictated to since its independence, largely seen by the rest of the world as a receptacle for […]
09/09/2020

Arrival at Carrolup

Noelene White, daughter of teacher Noel White, still remembers today her family’s arrival at Carrolup in 1946. Here is a description based on an interview I had with her which you can find in our book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe.  “Noel, Lily and their three young […]
18/08/2020

Mrs Elliot Visits Noel White

In my last few blogs, I described, using text from our new book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe,  what happened at Carrolup Native Settlement before the arrival of teacher Noel White. In my last blog, I described the time that Mrs Olive Elliot spent at Carrolup School […]
07/08/2020

Mrs Olive Elliot

In my last blog, I referred to a written description by Revel Cooper [1], one of the Carrolup child artists, about life on the native settlement before teacher Noel White’s arrival in May 1946. Revel also writes about teacher Olive Elliot, who arrives after the Carrolup children had […]
03/08/2020

About Healing

Here are some important words about healing in the Social Justice Report 2008, a document by the Australian Human Rights Commission. ‘Indigenous concepts of healing are based on addressing the relationship between the spiritual, emotional and physical in a holistic manner. An essential element of Indigenous healing is recognising the […]
29/07/2020

‘The Very Lowest Standards’

In my last few blogs, I have included sections of our recently launched 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 to the story of […]
15/07/2020

Judy Atkinson’s Fireside Yarns

Some of you will know that Judy Atkinson and her wonderful book Trauma Trails – Recreating Song Lines: The Transgenerational Effects of Trauma in Indigenous Australia inspired me to start working in the healing trauma field. Now, Judy has taken over my Friday mid-afternoons with her Fireside Yarns, organised […]
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 […]
25/06/2020

Facets of Colonisation

‘… The consolidation of colonisation in Western Australia occurred with the establishment of pastoral settlements (sheep and cattle farming) in central coastal regions (e.g. the Gascoyne) from the 1860s, and later in the Kimberley region of the far north from the 1880s. The Fairburn Report of 1882 highlighted […]
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