‘What’s this about a new mission?’: Assimilation, resistance and the Morwell transit village

Tally Ho Boys' Training Farm, Aboriginal children and the intersection of school, welfare and justice systems, 1950s–1960s

“…This included the failure of the school system to provide educational opportunities for the boys where they lived, at Lake Tyers reserve. The “transfer” of boys from Lake Tyers to Tally Ho for “training” in 1956 foreshadowed broader changes to Victorian government policy regarding the future of the reserve, and the formalisation of assimilation policy in Victoria that came with the passing of the Aborigines Act in 1958, and that included the closure of Lake Tyers (Marsden, 2020a, b; Taffe, 2010). This explains the provision of training to boys that would lead to their employment away from the reserve, a somewhat modified version of the old apprenticeship system (Broome, 2005, pp.…”

“…This arrangement in particular shows that although the scheme claimed to provide education and training opportunities – and certainly did for some children – there were other policy agendas also being served by this scheme and its associated funding and participation of Church and voluntary institutions, like Tally Ho. The “Part-Aboriginal Education and Training Scheme” provided some children and their families with the structures they needed to access further education, albeit within White institutions and systems a long way from their families and communities (Cummings, 2013; Judd and Ellinghaus, 2020; Marsden, 2020a, b). For some children, access to a boarding school education, or a safe and supportive foster home while attending the local school, provided some positive opportunities and experiences, albeit underscored by the difficulties of being away from family and community [32].…”