THE BLACK MAN

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1938, Page 7

THE BLACK MAN

OF NORTH AUSTRALIA. A NEW LIFE PLANNED. (Daily Telegraph correspondent.) DARWIN, Aug. 26. Black men threw Spears and brown men died on the beach at Caledon Bay, Arnhem Land. A white man camped nearby knew nothing about it—until the black men fired at him with guns taken from the dead Japanese. That was six years ago. To-day, flving-boats glide down to the lagoon at Grote Eylandt, fifty miles south of Caledon Bay. The flying boats refuel ; pass on over the aboriginal reserve of Arnhem Land to Darwin. Below them/as they fly, live the wnu. men of the reserve. © © © They hunt with stone-headed spears, grub for roots and yams, move as the

game moves, as the yams are eaten out. They kill each, other in the death lueds of tribe and totem. There is a reserve, too, on Groote Eylandt for men like these. Thev listen now to the sounds of hummer, saw, donkey-engine ; watch the dying-boats drone down from the sky. For the flying-boats—white men are building the world’s newest settlement ; houses, stores, radio station, weather bureau, power plant. Five miles away, in a settlement of his own, one white man is trying to do for the blackmen of Groote Eylandt what evolution did to white men thousands of years ago. He hopes to change them from nomadic hunters and killers into peasants and traders. Peaceful people. This is the man whom the Caledon murderers fired at six years ago. He is Fred; Gray, trepanger, of Groote Eylandt. “My aim is to create agricultural villages to enable the natives to get better food than they can get in the bush, and at the same time give them something to occupy their minds with, line' perhaps help give them a little ambition,” he says.

He has already started turning his ideal into' a reality.

He has cleared land for small hold* ings, bought fowls and goats for stock, seedlings for planting, tools for clearing and tilling; and stores to carry on his colony until it can feed itself. ‘ ‘My scheme is the outcome of seven years in close contact with the blacks of Arnhem Land, and the realisation that there is no place for them in the white civilisation of Australia,he wrote to me this week.

“But,” he adds, “there is no reason why they should not be helped to improve their mode of living on the reserve which has been allotted to them, especially’when they are asking for that help.”

Of work done already at Uroote Eylandt, Gray writes:— * “Land ;lm been cleared for first holdings. A nursery garden has been made. This is to provide seedlings and cuttings for planting time. The main crops will be Cassava, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, sorghum, bananas, swedes, turnips. “I have bought nearly one hundred goats. Among these are forty for killing, of which I am using one a week. “I have bought a pure-bred Saanen 1 billygoat from a stud in Queensland for improving the stock. “Two houses' have been built to find out the most useful style.

“I am providing the necessary tools Tor clearing and tilling the ground—spades, hoes, tomahawks, and so on. i “I am carrying a large stock of goods to tide the people over until they are' able to buy their own things. My stock includes i flour, rice, calicoes, knives, fish hooka,’ lines, and other things that the people want.” Of the basis for the scheme, he says; —“I am giving each owner of a bolding a few goats, fowls, seedlings, thereby ensuring meat, eggs, vegetables. © © ©

“I am encouraging the men to collect turtle-shell and beche-de-mer to sell, so that they can buy flour, calicos, knives, and so on. “I hope that as soon as they are firmly established the people will get all the food they want from their own holdings.

“Natural hunting of the people is not to be restricted, but encouraged. “But it is an anthropological fact that the hunting and collecting stage of culture gives way to an agricultural sta,ge. “And,, as in other races,, agriculture will make the people more peaceful.

“Of course, if the scheme is the success 1 think it will be, then hunting will be entirely replaced by agriculture in a few generations. “In starting this scheme I am using half-castes as 'liaison officers. They have been brought up and schooled at Groote Eylandt Mission. I am hoping to use the wives as school teachers for the children. . ‘ ’

“As these settlements are on the aborigihal reserve, where no white man may go without a permit from the Chief Protector of Aborigines (Dr Cook), undesirables are kept out, and the precaution should not be modified in any way.

“Religion will not be tampered with b'v mo. but the settlements will be ooen to missionaries of the societies which work in these areas.

“The number of families allowed on ■each settlement will be governed by the usual number of people who live in the locality.

, “Generally, there are not more than ‘2O men to the sub-tribe. Often there are less.

“Thus restricting the number of holdings on each settlement will keep the men on their own hunting grounds.

“Houses are to be made of natural material: posts and rafters of bush timber, roofing of paper bark, and walls of stringy bark. No corrugated iron anywhere. “The first two settlements are bein& started at the north of Groote Eylandt and at Caledon Bay. “I chose Groote Eylandt because it is three hours air journey from Darwin, and Government officials can reach*us easily for time-to-tiine inspections. “I prefer that the Government should '•-now directly what I am doing, and f 1 had been on the mainland I would Have been out of ordinnrv reach.”

In a postscript, Gray adds; But I •m experiencing a feeling of hostility rom several persons who do not really •<re whether the blackfellow gets a air go or not.”

He says, too:, “1 do not think this udividualistio scheme has been tried uit in the Northern Territory before. “Never, at any rate, I think, in ueh a, manner as to make the natives • bsolntely self-supporting, by providing "r themselves all necessities for food, nd producing something that they can II to buy tools and clothing. “1 will also add that I am .doing the bole thing l out of my own pocket, 'id T am so convinced that the scheme ill work that T sun prenared to use up ’ "ho’e of what few resources I lossoss, which includes a recent legacy. “All that T am asking is ihnt I shall ■ivo the eliauce to try out my pl'ns o prove them a failure or a success.”