Mary Durack Miller

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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12/01/2023
Author: David Clark on 12/01/2023
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Mary Durack Miller’s ‘Carrolup Collection’

I find it hard to believe that it is seven years since I first came across Mary Durack Miller’s collection of material at the Battye Library in Perth related to the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup. At the time, Mike Liu and I were involved in a project […]
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14/03/2022
Author: David Clark on 14/03/2022
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Obituary for Mrs Florence Rutter

Mrs Florence Rutter visited Carrolup Native Settlement twice in 1949-50. She then exhibited the children’s art in The Netherlands, England and Scotland, to great public acclaim, between 1950-52. During her time in Western Australia, Florence befriended Mrs Mary Durack-Miller and the two corresponded for some years after she returned […]
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23/06/2020
Some of the Carrolup young artists. Front row: Reynold Hart (Far Left), Parnell Dempster (Middle) and Revel Cooper (Far Right). Back row, 2nd Left: Barry Loo. Do you know who the other boys are?
Author: David Clark on 23/06/2020
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Carrolup Book is Available Today

My book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe, written in association with John Stanton, is available today as a downloadable eBook from Amazon, Apple and Kobo. It’s been six years since I first saw a piece of art from one of the Carrolup artists. And four years since […]
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08/04/2020
Author: David Clark on 08/04/2020
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How My Carrolup Journey Began

‘When filmmaker and close friend Michael (Mike) Liu and I were first shown work of the Carrolup artists Revel Cooper, Parnell Dempster and Reynold Hart by our close Noongar friend Karen Hume in 2014, we were stunned by the beauty of these artworks and beguiled by the stories […]
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05/11/2019
Article by school headmaster John Stokes, The West Australian , 24th February 1951. Noel & Lily White Collection.
Author: David Clark on 05/11/2019
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The Closure of Carrolup School: Outcry

I’d just like to remind you that you can read a 12-part summary of the story of the Carrolup child artists in the Story section of our website, which starts with Colonisation. The Department of Native Affairs in Western Australia closes Carrolup School in December 1950 with little, if any, […]
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27/08/2019
Author: David Clark on 27/08/2019
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Carrolup Artist and Father: Cliff Ryder

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. […]
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22/08/2019
Mr and Mrs White with some of the Carrolup boys and the Peet family. Back row: Barry Loo, Mr. Peet, Noel White, Adrian Allen and Mrs. Peet. Middle row: Lily White and the three Peet girls. Front row: Parnell Dempster, unidentified boy and Reynold Hart. Photograph taken in 1949. Noel & Lily White Collection.
Author: David Clark on 22/08/2019
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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 […]
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23/07/2019
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 23/07/2019
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Thinking About the Carrolup Boys: Noel White

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 […]
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16/07/2019
Some of the Carrolup young artists. Front row: Reynold Hart (Far Left), Parnell Dempster (Middle) and Revel Cooper (Far Right). Back row, 2nd Left: Barry Loo. Do you know who the other boys are?
Author: David Clark on 16/07/2019
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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.’ […]
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09/11/2018
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
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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, […]
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