Indigenous Law Resources Reconciliation and Social Justice Library

MALCOLM CHARLES SMITH - THE FAMILY BACKGROUND

Malcolm's parents were from the days when Aboriginal communities still lived on large stations. Joe Smith was born about 1913 on Kajuligar Station, north east of Ivanhoe and later the site of the Carowra Tank mission, and his wife Gladys about five years later on Nulla Station west of Wentworth.

Joe had no schooling and started working at the age of 11 or 12 as a rouseabout in a shearing shed and also worked as a boundary rider. He worked at various stations between Menindee and Ivanhoe and met his future wife as her family were leaving Menindee Mission to move to Condobolin. They were married at the Presbyterian Church at Ivanhoe when he was 25 and she was 19. Their eldest child was born in 1940 at Menindee Mission and the youngest child was born at Wentworth in 1960. The children of the marriage of which records are held by the Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages were Joseph Smith (D.O.B. 16/6/40), Norma (25/7/41), Peggy (12/2/43), Mary Ann (15/2/45), Hazel (31/12/46), Albury (10/12/48), Rhonda (16/6/50), Robert (26/2/52), Malcolm (1/12/53) John (15/8/55), David (19/2/57), Maurie (12/8/59) and Neville (1960). Two or three of the births were of twins, but in each case one twin was taken away or died at birth.

During the intervening years the family moved around between Menindee, Ivanhoe and Wentworth, Joe doing various types of agricultural work including mustering stock, woodcutting at a saw mill and fruit and vegetable picking, and supplementing supplies by hunting game, trapping and selling rabbits, and getting gifts of meat and bread from stations. The local Shire Councils would not let them make permanent camps, and they did not want to be forced to settle on a mission. As Joe saw it The people in them had no work and they would not leave these places. That is what ruined all these people'. Joe and Gladys had horse drawn vehicles and camped under a tarpaulin on the river banks, burning cow manure to keep the mosquitoes away. Gladys bore, reared and lovingly cared for this large family under these conditions despite the fact that she had lost one hand in a shooting accident when a girl.

Joe described their roving, fugitive life:-

'There were times when the police used to come and make us shift camp. This was when the Shires did not want us around We used to dodge welfare people because all Aboriginal people knew they used to take the children away. We were always moving. It took about four days to get to Menindee from Dareton with a horse and cart. We went up the river, living on fish, emu, kangaroo and bush food. That way we kept out of the way and I found work on stations'.

The dread of 'the welfare', as people who would take away children, quite often never to be heard of again, was a constant fear of Aboriginal families in many pans of Australia at this time, and continues to colour Aboriginal attitudes to welfare authorities today. The brutal cruelty of what was done in the name of protection and welfare by a smug, self-righteous and racist community is only now coming to be generally recognised as Aboriginals write their own agonising stories.

Gradually the family came to spend more and more time at Dareton where schooling was available, Joe could obtain work on the irrigation blocks, and a number of relatives, particularly the Mitchells, had settled. The need for a pool of casual labour on the fruit blocks no doubt made the white community more tolerant of Aboriginal camps. When I travelled around the Dareton area with members of the family, many places were pointed out where they had camped at various times during Malcolm's childhood. Eventually they settled on the Old Dareton Mission, as it was called. This was a reserve without a resident manager. Families simply camped on the area and, as in the case of Joe Smith, sometimes built permanent dwellings from makeshift, discarded material. At the time, the Smith's dwelling, with its several rooms, was felt by its occupants to be a commodious and comfortable place in which a happy family life could be conducted, although from the point of view of the white community, and from the point of view of many Aboriginals today who have moved into much superior housing, it would be viewed as a poverty-stricken shack without services of any kind. There are still a number of Aboriginals living in similar homes today, which members of the family showed me in the Dareton area. The only fuel was wood. Light was from kerosene lamps and water often had to be carried by hand for long distances after being obtained from the block of a well disposed owner. Despite this Gladys maintained a clean home and bathed the children regularly, and with only one hand could nevertheless sew and mend and cook and iron. The family maintained a garden and grew vegetables.

Despite the burdens of providing for and caring for 13 children, the family managed to escape the attentions of the Aborigines Welfare Board as long as Mrs Smith was alive. This must be seen as very strong confirmation of the family's memory of their father as a hard working man and their mother as an extraordinarily capable, courageous and caring woman.

Malcolm's childhood at Dareton was a happy and carefree one in which he spent a lot of his time with his brothers and sisters, swimming in irrigation channels, and hunting for small game to supplement the family diet. He and his brother Robert were expert in killing birds with shang-hais, while one or more of the sisters would come along with a billy and some flour so that the bird could be immediately cooked and eaten.

Although Malcolm was enrolled in Dareton school it is doubtful that he was ever a regular attender. It was difficult for the children to settle in to a routine life after the roving life in the bush for which they hankered. The curriculum and atmosphere at the predominantly white school probably had little relevance to Malcolm coming from a community of itinerant bush-labourers with no expectations of advancement. His brother recalls that there was sufficient racial prejudice amongst the students to make attendance an unpleasant experience.

Although Malcolm was taken away at the age of eleven, his early years moulded him greatly. Thereafter he had only brief visits back to the country, but he retained bush skills, including the ability to hunt and live off the land, and a strong identification as an Aboriginal. Years later a Parole Officer was to see him as being 'a step removed from a tribal aborigine', and he was a leader of Aboriginal prisoners in gaol. Aboriginal themes were present in his painting.