FORGOTTEN ORIGINS
The First Everything
By Steven & Evan Strong ( With their special thanks to : Samarah Wood [ for Photos ], Erik Bower and Richard Patterson [ Research ])
Image Created by Richard Patterson
While teaching , and on some occasions selecting and detailing content that became part of the senior Aboriginal Studies course , it had been my assumption ( which was never challenged ) that before World War 2 the Original people , culture and their on-going plight was marginalised and patronisingly dismissed throughout the country as the last gasps of a primitive civilisation in its ‘ death throes .’ My students , and any that studied this course were given many examples of the appalling conditions endured , endemic racism and attempts to extinguish all traces of Original Lore and ceremony taking place all over the country in the 1930 ’ s and earlier . They were taught that there was no slackening of the pace as all Original people were not even regarded as second class citizens and during any national census were tallied as ‘ Flora and Fauna .’ I now wish to qualify and correct that mistaken allegation . I , no we , and that goes all the way up to the top level of the N . S . W . Department of Education and Board of Studies , were wrong and apologise for the rash and poorly researched proclamation , and will now tidy up some loose ends through reference to a 1937 article ( 23rd October , 1937 ) published in Adelaide newspaper “ The Mail .”
The article was written primarily as an overview of the major points raised in a book , “ Scribes of the Stone Age , which has been accepted for publication in England .”( 1 ) Written by Frederic Slater , a