Aboriginal children were separated from their families from the earliest days of the colony.
Governor Lachlan Macquarie established the first Native Institution in
Parramatta as early as 1814 and, in 1823, another "native institution" was started in
Blacktown (
Blacktown Native Institution Site). Both those institutions were considered failures, one reason being that once parents realised their children wouldn't be allowed to come home, they wouldn't give them up. In the 1820s and 1830s, the
Government of New South Wales also subsidised Christian missionary activity among the Aboriginal people, including that of the
London Missionary Society. On the European settlement frontier of
Wellington Valley, the Reverend Watson gained a reputation for stealing Aboriginal children and, as a consequence, the
Wiradjuri hid their children from white men. The spread of European settlers and their livestock resulted in conflict with the indigenous population, and their dispossession. The first bill for the protection of Aborigines was drafted by the New South Wales government in 1838, following the
Myall Creek massacre in June of that year. Thus began a systemic government approach to the regulation and control of the lives of Aboriginal people that became ever tighter, until the success of the
1967 constitutional referendum brought significant change. Before 1881, Aboriginal people in New South Wales were under the jurisdiction of the
Colonial Secretary, police and the Lands Department. In 1880, a private body known as the
New South Wales Aborigines Protection Association was formed and, following agitation by that body, the government of the
colony of New South Wales appointed a
Protector of Aborigines,
George Thornton MLC. The
Board for the Protection of Aborigines was subsequently created in 1883. "The objectives of the Board were to provide asylum for the aged and sick, who are dependent on others for help and support; but also, and of at least equal importance to train and teach the young, to fit them to take their places amongst the rest of the community". That objective became the basis of the future child removal policy, arising from he belief that the "inferiority" of Aborigines would only be dealt with by removing the children and educating them in a European setting. The underlying assumption, as ever, was that Aboriginal people lacked the intellect to undertake anything but menial tasks. That later translated into the limits on the types of training provided: girls being trained for domestic service and the boys for labouring. A court hearing was no longer necessary and, if parents wanted to challenge the seizure of their children, it was up to them to go to court. The education of Aboriginal children had generally been one of segregation until, in 1940, the
Department of Education officially took on the role. In the 1960s, the work on "attachment theory" by British psychiatrist
John Bowlby, began to influence the institutional care of children in Australia. It held that, for social and emotional development to occur normally, an infant needed to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver, rather than only being treated with affection as a reward ("cupboard love"), which was the prevailing theory. Fostering then became the preferred option and a more common occurrence. In accordance with the assimilation policy which was still in force, Aboriginal children were fostered with non-Aboriginal parents. In May 1967, a
referendum which changed the Australian constitution brought positive changes for the Aboriginal people. Responsibility for Aboriginal affairs passed from state governments to the Australian government. One resultant change was the abolition of the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board in 1969. After that, non-Aboriginal girls were admitted to
Cootamundra Girls Home. ==Operation as a boys' home==