WA launches resource to help Aboriginal families establish links with children sent to orphanages and missions

Giovanni Torre Published July 6, 2023 at 2.35pm (AWST)

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Children of Carrolup with the first superintendent W J Freyer, some time before 1918. Freyer was forced to resign after his brutal tactics were exposed. Image: www.carrolup.info.

A free online resource announced Thursday will help Aboriginal families establish links to children sent to Perth orphanages and missions from 1868 to 1920.

The Perth and Swan Orphanages and Mission Index is a searchable database holding information on children admitted to four institutions located in Perth and the Swan Valley.

Over the course of almost 50 years, about 300 children were taken from their families and placed within these institutions.

In Western Australia the practice of forced separation of Aboriginal children from their families began in the 1830s and was officially stopped in the 1970s. Over this period, a framework of racist laws, practices and policies saw as many as one third of Aboriginal children removed from their families – some as young as two years old - creating the Stolen Generations.

The Perth and Swan Orphanages and Mission Index is an initiative of the Department of Local Government Sport and Cultural Industries' Aboriginal History WA unit. It has been painstakingly compiled from a range of historical sources including admission registers, microfilms, historical departmental files, death and burial records, and newspapers, and adds to those records already made available by AHWA.

AHWA is dedicated to helping Aboriginal Western Australians trace their family histories through the provision of information and production of comprehensive genealogies.

More information, and access to the Perth and Swan Orphanages Mission Index, is available online.

WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Dr Tony Buti said the free online database is "an extremely important tool" that will help many Aboriginal people trace their family histories.

"Connection to family and Country is vital for First Nations people. The Cook government is committed to doing everything we can to help families renew connections that were broken by the forced removal of children from their families," he said.

"Improving access to family history records through initiatives such as this can help bring healing and reconciliation for people still impacted by the generational trauma caused by the Stolen Generations."

A long running campaign has called for Western Australia to establish a redress scheme for members of the Stolen Generations. WA and Queensland are the only two Australian jurisdictions without such a scheme.