A Boy's Short Life: The story of Warren Braedon/Louis Johnson

By Anna Haebich and Steve Mickler

Louis St John Johnson, born Warren Braedon, was taken from his mother in Alice Springs at just three months old. Despite growing up with the love and care of his adoptive family, Louis was increasingly targeted by school bullies and police for his Aboriginality, and his attempts to find his natural family in Alice Springs were thwarted by bureaucra

• Language: English
• Publisher: UWA Publishing
• Release date: Feb 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781742585475

Book preview

A BOY'S SHORT LIFE

Anna Haebich is a multi-award winning Australian author and historian, who is especially recognised for her research and work with Aboriginal communities and in particular the Noongar people. She is part of a large Noongar family through marriage. Her career combines university teaching, research, curatorship, creative writing and visual arts. Her publications include Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800–2000, which is the first and most comprehensive national history of Australia’s Stolen Generations; the definitive history For Their Own Good: Aborigines and Government in the South West of Western Australia 1900–1940; and Spinning the Dream: Assimilation in Australia. Anna is a John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University. She is currently researching Aboriginal performing arts in Western Australia, past and present.

Steve Mickler is Head of the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts at Curtin University. He has a diverse background in Indigenous affairs and academia, having previously worked in Aboriginal Affairs in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, including in the public affairs sections of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, ATSIC and as a research officer with the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. His previous publications include Gambling on the First Race: A Comment on Racism and Talkback Radio, The Myth of Privilege: Aboriginal Status, Media Visions, Public Ideas and numerous journal articles dealing with media and public representation of Indigenous affairs.

Also published by

UWA Publishing

for the Charles and Joy Staples South

West Region Publications Fund:

For Their Own Good: Aborigines and Government in the South West of Western Australia 1900–1940

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The South West from Dawn till Dusk

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Alexander Collie: Colonial Surgeon, Naturalist and Explorer

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Shaking Hands on the Fringe: Negotiating the Aboriginal World at King George’s Sound

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It’s Still in my Heart, This is my Country: The Single Noongar Claim History, South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, John Host with Chris Owen

Mamang

An old story retold by Kim Scott, Iris Woods and the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project, with artwork by Jeffrey Farmer, Helen Nelly and Roma Winmar (Yibiyung)

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Guy Grey-Smith: Life Force

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Dwoort Baal Kaat

An old story retold by Kim Scott, Russell Nelly and the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project, with artwork by Helen (Ing) Hall

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An old story retold by Kim Scott, Hazel Brown, Roma Winmar and the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project, with artwork by Anthony (Troy) Roberts

Fire and Hearth: A study of Aboriginal usage and European usurpation in south-western Australia

Sylvia J. Hallam

The Charles and Joy Staples South West Region Publications Fund was established in 1984 on the basis of a generous donation to The University of Western Australia by Charles and Joy Staples.

The purpose of the Fund was to make the results of research on the South West region of Western Australia widely available so as to assist the people of the South West region and those in government and private organisations concerned with South West projects to appreciate the needs and possibilities of the region in the widest possible historical perspective.

The Fund is administered by a committee whose aims are to make possible the publication (either by full or part funding), by UWA Publishing, of research in any discipline relevant to the South West region.

A BOY'S

SHORT LIFE

The story of

Warren Braedon/Louis Johnson

Anna Haebich and

Steve Mickler

First published in 2000 by Fremantle Arts Centre Press as ‘A Boy’s Short Life’ in Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800–2000 by Anna Haebich.

This revised edition published in 2013 by UWA Publishing

Crawley, Western Australia 6009

www.uwap.uwa.edu.au

for the Charles and Joy Staples

South West Region Publications Fund

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

Copyright © Anna Haebich and Steve Mickler 2013

The moral right of the authors has been asserted.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

A boy’s short life : the story of Warren Braedon / Louis Johnson / Anna Haebich and Steve Mickler.

9781742585079 (pbk.)

Includes bibliographical references.

Johnson, Louis St John.

Adopted children—Australia—Biography.

Children, Aboriginal Australian—Biography

362.734

Cover photograph of Louis Johnson courtesy of the Johnson family.

Internal photographs courtesy of the Johnson family.

Typeset by J & M Typesetting

Printed by Lightning Source

Contents

‘Louis St John’ by Archie Roach

Preface

Synopsis

Colonialism

Assimilation

Civil rights

Equality in name only

Self-determination and backlash

The Braedon family

Removal

Adoption

The Johnsons

Perth

Unsafe streets

Murder

Afterword

Additional study materials

Notes

Bibliography

‘Louis St John’ by Archie Roach

We have loved a sweet, sweet child

We have loved the way he smiled

The way that it lit up a gentle face

Such a child of grace.

Took him back to Alice Springs.

When we heard somebody sing

But no one there would tell us where he came from.

Not his mother’s home.

Louis, Louis

St John.

You and me, you and me

Go on and on and on.

Because your spirit

Never dies…

Because you opened up our eyes.

Louis, Louis

St John.

A young black man once walked these streets

On the better side of town

He always dressed up nice and neat

And others dressed him down.

We don’t want your kind ’round here

Your kind are no good.

But no one there would lend an ear

This was his neighbourhood.

Scarborough seemed pretty fair

You’d always see him standing there.

Eating pizza nice and hot outside Happy Granny’s Shop

With no one keeping score.

But it’s not happy at Granny’s anymore.

Not like it was before.

Louis, Louis

St John.

You and me, you and me

Go on and on and on.

Because your spirit

Never dies…

Because you opened up our eyes.

Louis, Louis

St John.

Oh sweet child of the earth

Back in the land of your birth

Among the stars in the Milky Way.

Now we understand the things you tried to say

If you could only understand

If you could only take my hand

If you could only see

The beauty in me.

Preface

The original version of A