The Last Protector: The illegal removal of Aboriginal children from their parents in South Australia.

Gray, Geoffrey

The Last Protector: The illegal removal of Aboriginal children from their parents in South Australia

Cameron Raynes 2008

Wakefield Press, Kent Town, SA, xvi+102pp, ISBN 9781862548046

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The Last Protector is only a short book (102pp) but is further evidence of the cruelty of the White administrators of Aboriginal people. In a generous foreword, the human rights activist and barrister Julian Burnside describes WR Penhall, the subject of this book, as a 'dedicated but deeply flawed public servant; a man who put personal belief above humanity. And policy above law.' Without wishing to demean Burnside's assessment, it could only be made by a White person. As Raynes shows, it is a story of unimagined pain for Aboriginal people brought about by the illegal actions of a callous man. Two other protectors have been the subject of detailed historical investigation, Cecil Cook in the Northern Territory (Austin 1987, 1990) and AO Neville in Western Australia (Jacobs 1990). Cook and Neville at least acted within the law, although they, too, showed at times a callous disregard for the emotional attachment of mothers for their children. At least the epithet 'with good intentions' could be attached to their actions as protectors.

William Richard Penhall would have made a fine commandant of a Nazi concentration camp. Ronald and Catherine Berndt, who had a fair bit to do with Penhall and the Aborigines Protection Board in the early 1940s, described him as 'perhaps the worst among all those we have known' (Berndt et al. 1993:7). He used bluff, bluster, threat and denial of rations to enforce his actions. Raynes provides an illustration: 'when bluff and threat failed, Penhall could withhold rations--as he did to Ruby Matthews and her young baby at Point Pearce.' Ruby's daughter was sent, against her and her family's wishes, to the Colebrook home. Penhall was 'capable of applying severe financial pressure--to the point of denying food--to those Aboriginal people who did not comply with the removal of their children' (p.38).

Did Penhall act alone, without the connivance of the Aborigines Protection Board? Were members of the government aware of his actions? There is little doubt that they were complicit in his actions and offered support: Penhall retired in 1953 after a long career denying the rights of Aboriginal people, smashing their families and callously refusing to recognise their humanity. JB Cleland, who chaired the Aborigines Protection Board, was influential in the implementation (if not the formulation) of policy and oversaw the actions of Penhall, remained silent when confronted with the impact of Penhall's actions. Raynes comments: 'Cleland appears to have been almost completely blind to the impediments of Aboriginal participation in the economy, society and politics of South Australia. This is unforgivable given his direct role in overseeing and maintaining these same impediments' (p.20).

Finally, so contentious are the files held by the State Records Office of South Australia, that once it became known that Raynes had information that the Aborigines Department had acted 'illegally in the 1940s and 1950s', the Crown Solicitors Office refused him access to files, which he is confident would show the illegality of the actions of Penhall in removing children (pp.xiii-xvi). Further illustration shows that callous treatment and failure to acknowledge the past is alive and well in South Australia, and is not confined only to the period of Penhall. Raynes has had the courage to write it out and bring it to our notice. Read this book.

REFERENCES

Austin, Tony 1987 'Training for assimilation: Cecil Cook and the half-caste apprentice regulations', Melbourne Studies in Education 29:128-41.

Austin, Tony 1990 'Cecil Cook, scientific thought and halfcastes in the Northern Territory, 1927-1939', Aboriginal History 14(1):104-22.

Berndt, Ronald, Catherine Berndt and John Stanton 1993 A World That Was: The Yaraldi of the Murray River and Lakes, South Australia, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.

Jacobs, Pat 1990 Mister Neville: A biography, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle.

Reviewed by Geoffrey Gray, AIATSIS <geoff.gray@aiatsis.gov.au>