Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services

The area now known as Redfern was once defined by sand hills and swamps, which would have provided an abundant supply of food for the Gadigal people before white settlement (the Gadigal are a clan of the Eora Nation). Although colonisation was destructive, Gadigal culture survived. As the town of Sydney grew, the Gadigal were joined by other Aboriginal people from around NSW to live and work as an urban Aboriginal community. Redfern was one such place where Aboriginal people sought shelter and connection with family and community and continue to do so today.[2]

The name Redfern originates from an early land grant to William Redfern in 1817. It was previously known as Robert's Farm and Boxley's Swamp. The boundaries of Redfern's 40-hectare (100-acre) grant were approximately the present-day Cleveland, Regent, Redfern and Elizabeth Streets. Redfern's grant was subdivided and advertised for sale in allotments of between 1 and 2 hectares (2 and 5 acres) in 1834. George Street was named in a subsequent Redfern Estate Subdivision Sale in 1842. The passing of the Sydney Slaughterhouses Act 1849 brought industry to the district. This Act banned abattoirs and noxious trades from the city so many tanners, wool scourers and wool-washers, boiling down works and abattoirs moved their businesses outside city boundaries to Redfern and Waterloo. The sand hills still existed, but by the late 1850s Redfern was a flourishing suburb housing 6,500 people.[3]

The Municipalities Act 1858 gave districts the option of municipal incorporation. Public meetings were held and after a flurry of petitions Redfern Municipality was proclaimed on 11 August 1859, the fourth in Sydney to be formed under the Act. Redfern Town Hall opened in 1870 and the Albert Cricket Ground in 1864. Redfern Post Office came in 1882. By the end of the 19th century Redfern consisted of a mix of market gardens, industry and housing.[3]

18 George Street first appears in the Sands Directory in 1871 as a piece of vacant land next to a boot maker. The first reference to a building on the site is the residence "Denholme", home of John Williamson Solicitor in 1875. In 1873 John Williamson solicitor had an office at 126 Elizabeth Street and was living in Manono Cottage in Cleveland Street, Redfern. By 1876 John Williamson solicitor of Elizabeth Street is noted as having his private residence in George Street, Redfern. The house called Denholme, 18 George Street, Redfern must therefore have been built between 1873 and 1875. John Williamson resided at 18 (listed as 20) George Street until 1889.

By 1890 the house was still called Denholm (although without the e) and the new the resident was Frederick Chapman, prothonotary. (A prothonotary was a Clerk of the court.) On the adjacent corner were King and Grills grocers.[4]

Redfern Municipal Council was amalgamated with the City of Sydney in 1949 and was one of the few municipalities to produce a Town Plan. The Town Plan, completed in 1948, was not implemented but involved demolition of all the housing stock and construction of tower blocks set in park land.[5] 18 George Street would have been demolished if this plan had been implemented.

The twentieth century saw increased political activism amongst Aboriginal people and the growth of organisations for the achievement of changes to the constitution. Poor housing and living conditions increased demand for services and facilities for urban Aboriginal people. Having a large Aboriginal population, the suburb of Redfern was a particular focus for activism around civil and land rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In the 1960s and 1970s Aboriginal people living in Redfern were the subject of unofficial policing methods such as a ten o clock curfew. If an Aboriginal person was found on the street after 10pm they were arrested whether or not they had committed any crime. In 1970 a group of activists came together to provide legal representation for Aboriginal people who were otherwise unaware of their rights. Paul Coe, Isabel Coe, Gary Williams, Gary Foley and Tony Coorey sought help from Hal Wootten, the Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales and together they set up the Aboriginal Legal Service. The service was based in Redfern and received a small amount of funding from the Australian Government. The Redfern Aboriginal Legal Service was so successful it led to the creation of similar services around the country.[6][7]

In July 1971 another ground-breaking service for Aboriginal people was established in Redfern. The Aboriginal Medical Service provided free health care to the Aboriginal people. The service helped provide nutrition advice as well as general health care for people who were often living in crowded conditions. One of the founders of the service was Shirley Smith (Mum Shirl).[8]

Around this time a men's group was busy providing a fruit and vegetable program as well as a breakfast program to ensure families received nutrition and at least one meal a day was available to those in the community who needed it.[9] There were other pioneering organisations around this time that were established by the Redfern Aboriginal community. These include the Aboriginal Housing Company, Black Theatre and Murawina. In 1972 a development company started buying large blocks of housing and forcibly evicting the Aboriginal tenants. With the help of the Builders Labourers Federation a group of people reoccupied some of the properties and refused to move. The BLF placed a ban on development. In 1973 the Aboriginal Housing Company was incorporated and granted federal funding to purchase "the Block". Black Theatre was an Aboriginal-run theatre company established in 1972. Murawina started as a breakfast program in Newtown in 1972 and became a child care centre in Redfern in 1974 and then grew to take on other roles such as housing referrals and a meeting place for Aboriginal women. Later that decade in 1979 saw the founding of Aboriginal Dance Theatre Redfern (ADTR) and in 1981 Radio Redfern commenced with a small slot on 2SER.

Redfern in the 1970s was a pivotal place in the revolution taking place in Aboriginal affairs in Australia. Aboriginal people were actively resisting oppression and successfully organising themselves to overcome poverty, housing issues and poor health care. Providing services for Aboriginal children was a part of this revolution in autonomy and a reaction to the continued removal of children and the need for culturally-specific foster care.

In 1969 the Aborigines Protection Act was abolished, officially ending the routine removal of Aboriginal children from their families under the policy of assimilation. By 1985 however the Standing Committee on Social Welfare acknowledged the problems still inherent in the child welfare sector whereby there was a "...reluctance of welfare authorities to accept the basic differences between Aboriginal and non--Aboriginal societies in terms of family concepts and child care practices, particularly the concept of the extended Aboriginal family and the complex system of kinship relationships and obligations that are of fundamental importance to the Aboriginal childrearing process."[10]

Aboriginal people publicly voiced their concerns that Aboriginal children must be fostered with Aboriginal families and kinship ties considered in child placements at the First Australian Conference on Adoption held in 1976. It wasn't until 1987 however that the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle was developed, although the Redfern Aboriginal Child Services had been taking this approach from the very start of their organisation 11 years earlier.[11]

Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services was started in 1975 and provided a range of child welfare and family support services with a particular focus on foster care. Mum Shirl, Isabel Coe, Bev Coe, Jenny Munro and Ann Weldon are some of the women who were involved in its success. Initially funding was provided by Australian Catholic Relief and later the NSW Department of Community Services took over the funding arrangements. Australian Government also provided grants intermittently. The Canberra Times in July 1978 reported that the Department of Social Services announced a grant of $18,550 to Aboriginal Children's Services in Redfern at the start of "National Aborigines Week". The grant was to fund the leasing and furnishing of a house and employing a house parent to give Aboriginal children temporary emergency accommodation. The service was provided with NSW government funding until 2008 when it was withdrawn. It was considered that among other things, ACS did not meet contemporary training, accommodation and governance requirements. Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services found that demands for increased accountability to government and escalating service costs in an environment of diminishing resources put undue pressure on the organisation. The service continues today with sponsorship from a not-for-profit organisation, undertaking a variety of charitable works and advocacy.

The creation of the Aboriginal Children's Service was in direct response to the cultural issues Aboriginal children faced when fostered to non-Indigenous families. The Canberra Times reported in 1980 of a study by sociology students from the University of NSW which demonstrated Aboriginal children were repeatedly fostered in white families and in institutions. The article quotes the study as follows: "The placing of Aboriginal children in white foster homes has a very high failure rate, according to the findings of the Aboriginal Children's Service. The service finds that Aboriginal children are on average placed with three or more different families. Aboriginal children who have been removed from their families often spend considerable periods in establishments run by the various institutions. . . . Few reasons are offered, by those who deal with Aboriginal children, for the continued institutionalization of them other than they continue not to conform to white patterns of socialization." The article concludes that Aboriginal children should only be adopted by Aboriginal families and that Aboriginal community organizations such as ACS must be the focal point for adoptions; experience having shown that they were more successful in dealing with the culturally specific needs of Aboriginal children.[12]

Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services were instrumental in the change in child welfare policy in NSW. The Redfern organization, established by the community and run by mostly volunteers, changed the way in which Aboriginal children's services were provided in NSW ; these changes remain in place today. Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services also influenced mainstream policies which led to the current practice known as "kinship care" where priority is given to placing the removed child with family members. In the case of an Aboriginal child if no family member is available the child is placed with an Aboriginal family within their community. If no Aboriginal carers are available then the child will be placed with non-Indigenous carers but given access to the Aboriginal community.[13]

There are numerous Aboriginal women associated with Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services whom played a vital part in its establishment and ongoing success. (There were six Wiradjuri women involved in the foundation: Colleen Shirley Perry, Isabel Coe, Jenny Munro, Vilma Ryan and Sylvia Scott). Colleen Shirley Perry was a Wiradjuri woman born on Erambie Mission, West Cowra, New South Wales, around 1924. Her extensive work providing support for prisoners earned her the name "MumShirl". She was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire and Member of the Order of Australia for her welfare work. She raised 60 foster children over her lifetime and was involved in the establishment of the Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services. Isabel Coe was also a Wiradjuri woman who was from the Erambie Mission. She was one of the Aboriginal activists involved in setting up the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in January 1972 and kept it going in the 1990s. She played a key role in setting up many important organisation in Redfern, including the Aboriginal Children's Services. In the 1990s she was a member of the Indigenous Advisory Council supporting the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families.[14]

Jenny Munro began working at the Aboriginal Children's Service as a trainee bookkeeper and then as administrator in 1979. She was also actively involved in advocacy for policy change with regards to Aboriginal children. She was a member of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) in its early days, and one of its first chairpersons.[14] Her husband, Lyall Munro Jnr, also worked at ACS at some point.[15]

Vilma Ryan has worked at the Aboriginal Children's Service, being a voice and guide for hundreds of Aboriginal Children caught up in the court system and working towards getting them placed in foster home care with Aboriginal carers. She has also sat on the board of directors at Redfern's Murrawina Preschool and has long been a vocal advocate for Aboriginal education. In 2000 she was a torch bearer for the Sydney Olympics. Her long time indigenous activist and being a proud Wiradjuri woman has seen her being recognised with a 2012 NSW Seniors Week Achievement Award.

Sylvia Scott was born on a mission in Cowra. Working with Aboriginal women she founded Murrawina pre-school for Aboriginal children, one of the first Aboriginal-run organisations in Sydney, where she served as their president for 17 years. In the 1980s Scott also set up a general skills program at Petersham TAFE and worked at the Children's Hospital Camperdown as an Aboriginal health worker. She died in hospital aged 83 in 2011.

The service was located in a number of locations prior to the move to 18 George Street. In 1980 it was located at 31- 33 Regent Street, Redfern and the director at that time was Ann Weldon. Weldon is a member of the Wiradjuri Nation and was one of the founding members of the NSW Aboriginal Children's Service and Inner West Aboriginal Community Company. Ann has held executive positions on a number of boards and committees for over three decades, including the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council and Marrickville Aboriginal Consultative Committee. Among Weldon's achievements was being the first female CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Service and the first CEO of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council. Weldon has also been elected to the Sydney ATSIC Regional Council as a Councillor and as the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson. Weldon was appointed to the NSW Aboriginal Housing Board in 1998.

In 1975 Aboriginal Children's Services were also established at Cowra, St Marys, and Wagga Wagga. The demographic in Redfern today has changed substantially since the 1970s. The suburb has become increasingly gentrified and Aboriginal people have been moved on to areas such as Waterloo. Services supporting the Aboriginal community have followed. Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services is now an increasingly rare example of the community based services which were once available in Redfern.[1]

Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services building is highly intact. The intactness of the archive is unknown.[1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services.

• Aborigines in NSW to get $90,000 in aid. 1978.
• Australian Women's Archives Project. "Munro, Jenny: Mum Shirl: Coe, Isabel Edie".
• Thinee, Kristy; Bradford, Tracy (1998). Connecting Kin (PDF). NSW Department of Community Services. ISBN 0-7310-4262-X.
• Overington, Caroline (2008). Disservice to Children.
• Waterford, Jack (1980). "Fostering criticised". The Canberra Times – via National Library of Australia.

This Wikipedia article was originally based on Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services and Archives, entry number 1951 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 14 October 2018.