Prisoner in Paradise

By Sally Dudley

Many years ago I was startled by a poster on a wall which said: "White Australia has a black history." That poster jolted me out of my comfortable white view of the world, as I had never been taught to think that way as I grew up in a sheltered white suburbia.

Since then I have realised more and more just how "black" that history has been and what consecutive governments have done to conceal the truth in the name of white Australia.

Prisoner in Paradise is the story of five generations of an Aboriginal family as they have unwittingly and also knowingly struggled against annihilation. Australia has recently been facing an awakening of race relations in respect to Indigenous people and although we are being called upon to soon vote in a referendum to recognise Aboriginal people in the Constitution, many people remain blissfully ignorant of the true facts.

There's an old song about the streets of London which says, "Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London, I'll show you something that will help you change your mind." Please take my hand and come with me on a journey through the streets of our past. I will show you something that will help you change your mind...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sally Dudley
• Release date: Sep 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370002139

Sally Dudley

Sally Dudley and her husband belong to the Baby Boomers generation. My parents met and married after serving in the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) in World War 2. They built a house in Perth W.A. and had four children, of whom I was the third. My turbulent teenage years finally led to me becoming a Christian when I was 18 years old. Sally and her husband Cedric live in Queensland, and while they don't have any children of their own, she is honoured today to be called Aunty, Mum and Nanna by many children.

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Chapter One

The Leaving

The stroke of a pen, a letter written in haste, that’s all it took to change his destiny forever. The letter was penned by Mrs Finn, wife of Doctor Finn in Cairns, at 249 Lake Street, on the 6th of August 1950:

We allowed Cedric at our residence for a few days, but as a permanent arrangement that would be impossible as we have a family of our own, including a daughter the same age as Cedric.

Cedric was the son of Katie D----, who was under the control of the Aboriginal Preservation and Protection Act of 1939 in Queensland, Australia, under the Department of Native Affairs. In 1944 Kate had been removed from Townsville to Palm Island Settlement, by order of the Director of Native Affairs, Brisbane, capital of the state of Queensland.

Kate had been detained in the Townsville Police watch-house on the 26th January 1944, for keeping company with Negroes from the American Military Forces who were stationed in far north Queensland during the Second World War. Undoubtedly, many women had relationships with American military personnel, but they were not arrested or banished to a remote island as punishment. In fact, a number of these women married American servicemen and left for America after the war. The Americans caused a lot of angst amongst Australian soldiers, who accused the Americans of stealing their women away. The Aussies were no match for the revered Americans who were treated as stars by many of the Australian women. The average fraternising between American soldiers and Aussie girls was considered normal and acceptable and was encouraged by dance parties and social gatherings, but this was not the case for Kate. She was Aboriginal.

On arrival at Palm Island, Kate was put under stern control in the girls’ dormitory. Contact between young men and women was strictly forbidden and severely punished. Kate was watched at all times and had to account for all her actions. She was locked in the dormitory at night with the other girls, with a guard patrolling the yard, in case boys dared to visit the dormitory, or any girls escaped.

White people who wanted cheap domestic help had to apply to the Palm Island Superintendent and a contract was drawn up between Palm Island and the employer. All Aborigines under the ‘Act’ could not work without this agreement being entered into between the Native Affairs Department and the employer. Each employer held a pocket money book for their Aboriginal workers and every penny was to be accounted for. The Native Affairs Department held onto the bank accounts of the individual workers, into which their wages were paid. Permission had to be granted by the Department before the worker could spend any of their own money from their own bank account. The reason for wanting the money had to be stated and was only given to the worker if the Superintendent agreed, and often he would reject the request or else only give a portion of what was requested.

Kate’s first contract was with Mr and Mrs Bauer on South Molle Island Tourist Resort, off the coast of Proserpine in the Whitsunday Passage on the Great Barrier Reef. Before she was given this contract, she had to prove to the Palm Island authorities that she was a good girl, the job being enticement for good behaviour, otherwise she would stay on the Island indefinitely, perhaps for the rest of her life. Kate was then a young adult.

It was while Kate was on South Molle Island that she met Cedric’s Father, who had also been contracted to work on the Island. South Molle had been declared a National Park in 1946 and boasted tourist huts with electricity, cruising, swimming, hiking and big game and hand line fishing, amongst other things. The Island had long ago been deprived of its original native inhabitants and had been used as farming land before being declared a National Park for white people to play in and Indigenous coloured people to work as cheap domestic labour.

Kate’s Son, Cedric, was born on Palm Island in February 1948. His Father was of Pacific Islander descent, but the Protection Board on the 31st March 1947, had officially forbidden his marriage to Kate and even Kate’s pregnancy did not change the Protector’s mind about the marriage and Kate was ordered to return to Palm Island. It was reported by the office of the Protector of Aborigines at Proserpine on the night of the 25th July 1947, that Kate had left Proserpine to return to Palm Island and the Railway Requisition issued to her from Townsville, was charged to the Director of Native Affairs, Brisbane. Every town had a Protector who was one of the local Police, and every move was recorded and communicated between departments and Police Stations. Kate’s first son was born on Palm Island, when Kate was 19 years old, but she was still labelled as a young girl by the Department and in spite of the desire of Kate and Cedric’s Father to marry, the Palm Island birth certificate labelled Cedric as illegitimate. This also marked him for the rest of his life. He had a legitimate Father, but the Queensland Government scorned the marriage and left Cedric with no means of identifying who he was or where he belonged.

Kate’s Mother Charlotte lived at the English Street Aboriginal Reserve in Cairns at that time and she had become very ill in 1950, so Kate asked permission to live in Cairns in order to be near her Mother. Permission was granted, but only after an arrangement was made for her to be employed by Mrs Finn as a domestic servant. She had no choice but to be employed, even though she had a child to care for. Employment came first. No job, no leaving Palm Island.

Kate had planned for her son to be cared for by Harry Skeene on the Cairns Aboriginal Reserve where her Mother lived, but was upset when Cedric ended up in the care of two old people by the names of Tiger and Lilly. She also resented the fact that Mrs Finn would not allow her infant son to stay with her at her live-in place of employment.

Mrs Finn’s letter was sent to the Superintendent of Palm Island settlement. The woman was complaining that her house girl, who was sent from Palm Island under agreement, as a live-in domestic house maid, in Cairns, had brought her infant child with her. Kate, the house maid, was anxious to be near her Mother, who had been declared close to death at the Cairns Hospital, and was also anxious to be free of Palm Island with all its rules, domination and strict regulations. If the woman had not complained, Cedric would have stayed with his Mother. Black people were under the domination of whites wherever they went. They had little to no personal choices in life.

The complaint led to an interview with Kate by John Goodfellow, the Protector of Aboriginals in Cairns. Kate was left in turmoil. She wanted her son and her Mother to be near her, but she was given no choice by the department. She had to stay employed or return to the Island. The written report stated that Kate felt her son would be better looked after on Palm Island, but knowing the control the Department held over Aboriginal people, Kate would have felt pressured, if not forced to let her son go, against her will, even though she had (alledgedly) verbally agreed to it.

Cedric was placed under section 22 of the Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act of 1939, which empowered the Director to cause an Aboriginal within any district to be removed from a District to a Reserve, Settlement or Mission Reserve……and to be kept there for such period as the Director may direct. His removal number was 43/50. Letters went back and forth between Palm Island, Townsville and Cairns Protectors to arrange the transfer and soon he was being whisked away by two escorts, Sister J.A.Whelan and native Nurse A.Rosser, under the written authority of Percy John Richards, the then Director of Native Affairs, Brisbane 6th September 1950. He was escorted from Cairns on the mail train that took them to Townsville, some 200miles south, on the railway line that had been built to allow white expansion into the far north of the State, and from there he was taken on the ferry that chopped through the waters of the Coral Sea on the way to Palm Island, about 45kms from the Australian mainland, all under the watchful eyes of the Police. His removal involved the attention of the Inspector of Police in Cairns, The Police Inspector of Cardwell and Townsville, in communication with the Protector of Aboriginals and the removal order in possession of the escort was addressed to ALL OFFICERS AND CONSTABLES OF POLICE, PRISON OFFICERS, AND OTHERS TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. A prisoner indeed! At the grand age of two!

Cedric was now with strangers. He felt the keen difference between the clinical nurse and his nurturing Mother. He was not old enough to remember what was happening, but the pattern of rejection and white domination was already cementing in his young life. He had been left with strangers on the Cairns Reserve because of white rules, and now he was left alone without a Mother on Palm Island. When they disembarked on the beach, he was literally alone in a big strange world, under the control of white people who would make every decision for him virtually for the rest of his life. His Mother had been made a ward of the State and because of this, from his birth, he was also a ward of the State.

It was Friday, 15th September 1950. The palm trees swayed in the balmy spring breeze which blew his fuzzy black curls across his face. He stumbled through the sand, oblivious to the beauty of the island to which he had been returned. Confusion gelled in his mind. Where was the Mother he cried for? He felt very lost and alone. He tightly squeezed the toy penguin he had been given. He had been removed for care and protection. He keenly felt the absence of his Mother, who had nurtured him from birth. The irony of the Act curled its insipid claws around his life. He would never recover from the atrocity of this removal. Never. His Mother resented Mrs Finn for not allowing her son to stay with her. She could have kept him in his play-pen and talked to him and cared for him between her house duties. Consequently, she never settled to the job Mrs Finn wanted her to do. She soon left the employment, but she was also left without her child. Cedric was kept on Palm Island, under the Act.

Cedric was sent to the single woman’s dormitory, where he had previously stayed with his Mother, under her watchful eye. Now he was left with a woman who was not his Mother, who was appointed to look after him. He remembers this dormitory, being alone in a cot in the midst of other cots and other babies and toddlers. He remembers feeling abandoned and alone and confused. He remembers the feeling of not belonging anywhere or to anyone, and it was especially painful when other children hurt themselves and cried, and their Mothers ran to pick them up and protect them, but he felt completely alone, with no idea of whom he was or where he belonged.

Until he was a teenager, he was going to be a dormitory boy. From his earliest memories, he was in a Palm Island dormitory, imprisoned and controlled in a notorious place away from the rest of Australia. He grew up not knowing who his Mother was or who he was. He was kept in custody and deprived of liberty because of the white legal processes of the day. He was black and under the control of white authorities in what seems to be the continuing dark pages of Australian colonial history.

How could this be, in a land that prided itself on egalitarianism? Why was he treated in such a manner, abandoned in a system of emotional, physical and psychological neglect, in the name of protection? Many other children enjoyed social congruity and enrichment within their family contexts, they were white, but he was black. That made the difference, even in 20th century Australia.

He was not counted in the census. He was not recognised as a citizen of Australia. He had no rights. He was less than a nobody.

Chapter Two

Looking Back

There is no doubt that Cedric’s detention as an infant was the direct result of the conflict between black and white people since the annexation of Australia by Britain in 1788. British history itself is marked by centuries of invasions, war-fares and conflicts within its own borders.

Like their Australian indigenous counterparts, the early Britons of time immemorial were tribal hunters, gatherers and fisherman. Evidence of their existence has been discovered as engravings on cave walls, some weaponry similar to that of a boomerang, ancient ceremonial artefacts and stone tombs that still exist today. These original hunter gatherers were forced inland by the early farmers of the Neolithic age who arrived by boat from Europe, forcing the hunters further inland and away from the coast. (1)

From then on, Britain was constantly invaded by foreigners in boats who fought bloody battles with locals, forcing them into obeisance. In 55BC, Gaius Julius Caesar, viewed the British Isles across the sea and greedily sought the conquest of them as part of his task of subjugating the Northern barbarians to the rule and system of Rome. It was thought that the natives (of Briton), though uncouth, had a certain value as slaves for rougher work on the land, in mines and even about the house. (2)

Professor Collingwood has described the Late Bronze Age of Britain, between about 1000BC and 400BC, as a backward country in comparison with the Continent; primitive in its civilisation, stagnant and passive in its life, and receiving most of what it enjoyed through invasion and importation from overseas. (3)

So, in being regarded as barbarians, the Britons were seen as people belonging to a non-literate culture and regarded as uncivilised, uncouth and ignorant,(3), uncouth meaning without manners, unusual, ungraceful and strange in appearance and behaviour. (4)

Romans, Greeks, Hebrews and Egyptians had well developed cultural and linguistic civilisations, but the Britons were regarded as barbarians, worthy only of slavery and domination, even as late as 55BC. This same British nation, which by 1815, had developed into the greatest Empire the world has ever seen, scorned the Aboriginal inhabitants of Australia with the same labels that had been given to the indigenous Britons by the invaders of their own land. Slavery became a way of life for many Britons under the authority of invading hordes of foreigners.

The early Britons also practiced pagan beliefs and were by no means Christian. Experts stumble at trying to explain these ancient beliefs, and the megalithic rocks of Stonehenge are still subject to theory rather than fact, as to how the great stones arrived in their position and why. There were no written records of their beliefs or history.

When Rome attacked and conquered Briton by brute force, and occupied their land during and after the time of Christ, whose Jewish land the Romans had also occupied and controlled, it was a means for Roman Christians to take the Gospel into England. Many Roman citizens were converted across the Roman Empire, defying great persecution, in the early days of the Christian Church, and the Jewish Apostle Paul, who was also a Roman citizen, planted churches across this empire, including a church at Rome, to whom the letter to the Romans is recorded in the Scriptures. Evidence of early Christian beliefs have been discovered from this era in English history.

By the occupation of Rome, England was revolutionised and at the same time the land was plundered of its mineral wealth of copper, tin, lead and iron. The Romans built great structures and cities such as London, as well as modern roads, water systems, legal system, culture and language. Much of the English language today is derived from Latin and Greek root words and the ancient language of Briton was transformed by the invaders.

Those who resisted the invading Romans were brutally punished, but some saw Rome as an asset and not an intrusion. Some British natives were taken as hostages to Rome to be educated and then returned to England with new cultural skills and education, in turn to educate other natives. (5)

The history of England, and indeed all history, demonstrates how tribal the human heart is and how that people will die and kill in the pursuit of tribal glory and domination. To put it in General Sir John Hackett’s own words: Warfare is one of the oldest occupations known to man. It is as ancient and enduring as song or measurement and is likely to persist as long as man remains what he is - contentious, tribal, acquisitive and prone to impose solutions by force. (6)

Over time, Britain became a melting pot of tribes, with original inhabitants of the Island interwoven and married into the culture and beliefs of constant invaders, with those of Celtic(from parts of Europe), Druids (pagan Celtic priests believed to have originated from the Steppes of Russia), Romans, Germans (Saxons who invaded and occupied parts of Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries), Jutes (Germanic people who invaded parts of Britain in the 5th century, French(Gaul), Norman (a mixture of French and Scandanavian people who occupied Normandy in the 10th century and conquered England in 1066) and notorious Belgian Viking invaders of the 8th century, who ruthlessly pillaged, murdered and raped the occupants of the land. Added to this were the vicious wars between Scotland and England and Ireland, plus the constant warring between ambitious monarchs in their fight for supremacy over each other and the throne of England.

The Roman legions withdrew from the province of Britannia in 410AD and the Brits were powerless to defend themselves against invading Saxons, who brought their own pagan gods with them, having a negative effect on the Christian influence that had been established by Rome.

Pagan tribes settled to the southern parts of the island, while western Britain, beyond the Anglo Saxon kingdoms, remained Christian. Late in the 5th century, pagan Germanic tribes had taken control of Kent and other coastal regions.

By the year 600AD, England was divided into various groups of people, namely the Britons, Celts, Saxons, Angles and Jutes, who occupied various geographical parts of the land. The first Archbishop of Canterbury was commissioned to his role in 597AD, long before the English Monarchy and Parliamentary system had been established. Pope Gregory the Great chose Augustine to lead the Gregorian mission to Christianise the King of Kent and his kingdom and rescue them from the native Anglo-Saxon paganism. The King converted to Christianity and allowed the missionaries to preach freely, giving them land to found a monastery outside the city walls. Augustine converted many of the King’s subjects, leading to the baptism of thousands on Christmas day 597AD.

Roman Bishops were established at London and Rochester in 604AD and a school was founded to train Anglo-Saxon priests and missionaries. Augustine was rejected by the native Celtic Bishops.

By the 8th,9th and 10th centuries, Scandanavian Vikings had rallied with great long boats and merciless brute force, attacking other parts of Europe. England felt the fullest fury of their assaults and by the late 9th century, early raiders gave way to well-organised Danish fleets and armies bent on conquest and colonisation. (7)

The Anglo Saxons held on to their kingdom, but the Vikings overtook the north eastern third of England, where they divided the land among themselves and engaged in ploughing and making a living for themselves. (8)

The Vikings viciously pillaged and desecrated churches as well as raping, torturing and murdering the local inhabitants. Out of this heathen attack upon Europe, a counter attack was launched against the Vikings by the Emperor of the Franks, Louis the Pious in 831AD, with the support of the Pope, whereby waves of missionaries were sent to the north, with Hamburg as their base, to the barbarous nations of the Danes, the Swedes and Slavs. Many of these missionaries were slaughtered. One such martyr was Wolfred, an Englishman, who entered Sweden and boldly preached against the god Thor, taking an axe to the idol of Thor, while preaching the Word of God, breaking the idol to pieces and at the same time was martyred immediately with a thousand wounds. (9)

By the 10th century many of the Vikings had become Christians and through them, many others turned to Christianity. Many of them were also converted by their contacts with Christians within the lands that they raided. Olaf, a mighty Viking, became a Christian in 995AD, in England and thereafter he abided paganism nowhere and images of the northern gods and sanctuaries fell before his righteous wrath. (10)

Other Vikings who became Christians found it hard to vilify their former gods and thus halted between the Christian faith and their former gods.

Norway’s Olaf Haraldsson(Olaf the Stout) led the Vikings down the River Thames about 1010AD, attached ropes to and pulled down London Bridge, bringing with it a contingent of enemy armed hosts and large stones, into the river, prompting the song London Bridge is Falling Down, well known amongst children of many generations, even to the 20th century.

In 1013 Olaf the Stout was converted to Christianity and in 1016 he became the King of Norway and aggressively evangelised his countrymen with unflagging zeal. According to one observer, he routed out the magicians from the land(of which) the Norwegian land in particular was full of these monsters. (10)

King Olaf was so effective in his Christian zeal, that by the time Harrald Bluetooth’s son, Svein Forkbeard, became King of Denmark, he was a Christian Monarch ruling a largely Christian land.

And when Svein’s son Knut forged England into a North Sea Empire, Christians constituted the majority of his subjects.

The early 11th century saw the Cross of Christ supplanting the hammer of Thor throughout the developing kingdoms of the North. (11)

Edward the Elder, Son of Alfred the Great is recognised as the second king of the Anglo Saxons. He captured the Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes in 917AD, but the Vikings still controlled Northumbria and refused to use Edward’s coinage. This however was the beginning of the Royal lineage in Britain, with many a fierce battle to dismantle or retain the Crown. Alfred and Edward started the concept of a single ruler unifying different tribes in England. (12)

Fierce conflicts for the Crown emerged during the Middle Ages, resulting in the Hundred Year War and ending with the Tudor Dynasty ruling as Monarchs.

The Norman influence in England was strengthened by Edward the Confessor, who was crowned in 1042AD. He had been exiled in Normandy and therefore also brought with him Norman courtiers, soldiers, clerics to positions of power, particularly in the church.

The Norman conquest of England took place in the 11th century with the invasion and occupation of England by an army of Norman, Breton and French soldiers led by Duke William 2nd of Normanby, later known as William the Conqueror. In 1066 the Battle of Fulford (an invasion of northern England by a Norwegian King) and the Battle of Stamford took place between two contenders for the throne after the death of Edward the Confessor. The battle of Stamford was so severe that only 24 ships of the 300 ships that invaded, were required to carry away the Norwegian survivors. On 14/10/1066, William the Norman conquered the throne in the Battle of Hastings, but had to quell many rebellions after that to maintain his sovereignty, leading many of the English elite to flee into exile.

King William brought yet more changes to the court and government and introduced Norman French as the language of the elite, changed the composition of the upper classes, abolished slavery in England, but reduced the lower classes of society to work as serfs, which was virtual slavery, where the serf, a mere peasant, was required to render service to his or her lord and remain attached to that property throughout their life-time. Once a pauper, always a pauper. Privilege was a rite of passage by birth only.

The upper classes under King William maintained their position in society, buoyed and fortified by the building of foreboding castles across the landscape. So, while the upper classes fought and sought to maintain their sovereignty, the lower classes remained as the continuing thread that ran throughout British history, trampled by ruling classes, kept in fear by the church of the dark ages and struggling to merely survive in the land to which they were born. Many were killed in plagues and by diseases that they were unable to resist or from which they were unable to escape.

The Black Death raged across London in 1348, reportedly killing half the population of London. In 1665, the pestilence of the Great Plague hit England, killing about 7,000 people per week and this was soon followed by the Great Fire of London, which ravaged through the town of shanty dwellings. (13)

At this time also, England was at war with France and Holland, depleting their financial reserves greatly.

During the Reformation, numbers of peasant revolts occurred against the overbearing landlords of the system. One revolt occurred in the Midlands in 1549AD which resulted in 3,500 peasant rebels being killed and the instigating culprit was hanged at Norwich Castle. (14)

In the 14th century, John Wycliffe stood against the strong church hierarchy in England, which was still dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. He spoke out about the abuse of wealth within the church and the role of senior churchmen in government, resulting in Wycliffe being put to death. Wycliffe had also translated the Bible from Latin into the language of the common people.

In 1532, under the reign of Henry V111, Parliament passed a bill which separated the Church of England from Rome. HenryV111 was greatly influenced by the arguments of Wycliffe.

In the early 16th century, William Tyndale translated