1924: australia
state intervention
dear sir,
My attention has been drawn to the case of
the native girl, precilla Karpany, having her baby,
nine months old, taken away from her under the
provisions of the aborigines act passed last year.
also to the report of the occurrence, with severe
comments thereon, published in the Adelaide
Sun of april 12. The tenor of that article makes a
vivid criticism of the gross inhumanity of such a
ruthless and cruel administration of the act. That
a woman should have her own baby recklessly
dragged from her arms and taken entirely away
from her, at the behest of a government official,
because some female inspectress thought the
mother an unsuitable guardian, is shocking to
contemplate. What does the female official know
of the right way to treat an aboriginal baby? as
a matter of fact, i have taken this young native
woman into my own home and find her clean
and well behaved. not at all such a character as
might be expected to ill-treat her own child.
C. E. Taplin, from a letter. Writing as a missionary
and self-appointed honorary protector, Taplin
testified to some of the brutalities of the Training
of the Aborigines’ Children Act of 1923. The Chief
Protector of the Aborigines had been given the power
to remove forcibly orphans and children he deemed
destitute by a law passed in 1844; the law of 1923
extended these powers. The case in question became a
minor media sensation, prompting officials to return
the child to its rightful mother.
