Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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The clip shows footage from an early 1900s newsreel titled The Native Problem in Queensland, followed by a montage of archival film, still photographs, re-enactments and interviews, with narration, to illustrate the extent of the control that the Chief Protector of Aborigines, John Bleakley, held over the lives of Queensland Indigenous people in the early 20th century. The struggle of Russian immigrant Leandro Illin and Indigenous woman Kitty Clarke to formalise their relationship in marriage, and Bleakley’s ultimate rejection of their application to marry, is conveyed through images and voice-overs.

Educational value points

• The clip depicts John Bleakley’s role as Chief Protector of Aborigines in Qld from 1914 to 1942. While Bleakley (1879-1957) achieved increased expenditure for Aboriginal affairs in Qld, including better housing and wages, many of his views on Aboriginal welfare have been discredited. His attitudes were reflected in his paternalism, his advocacy of segregation, his references to the so-called 'half-caste problem’ and his ideas, common at the time, about 'racial purity’.

• As the story of Illin and Clarke reveals, Bleakley held firm ideas about the segregation of Indigenous from non-Indigenous people. The policies developed for the 'protection’ of Indigenous peoples were based on reports of their being exploited by their employers, as well as being subject to diseases and dispersal. However, a widespread belief in the general superiority of Europeans and the need to maintain the 'purity’ of the 'white race’ were also influential at the time.

• The archival footage included in the clip shows Indigenous children in missions and reserves without any Indigenous adults being present. The Qld Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act 1865 legislated for children deemed 'neglected’ to be sent to industrial or reformatory schools and, at the time, simply being Indigenous was seen as 'proof’ of neglect. The State Children Act 1911, which replaced the 1865 Act, established the practice of separating Indigenous children from their parents and other Indigenous adults on missions and reserves.

• Bleakley, as director of Native Affairs, was given increased powers under the Qld Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act 1939, including the legal guardianship of all Indigenous people under the age of 18. He was able to issue orders to remove Indigenous children without having to seek the relevant minister’s approval. This Act also regulated the 'care, custody and education of the children of aboriginals’ and prescribed the conditions on which 'aboriginal’ children might be apprenticed or placed in service.

• The clip illustrates life on reserves and missions during the early 20th century, when the Christian training of Indigenous peoples was emphasised, along with basic education and training for employment at the lowest levels of the workforce. By 1934, one-third of all the Indigenous people in Qld were living on missions and reserves. Traditional cultural practices were banned, and it was not until 1964 that the Qld Government gave permission for Indigenous people to continue their schooling beyond year 4 in primary school.

• Director Julie Nimmo interweaves archival footage, photographs, documents and dramatised scenes to tell Illin and Clarke’s story. This filmic montage creates a personal narrative that is intertwined with a commentary to reveal the bureaucratic controls that permeated the lives of all Indigenous Australian people at the time. The interview footage with Illin and Clarke’s daughter Flora Hoolihan and with Tom English of Malanda reflects the repercussions of these stories today.

• The clip is from the documentary Pioneers of Love (2005), directed by Julie Nimmo and inspired by Elena Govor’s book My Dark Brother: The Story of the Illins, A Russian–Aboriginal Family (2000). Nimmo is an independent filmmaker who has worked on television programs covering Indigenous affairs, multicultural and multimedia arts, Australian history and current affairs. In 2002 she became the first Indigenous person to win a Walkley Award, for No Fixed Address (2002).