Apprenticeships and service 1788-1908
Many Aboriginal children removed from their families were forced to undertake apprenticeships and domestic service. Even before the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW) commenced, the Aborigines Protection Board and Aborigines Protection Association had the practice of apprenticing out Aboriginal children.
There were multiple laws which governed the apprenticeship of children in state care, such as the State Children Relief Act 1881 (NSW) (), which enabled the State Children Relief Board (SCRB) to place children in apprenticeships.
There is limited information about how these laws impacted Aboriginal children in practice, but this subject contains accounts of Aboriginal children being put into apprenticeships.
From 1883, the NSW Aborigines Protection Board had a policy of ‘apprenticing’ girls in domestic service in private households (). Similarly, a report of the NSW Aborigines Protection Association (APA) in 1894 documents the practice of apprenticing out Aboriginal children from ‘mission stations’ ().
The APA was wound up in 1897 and the Aborigines Protection Board (APB) took control of the APA’s finances and records (). The APB did not have direct control over Aboriginal children during this time and the APB had to refer children to the State Children’s Relief Department (SCRD) to have them apprenticed. The APB was very keen to develop a formal scheme of apprenticeship, with an emphasis on apprenticing girls in domestic service on stations ().
When the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW) was introduced, it gave the APB the ability to apprentice Aboriginal children (see SUB0093).