Albert Namatjira is happy with what whitefella gave not what the blackfella takes Part 3 of 3

It was not what the whitefella gave Albert Namatjira, more exactly, it was what the blackfella took from him that made him lose his will to paint and live in this world anymore.

They took his kindness, they took his money, they smashed his dignity, and they trashed his home. They fought with him and made him cry on the inside. They took his freedom.

As the ‘fruitful native hunter’ on his reappearance at camp he had to share everything he had procured not only with his family, but with all those who had traditional claims upon his labours as dictated by tribal law. Co-operation and food sharing of this command were seen to be essentially required for the survival of the mob. A throwback to life lived in Australia 114 years before he was born.

After the murder that he was morally blamed for he saw clearly the devastation the fruitful hunter legacy caused him. He saw the waste of everything he had given his blackfella kin as the fruitful hunter. He had to serve time in prison for being the fruitful hunter. All the years of giving, for what? Hit him like a ton of bricks and he emotionally collapsed. His heart gave in.

Going back to settlement times local natives living in South Australia who expressed a desire to farm were given sections of land and in the pastoral districts. Local native rights on the land were protected by provisions in pastoral leases. After 50 years of no legislative provision of local native people in South Australia the Northern Territory Aboriginals Act 1910 was introduced and created the Northern Territory Aboriginals Department. A department responsible for the control and welfare of the ’Aboriginal Race’ people in the Northern Territory.  

Under this Act, the Chief Protector became the legal guardian of every ‘Aboriginal Race’ child. This initial legislation reflected the heavily paternalistic ‘protection’ attitudes evident in the Queensland and Western Australian standards.

‘half-caste’ was defined as the offspring `of an ‘Aboriginal Race’ mother and other than an ‘Aboriginal Race’ father except those people deemed to be ‘aboriginal by race’.

‘Aboriginal by race’ was defined as an ‘aboriginal by race’ native of Australia or any of the islands adjacent or belonging thereto, or a half-caste who is living with an ‘aboriginal by race’ as wife, husband or child, or a half-caste who, otherwise than as a wife, husband, or child, habitually lives or associates with ‘aboriginals by race’ or a half-caste whose age does not exceed 16 years’.

Then came the Northern Territory Aboriginals Ordinance Act 1918 merging and superseding related Commonwealth and state laws. The Chief Protector kept control over many parts of ‘Aboriginal by race’ lives and continued to be the legal guardian of every ‘Aboriginal Race’ child.  

The Governor-General signed Aboriginals Ordinance No. 9 of 1918 (Commonwealth) document on 12 June 1918. This document is a comprehensive Ordinance, it replaced South Australia’s 1910 Northern Territory Aboriginals Act, but retained the basic provisions. Amended in 1924, 1927, 1939 and 1953, the Ordinance remained in force until replaced by the Welfare Ordinance 1953 (Northern Territory) which came into effect in 1957.

To uplift people with Australian native genealogy in 1939 policy was changed to move from a protection view to assimilation however there was no real ingredient for self-determination just a choice to live as a blackfella or a whitefella. Assimilation meant in practical terms that in the course of time it was expected that all those persons of Aboriginal Race blood or mixed blood would live like the civilized whitefella Australians did. The government intention was honourable. Albert Namatjira publicly stated he thought the assimilation of the local native into whitefella society was a good thing for his kinsmen.

Purposeful elimination of the Australian native genealogy is a modern-day illusion of convenience spouted to create racial divide. Inter race copulation is as old as human being reproduction. A natural biological process.

The 1939 Ordinance was the first Commonwealth law for the governance of ‘Indigenous’ people and its long-lasting effects make it a founding document for the Northern Territory.

The Northern Territory Welfare Ordinance Act 1953 (for the Care and Assistance of Certain People) repealed the 1918 Aboriginals Ordinance and its later amendments. The Welfare Ordinance Act 1953 created the position of Director of Welfare and made the Director the legal guardian of all ‘wards’ – the document represented a radical innovation since it never once referred to ‘Aborigines’ or any other racial category. A register of wards was kept by the Director.  

The term ‘ward’ was cleverly crafted to make it clear that the word only involved ‘full blood’ ‘Aboriginal Race’ people. A person was declared a ward if the person stood in need of special care or assistance by reason of: ‘his manner of living’, ‘his inability, without assistance, to adequately to manage his own affairs’, ‘his standard of social habit and behaviour’, and ‘his personal associations’. No person entitled to vote could be deemed a ward.

The Director of Welfare was charged with responsibility:

• to promote wards’ social, economic, and political advancement for the purpose of assisting them and their descendants to take their place as members of the community of the Commonwealth
• to provide education and vocational training, to obtain suitable employment for the wards’ in industrial and other enterprises
• to promote their physical well-being, to inculcate proper habits of hygiene and sanitation and to improve their standards of nutrition and housing
• to detect, prevent and cure disease and for that purpose to establish and maintain a liaison with the Commonwealth Department of Health
• to provide such relief and assistance as is necessary or appropriate.
• to exercise a general supervision and care over matters affecting their welfare.

The Ordinance gave the Director of Welfare extensive control over the lives of people with ‘Aboriginal Race’ genealogy, residing in the Northern Territory. The Director was obliged to keep a Register of all those declared to be ‘wards’ so to manage the property of ‘wards’ and give his consent when ‘wards’ wanted to marry. ‘Wards’’ were not permitted to live with a ‘non-ward’ unless they were related, and a male ‘non-ward’ was not allowed in the company of a female ‘ward’ after sunset.

Perspective – in today’s world express permission of the local bishop is necessary for a person of the catholic faith to marry a Christian from another religious denomination.

The Director was authorised to take a ‘ward’ into custody for placement on a reserve or in an institution, within the Northern Territory or another state, if considered this action was to be in the child’s best interests. He could also authorise police to search for and remove children from their parents.

The Register of wards was no easy task to prepare. As of 30 June 1955, the estimate of the population of aborigines was 13,962. Only about 600 were considered to be truly nomadic and not in contact with Missions or Settlements. Considering the scattered nature of ‘aboriginal race’ groups, their semi-nomadic habits and the difficulties associated with the naming and identification of ‘aborigine by race’. The Register of Wards was recognised as providing the first accurate figures for the museum artefact ‘Aboriginal Race’ population of the Northern Territory.

How was the transition from local native life and tribal structure to integration into the Australian community going to be achieved in a way which was readily acceptable to the Australian natives? The wise ones thought by educating all field staff, including settlement staff in the native and basis of native tradition and tribal structures they would be able to simplify the process of transition and win over support from the required ones to accept to move from native life and tribal structure to integration into the Australian community.

In 2023 we still see and hear the same old arguments being played over and over again on the record.

The 1953 Ordinance in the same manner as previous legislation had given power to the Director of Native Affairs and the Chief Protector. In 1954-55 total expenditure by the government for native welfare, excluding expenditure by the Department of Health, was £413,833. The Commonwealth Government Native Welfare policy in 1955 was “to direct and encourage the re-establishment of the aborigines by race that they will eventually be assimilated as an integral part of the Australian community and will not be merely a group who are in contact with that community, by not accepted by it on a basis of social and economic equality.”

At that time, it was assumed that ‘aborigines by race’ as well as other citizens in the Northern Territory had full Australian citizenship as a legal right and that this legal right was to be withheld only in cases where an individual needed special care and assistance.

Several amendments occurred until the Act was repealed by the Social Welfare Ordinance 1964.

The Social Welfare Ordinance 1964 handed welfare officers the power to shelve the right of an ‘aboriginal by race’ to enter or remain on a reserve. Under the Ordinance, the Department of Social Welfare constrained entry to reserves and provided help only to people the Director classified ‘socially or economically in need of assistance.’

Without doubt Albert was subjected to ‘bureaucratic paper’ racial discernment and conflict. Until 1957, under state law and personal choice, he was an ‘Aborigine by race’ or ‘ward’ and that meant much in contributing to his ‘Aboriginal Race’ identity during his lifetime. He had to apply for an ‘aborigine by race’ exemption to be released from state law and consideration had to be given by experienced native affairs officers as to whether or not being an ‘aborigine by race’ or ‘ward’ was in Albert’s best interest.

Albert was able to sell his paintings without Norther Territory Welfare Branch approval. Government officials looked after his trust bank account which he was free to draw from at his own pleasure.

As an ‘aborigine by race’ Albert was free to move about anywhere in native reserves, and in his own tribal area but he was legally barred from some ‘aborigine by race’ ‘prohibited areas’. With an exemption from ‘ward’ status he would be barred from entering native reserves and mixing freely with other ‘aborigines by race’ but would be able to enter ‘aborigine by race’ ‘prohibited areas’ and buy alcohol and vote at government elections.

Under federal law he was a British subject just like all the other people born in his era in the country called Australia. ‘Aboriginals by race’ were liable to pay income tax and social services contributions in the same manner as the non-aboriginal by race population. In the Northern Territory at that point in time the attainment of Australian citizenship rights for an ‘aborigine by race’ was denoted by the issue of an exemption certificate with certain prerequisites before exemption from ‘aboriginal race’ laws was granted.

It was understood by authorities that Albert did not want to apply ‘to become a whitefella’ if it meant that he must as a consequence disassociate himself from his tribal dependents and live away from local native reserves and his lifelong friends.

Albert was not refused permission to buy a block of land for a home in Alice Springs. He decided not to when it was pointed out that the land in a few years would be resumed and subdivided. He had previously owned and sold two houses and the erection of another home was discussed. His preference was to live in a tent in a prohibited area with a special concession.

Towards the end of Albert’s life, in 1957, his legal status changed. His name along with his wife’s were not recorded in the Register of Wards releasing them from title of Territory ‘Aborigine by Race’ to title of Commonwealth Australian citizen. This resulted in bizarre consequences leading locals in Alice Springs to believe that someone has pointed the bone at Albert.

Albert and his family had a house at Hermannsburg Mission which was his residence unless he was on walkabout or visiting Alice Springs. He was free to move about where he desired. Albert left the mission of his own wish because he was not prepared to conform to the conventional rules laid down on the mission to govern obedient behaviour of the local natives.

Albert was granted a pastoral lease in 1949 which was cancelled in 1950. All fees paid were refunded because Albert and a Patrol Officer of Native Affairs Branch and a Field Officer of the Lands Branch after inspecting the specified area all agreed it was land unsuitable for grazing purposes and that it would not be possible for anyone to establish a successful pastoral business on the country sandhills of 20 to 30 feet high carrying only spinifex, with some desert oak and desert popular. Albert was not denied the right to run cattle as he could have established his own herd on the Aboriginal Race Reserve as other aboriginals by race had done.

In late 1950 Albert uncovered a copper deposit near Areyonga, but it was found that the more valuable specimens of copper where lying on the surface and the lode from which they had broken away could not be pinpointed. A lease of 40 acres of land was pegged to protect Albert’s interest and he was given instruction on what he needed to do to locate the loade and approval was given for tools and rations for Albert and four ‘aboriginal by race’ assistants to assist him proceed. However no further interest by Albert was shown and the lease was not registered.

While there was nothing in the Northern Territory’s Crown Lands Ordinance to stop an aboriginal by race from holding or purchasing land all such transfers of land had to be approved by the Administrator.

In February 1951, Albert applied for consent to transfer a Miscellaneous lease (granted for business use – poultry farm, not residential purposes) to him. The lease was due to expire on 30 June 1957 with no right of renewal and the parcel of land was set down for subdivision into residential blocks on expiry of the lease. There were legal problems as the land was in a “prohibited area” for aboriginals by race and Albert had no intention of running a poultry farm for which the lease was granted. It is said that Albert at the time did not hold enough cash to enable him to build a house which would conform to building health regulation and the £400 he had would only be sufficient to erect a camp shack. Due to his ‘complete subservience’ to local native tribal sharing law it was anticipated that if approved the property would most certainly have become a gathering place for his relatives or in other words a local native camping area in town.

While Albert was refused transfer of that particular lease, which would have become liable for forfeiture if it was used for residential and not poultry farm purposes, he was not refused permission to build a house.

During Albert’s life due to welfare concerns for both the blackfellas and the whitefellas, it was impossible to be both a British Subject/Australian citizen and an ‘Aboriginal Race’ person under Northern Territory legislation. After one knew what the laws of the day all meant one with pure Australian native genealogy had to choose which conflicted legislated welfare system one should to be a part of.

Today the number of full blood ‘aborigines by race’ is unknown and would be very hard to discover if there were any living in Australia today. So why is our parliament and constitution and population being held to ransom?

If the government repeals a law, it officially ends it, so that it is no longer valid. All Australian legislation with the words First Nations, or indigenous, or Aborigine, or Aboriginal, should be repealed as they are racist and create a financial burden on taxpayers and mental torment to too many Homo sapiens who were born in this country.

All First Nations, and Aboriginal, and Aborigine Corporations, Land Councils and Advisory groups should be disbanded as they are racist organisations serve no purpose in a peaceful and prosperous country that value equality of opportunity.

Native title, and Aboriginal Land Rights state and federal laws should be repealed and therefore extinguished. All Australian would them be equal under the laws of the land.