17/10/2019
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, […]
09/10/2019
![Dancing figures by Reynold Hart, pastel on paper, 29 x 38cm, 1949. Stan, Melvie and Gael Phillips Collection, Berndt Museum of Anthropology. [WU7316]](https://www.carrolup.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WU23NL2-960x720.jpg)
In an earlier blog, I described how the children of Carrolup were running wild in squalid conditions on the settlement during the first half of the 1940s. This description was provided by one of the artists (Revel Cooper) in a letter he wrote in 1960. Most of the […]
02/10/2019
Last week, I described how John Stanton and I met up with Tony Davis and Annette Davis (not related) and visited Carrolup. We met up at The Kodja Place in Kojonup before proceeding to the settlement. Imagine my surprise when I entered the building to see Noelene White—daughter of […]
26/09/2019
John and I are currently staying with our good friend Tony Davis in Albany. Tony has been writing a book about the Noongar artist Bella Kelly, Carrolup and the interaction between Noongar people and Europeans since colonisation. His research and book writing have been strongly encouraged by numbers […]
24/09/2019
Pat Nunn, who originally came to live in Western Australia from Lesotho, Southern Africa with her husband Courtney, played a crucial role in the re-emergence of the Carrolup Story. She was working as the Social Worker at Marribank Baptist Mission, formerly Carrolup Native Settlement. In fact, she was […]
18/09/2019
Last month, I wrote about receiving communications from Charon and Judy Ryder, daughters of the Carrolup child artist Cliff Ryder. I then described the meeting that John and I had with Charon and her husband John Kalin, along with their four-year old grandson Treyje. Last Saturday, John and I spent a […]
17/09/2019
Too often, adults in many societies tend to view ‘children’ as ‘immature’, naïve’ or ‘child-like’. The Carrolup children’s drawings demonstrate an entirely different side to what it is to be a ‘child’. For not only were they part of the Stolen Generation, taken away from their parents, and […]
10/09/2019
Mrs Florence Rutter, a 71-year old Englishwoman, visited Carrolup twice—in July 1949 and January/February 1950. She returned to England soon after her second visit, having received permission from the West Australian government to exhibit and sell the Carrolup children’s artworks (mainly the boys’ drawings). A Trust Fund had […]
29/08/2019
NB. If you haven’t previously read my previous blog posting about Charon Ryder, please do so before reading the present post. It provides important background. I recently blogged about my initial discussions with Charon Ryder, eldest child of Cliff Ryder, one of the outstanding Carrolup child artists. John […]
27/08/2019
Last month, Charon Ryder emailed me saying that she was the eldest child of Carrolup artist Cliff Ryder and requesting that I get in contact with her. I had previously been contacted by Charon’s sister Judy, who had written a lovely comment which I included in a previous blog. […]
22/08/2019
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 […]
15/08/2019
I’ve been thinking about my good friend Noelene White, daughter of Carrolup school teacher Noel White, today. It’s hard to believe that I’ve known Noelene for over three years now. Where has that time gone? As for John, he has known Noelene for nearly 35 years! Noelene White […]
06/08/2019
![Landscape by Parnell Dempster, pastel on paper, 29 x 37cm, c.1948. Stan, Melvie and Gael Phillips Collection, Berndt Museum of Anthropology. [WU7303]](https://www.carrolup.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WU17NL-960x720.jpg)
Soon after we started our Carrolup project, I interviewed my colleague John Stanton about a variety of elements of the story. In this film clip, John describes how the boys were rather secretive whilst doing their drawings. However, once they had finished a drawing, there was a collegial […]
30/07/2019
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 […]
23/07/2019
In my last blog posting, I talked briefly about how teacher Noel White helped the children of Carrolup overcome their fear and inspired them to create beautiful landscape drawings that gained public acclaim in South West Australia. During 1949 and 1950, 71-year old Englishwoman exhibited the art in […]