Carrolup Child Artists: Arthur Bropho, Alma Cuttabut, Parnell Dempster, Phillip Jackson, Gregory Kelly, Edie Wallam, and five once known child artists (Australia)

Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney

Phillip Jackson
Deep Sky, c1949

Once known child artist
Untitled, 1949

Parnell Dempster
The blackboy tree, c1949

Alma Cuttabut
Untitled, c1949

Once known child artist
Untitled, c1949

Parnell Dempster
Stormy night, c1949

Arthur Bropho
Untitled, c1946-49

Gregory Kelly
The High Bank, c1949

Once known child artist
Shades of night, c1949

Edie Wallam
Untitled, c1946-49

Once known child artist
Untitled, c1949

Once known child artist
Untitled, c1949

Parnell Dempster
Untitled, 1953

All works are digital print facsimiles of the original pastel, graphite and charcoal drawings on paper
The Herbert Mayer Collection of Carrolup Artwork was generously donated to the Curtin University Art Collection in 2013 for educational and research purposes by Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA
Reproduced with the permission of the Carrolup Elders Reference Group

As part of Australia’s racist assimilation policies in the 1940s, Aboriginal children from across Western Australia were forcibly removed from their families and detained against their will at the Carrolup Native Settlement. Carrolup had been established in 1915 during an era of racial segregation, in remote bushland near the Carrolup River, south of Perth. Throughout the 1940s, Carrolup’s principal mission was to assimilate young Indigenous people by training Aboriginal girls to become domestic servants and Aboriginal boys to become agricultural labourers. During this period the Settlement also included the Carrolup State School – but unlike every other school in Western Australia, Carrolup’s student cohort were part of the Stolen Generations and considered Settlement inmates by the State Government.

Noel White was appointed Carrolup’s headmaster and teacher in 1946. Soon after, in a desperate effort to engage his students, he invited them to respond to their natural surroundings through drawing. In a little over four years the children produced hundreds of distinctive artworks that were widely exhibited in Australia and across the UK, by virtue of support from visiting English philanthropist Florence Rutter. Tragically, although the classroom became a safe space for the children, their acclaimed artworks soon became a propaganda tool allowing the State to feel vindicated for their racist policies.

The Settlement and School closed in 1950. Today only a fraction of the child artists are known, and it is hoped that displaying their work will connect the artists with their living descendants.

Text provided by Chris Malcolm, Special Advisor, Curtin University

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