This thesis is a history of schooling for Indigenous children in Western Australia between the commencement of the first Aboriginal school in Perth in 1840 and 1978. The thesis represents the view that, for most of this period, and regardless of policy, education for Indigenous children was directed towards changing their beliefs and behaviours from being distinctly Aboriginal to recognizably European. Four major policies for Aborigines provide the framework for the thesis, these being amalgamation (1840-1852), protection (1886-1951), assimilation (1951-1972) and self-determination (1973- ). The amalgamation of the Indigenous popuIation with the small colonial society in Western Australia was a short-lived policy adopted by the British Colonial Office. Protection, a policy formalised by Western Australian legislation in 1886, 1905 and 1936, dominated Aboriginal affairs for the first half of the 2ofh century. Under this policy the Indigenous population was regarded as two distinct groups - a diminishing traditional population to be segregated and protected and an increasing part-Aboriginal population that was to be trained and made 'useful'. In 1951 Western Australia accepted a policy of assimilation, coordinated by the Commonwealth government, which anticipated that all people of Aboriginal descent would eventually be assimilated into the mainstream Australian society. This policy was replaced in 1973 by one of Aboriginal community self-determination, an initiative of the Commonwealth government and adopted throughout Australia. The attempts at directed cultural change were evident in the 'Native' schools that opened in Perth, Fremantle and Guildford in the 1840s where it was assumed that the separation of children from their families and a Christian education would achieve the transition from a 'savage to civilized' state. For another century the education of Indigenous children on missions and in government settlements was founded upon similar assumptions. The thesis acknowledges that the principal change agents, such as the Chief Protectors of Aborigines, mission administrators and the teachers in direct contact with the children, seriously underestimated both the enduring nature of Indigenous culture and the prejudice in Australian society. Between 1912 and 1941 a few government schools in the southern districts of Western Australia refused to admit Aboriginal children. The exclusion of these children is examined against a background of impoverished living conditions, restrictive legislation and mounting public pressure on the State and Commonwealth governments for a change in policy. The change did not begin to occur until 1951 when the Commonwealth and States agreed to a policy of assimilation. In Western Australia this policy extended education to all Aboriginal children. The thesis explores the provision of government teachers to Aboriginal schools in remote areas of Western Australia between 1951 and 1978. The final chapter examines Indigenous perceptions of independent community schools within the fust five years of the policy of self-determination and contrasts the objectives and management of two schools, Strelley in the Pilbara and Oombulguni in the Kimberley.

This thesis presents the results of historical archaeological research at the Old Farm on Strawberry Hill in Albany, Western Australia. The site is an important colonial farm in Western Australia’s history; the location for the first farm in Western Australia (1827) and linked to many important individuals in the state’s colonial past. The site is owned and managed by the National Trust of Australia (W.A.) and is registered on both the West Australian, Heritage Council Register of Historical Places and the Australian Heritage Commission’s National Estate. Past historical and cultural biases had created an incomplete interpretation of this site that did not represent all social groups, including indentured servants, convict and Aboriginal labourers and women. The research has provided a holistic site interpretation that identified all social groups living and working on this site in the 1800s by analysing historical documents and archaeological excavated materials. The historical documentary record included both personal and official correspondence, diaries and drawings, as well as two valuable farm log books that documented the day to day events on the farm in the early to mid 1800s. The archaeological excavation was restricted to small area excavations in habitation areas still present on the site or in areas identified from 19th century surveyor maps. Both of these data sources were analysed to identify social and economic relationships, such as gender, status, class and ethnicity so that a comparison could be made between historical and archaeological data and a complementary interpretation created. The research was divided into three main periods of site occupation, firstly by convict gardeners during the government farm period from 1827 to 1832. The Spencer family period from 1833 to 1889, which is further defined by two phases, the six years from their arrival until Richard Spencer’s death in 1839 and the dispersal of the family and the property decline until it was sold in 1889. The third period of occupation by the Bird family was not discussed due to the discontinuation of a farming subsistence that distinguished it from a rural rather than an urban property. This study provides the current heritage managers with an updated interpretation of the site’s past and changing social and economic relationships on site and with the early town of Albany. It is hoped that this interpretation will be used to improve the site’s current representation and becomes the basis for a heritage conservation plan which not only recognises the importance of existing site structures, but also sub surface remains. This thesis also identifies a number of avenues for future research that will further enhance the site’s interpretation.