The Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services, also known as Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services and Archives, or simply Aboriginal Children's Services (ACS), is a community services organisation for Indigenous Australian children in Sydney, Australia.
The heritage-listed building, also known as Denholme, is a former residence, built from 1874 to 1875. It is located at 18 George Street in the inner western Sydney suburb of Redfern in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 13 July 2015.
History History of the suburb of Redfern The area now known as Redfern was once defined by sand hills and swamps, which would have provided an abundant supply of food for the Gadigal people before white settlement (the Gadigal are a clan of the Eora Nation). Although colonisation was destructive, Gadigal culture survived. As the town of Sydney grew, the Gadigal were joined by other Aboriginal people from around NSW to live and work as an urban Aboriginal community. Redfern was one such place where Aboriginal people sought shelter and connection with family and community and continue to do so today.
The name Redfern originates from an early land grant to William Redfern in 1817. It was previously known as Robert's Farm and Boxley's Swamp. The boundaries of Redfern's grant were approximately the present-day Cleveland, Regent, Redfern and Elizabeth Streets. Redfern's grant was subdivided and advertised for sale in allotments of between in 1834. George Street was named in a subsequent Redfern Estate Subdivision Sale in 1842. The passing of the Sydney Slaughterhouses Act 1849 brought industry to the district. This Act banned abattoirs and noxious trades from the city so many tanners, wool scourers and wool-washers, boiling down works and abattoirs moved their businesses outside city boundaries to Redfern and Waterloo. The sand hills still existed, but by the late 1850s Redfern was a flourishing suburb housing 6,500 people.SHI 5045257
The Municipalities Act 1858 gave districts the option of municipal incorporation. Public meetings were held and after a flurry of petitions Redfern Municipality was proclaimed on 11 August 1859, the fourth in Sydney to be formed under the Act. Redfern Town Hall opened in 1870 and the Albert Cricket Ground in 1864. Redfern Post Office came in 1882. By the end of the 19th century Redfern consisted of a mix of market gardens, industry and housing.
House located at 18 George Street 18 George Street first appears in the Sands Directory in 1871 as a piece of vacant land next to a boot maker. The first reference to a building on the site is the residence "Denholme", home of John Williamson Solicitor in 1875. In 1873 John Williamson solicitor had an office at 126 Elizabeth Street and was living in Manono Cottage in Cleveland Street, Redfern. By 1876 John Williamson solicitor of Elizabeth Street is noted as having his private residence in George Street, Redfern. The house called Denholme, 18 George Street, Redfern must therefore have been built between 1873 and 1875. John Williamson resided at 18 (listed as 20) George Street until 1889.
By 1890 the house was still called Denholm (although without the e) and the new the resident was Frederick Chapman, prothonotary. (A prothonotary was a Clerk of the court.) On the adjacent corner were King and Grills grocers.
Redfern Municipal Council was amalgamated with the City of Sydney in 1949 and was one of the few municipalities to produce a Town Plan. The Town Plan, completed in 1948, was not implemented but involved demolition of all the housing stock and construction of tower blocks set in park land.Historical Atlas of Sydney 18 George Street would have been demolished if this plan had been implemented.
Aboriginal activism The twentieth century saw increased political activism amongst Aboriginal people and the growth of organisations for the achievement of changes to the constitution. Poor housing and living conditions increased demand for services and facilities for urban Aboriginal people. Having a large Aboriginal population, the suburb of Redfern was a particular focus for activism around civil and land rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In the 1960s and 1970s Aboriginal people living in Redfern were the subject of unofficial policing methods such as a ten o clock curfew. If an Aboriginal person was found on the street after 10pm they were arrested whether or not they had committed any crime. In 1970 a group of activists came together to provide legal representation for Aboriginal people who were otherwise unaware of their rights. Paul Coe, Isabel Coe, Gary Williams, Gary Foley and Tony Coorey sought help from Hal Wootten, the Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales and together they set up the Aboriginal Legal Service. The service was based in Redfern and received a small amount of funding from the Australian Government. The Redfern Aboriginal Legal Service was so successful it led to the creation of similar services around the country.Dictionary of Sydney
In July 1971 another ground-breaking service for Aboriginal people was established in Redfern. The Aboriginal Medical Service provided free health care to the Aboriginal people. The service helped provide nutrition advice as well as general health care for people who were often living in crowded conditions. One of the founders of the service was Shirley Smith (Mum Shirl).
Around this time a men's group was busy providing a fruit and vegetable program as well as a breakfast program to ensure families received nutrition and at least one meal a day was available to those in the community who needed it.Ann Weldon There were other pioneering organisations around this time that were established by the Redfern Aboriginal community. These include the Aboriginal Housing Company, Black Theatre and Murawina. In 1972 a development company started buying large blocks of housing and forcibly evicting the Aboriginal tenants. With the help of the Builders Labourers Federation a group of people reoccupied some of the properties and refused to move. The BLF placed a ban on development. In 1973 the Aboriginal Housing Company was incorporated and granted federal funding to purchase "the Block". Black Theatre was an Aboriginal-run theatre company established in 1972. Murawina started as a breakfast program in Newtown in 1972 and became a child care centre in Redfern in 1974 and then grew to take on other roles such as housing referrals and a meeting place for Aboriginal women. Later that decade in 1979 saw the founding of Aboriginal Dance Theatre Redfern (ADTR) and in 1981 Radio Redfern commenced with a small slot on 2SER.
Redfern in the 1970s was a pivotal place in the revolution taking place in Aboriginal affairs in Australia. Aboriginal people were actively resisting oppression and successfully organising themselves to overcome poverty, housing issues and poor health care. Providing services for Aboriginal children was a part of this revolution in autonomy and a reaction to the continued removal of children and the need for culturally-specific foster care.
In 1969 the Aborigines Protection Act was abolished, officially ending the routine removal of Aboriginal children from their families under the policy of assimilation. By 1985 however the Standing Committee on Social Welfare acknowledged the problems still inherent in the child welfare sector whereby there was a "...reluctance of welfare authorities to accept the basic differences between Aboriginal and non--Aboriginal societies in terms of family concepts and child care practices, particularly the concept of the extended Aboriginal family and the complex system of kinship relationships and obligations that are of fundamental importance to the Aboriginal childrearing process."Connecting Kin, 16.
Aboriginal people publicly voiced their concerns that Aboriginal children must be fostered with Aboriginal families and kinship ties considered in child placements at the First Australian Conference on Adoption held in 1976. It wasn't until 1987 however that the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle was developed, although the Redfern Aboriginal Child Services had been taking this approach from the very start of their organisation 11 years earlier.Connecting Kin, 17.
Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services was started in 1975 and provided a range of child welfare and family support services with a particular focus on foster care. Mum Shirl, Isabel Coe, Bev Coe, Jenny Munro and Ann Weldon are some of the women who were involved in its success. Initially funding was provided by Australian Catholic Relief and later the NSW Department of Community Services took over the funding arrangements. Australian Government also provided grants intermittently. The Canberra Times in July 1978 reported that the Department of Social Services announced a grant of $18,550 to Aboriginal Children's Services in Redfern at the start of "National Aborigines Week". The grant was to fund the leasing and furnishing of a house and employing a house parent to give Aboriginal children temporary emergency accommodation. The service was provided with NSW government funding until 2008 when it was withdrawn. It was considered that among other things, ACS did not meet contemporary training, accommodation and governance requirements. Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services found that demands for increased accountability to government and escalating service costs in an environment of diminishing resources put undue pressure on the organisation. The service continues today with sponsorship from a not-for-profit organisation, undertaking a variety of charitable works and advocacy.
Establishment of the Aboriginal Children's Service The creation of the Aboriginal Children's Service was in direct response to the cultural issues Aboriginal children faced when fostered to non-Indigenous families. The Canberra Times reported in 1980 of a study by sociology students from the University of NSW which demonstrated Aboriginal children were repeatedly fostered in white families and in institutions. The article quotes the study as follows: "The placing of Aboriginal children in white foster homes has a very high failure rate, according to the findings of the Aboriginal Children's Service. The service finds that Aboriginal children are on average placed with three or more different families. Aboriginal children who have been removed from their families often spend considerable periods in establishments run by the various institutions. . . . Few reasons are offered, by those who deal with Aboriginal children, for the continued institutionalization of them other than they continue not to conform to white patterns of socialization." The article concludes that Aboriginal children should only be adopted by Aboriginal families and that Aboriginal community organizations such as ACS must be the focal point for adoptions; experience having shown that they were more successful in dealing with the culturally specific needs of Aboriginal children.The Canberra Times, 30 December 1980.