aboriginal

The children at the mission learned to read and write in Guugu Yimidhirr (which had been transcribed earlier by the missionaries), and the girls helped in the missionaries’ houses and in the garden. It was routine for the girls to be confined to a dormitory each night and to have limited access to their families. Initially, the missionary Wilhelm Poland supervised them closely at Elim while the senior missionary, Georg Heinrich Schwarz, attempted to establish a second station at Hope Valley. This arrangement was altered in 1890 after the older girls, including Mulun, secretly invited Guugu Yimidhirr boys into their dormitory at night. Thereafter the older girls were periodically sent to Hope Valley to stay with Schwarz. Source: ia.anu.edu.au/biography/mulun-magdalena-29712

Education at the Mission The mission was declared an Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act in 1865 English was the only language of instruction and all links with the children's culture were deliberately broken Children slept and learned on concrete floors and often harsh discipline Education was only 2 hours a day but often came 2nd to work The education levels were low They didn't really aim for much to come out of the education except for the Aboriginals learning white ways Sometimes if there were brighter Aboriginals they would teach them more so that they could become teachers and end up teaching at the mission when they were older Education standards were purposely low so that more attention was on obedience, discipline, work, and routine Children would go to school to be taught how to fit in with the rest of society For adults, there was limited education- often just teaching them how to read and write so that they could become servants Source: yarrabahlife.weebly.com/yarrabah-mission.html

Music and dance are important to Aboriginal culture. They are used as part of everyday life and to mark special occasions. Songlines tell stories of the Creation and Dreamtime as Aboriginals made their journeys across the desert, while other sacred music is used in ceremonies. By singing the songs in the appropriate order indigenous Australians could navigate vast distances in the hostile desert environment. Source: developmenteducation.ie/feature/a-focus-on-aboriginal-aus...