Views from Western Australia

The Lamb Enters the Dreaming
Nathanael Pepper and the Ruptured World
Robert Kenny
Scribe, June 2007
ISBN: 9781921215162

White Christ Black Cross: The emergence of a black church
Noel Loos
Aboriginal Studies Press, October 2007
ISBN: 9780855755539

In 1990 John Harris’s One Blood was published and it is an important volume because it gave an overview of the missions of all denominations sensitively and impartially.  It pioneered the examination of the history of the effect of Christian missions on Aboriginal life.  Since then the ‘History Wars’ have raged for over a decade; this controversy is about black–white interactions in Australia’s history; part of that debate has been the role of Christian missions and missionaries.

During 2007 three books have been published that examine various missionary approaches in Australia. 

The Grand Experiment is the story of the Benedictines work in New Norcia in the West Australian wheatbelt, this book explores a fascinating story from the mid 19th century.

The Spanish missionary Rosendo Salvado thought that he could prove that Aboriginal people could be educated and ‘civilised’, by taking Aboriginal boys to be schooled in Europe.  Eventually, two boys, aged seven and ten, were sent by sea to enter a monastery in Naples; unfortunately only one survived.  The author tells this story from Australia’s colonial history in a compelling way; including her quest to draw together the various elements of the story.
The Grand Experiment is a good introduction to the mindset of Roman Catholic missionary work in the early days of European contact with Aboriginal people in Western Australia.

The Lamb Enters the Dreaming discusses the work of Moravian missionaries in Victoria in the mid 1800s.  It reveals a great deal about the moral forces at work and Kenny challenges a number of sacred cows in this reconsideration about how Indigenous people and European settler society perceived each other.

Kenny suggests that it is Darwin not Christianity that has most to blame for the mindset of settler colonies in relation to Indigenous people.  He outlines how social Darwinism and scientific racism was the basis of a policy in which governments became bent on the control and assimilation of Aboriginal people.

In contrast, the Moravians believed Aboriginal people were equally capable, alongside anyone, of striding to the highest level of acceptance and culture and faith.  Kenny argues that missionaries were the most compassionate supporters for Indigenous people in early colonial Victoria.

He also suggests how Aboriginal people may have perceived the strange sheep, horses and cattle that entered their land.  This is an intriguing discussion that warrants further consideration for thoughtful readers. 
This volume that has got some very respectable reviews in mainstream and academic press; it warrants attention from anyone interested in Christian missions and their context in 19th century Australia.

White Christ Black Cross examines work of the Australian Board of Missions (ABM) with a particular emphasis on the period from 1850 to 1950.  The author has looked at the history of a number of ABM missions, although most attention is focused on its work in Queensland at Yarrabah. 

The missionary work is framed within the reality of frontier violence, government control, segregation and neglect.  He outlines how Aboriginal people on the missions responded to Christianity as part of their enforced cultural change.   When missionary control diminished, Aboriginal people responded more overtly and autonomously: some seeing Christianity as irrelevant, and others adopting it in culturally pleasing ways.

ABM found itself embroiled in emerging broader social issues and changing government policies, requiring it to rethink its own policies.  The most dramatic example was its support for Ernest Gribble’s exposure of the 1926 Forrest River massacres which the author suggests set off the current ‘history wars’.

The three authors take quite different approaches, however they all give the reader a good understanding of the approach taken by the various missions and the way they were received by Aboriginal people. 

The three authors take quite different approaches, however they all give the reader a good understanding of the approach taken by the various missions and the way they were received by Aboriginal people.