The ‘forgotten political warrior’ whose letter to the King helped kids back into schools

In 1926, a Yuin woman from Moruya on the NSW south coast sat down to pen a letter to the King.

Jane Duren was writing to King George V asking for her grandchildren to be allowed to attend Batemans Bay Public School.

That letter, signed and stamped, would be received by Buckingham Palace, endorsed by the Australian Governor-General, and end up as an important artefact of cultural change in the state’s archives.

“Your Majesty, we have compulsory education. Why are they not compelled to attend school?”

Up until the 1970s, an Indigenous student could be removed from a school if a non-Indigenous parent complained.

Ms Duren thought that ridiculous — and she had written as much in previous letters — to the Minister of Education, the Child Welfare Department, her local Member of Parliament, and the Aborigines Protection Board, but with no outcome.

This letter, however, would have a different fate.

Buckingham Palace forwarded the letter to the Governor-General who endorsed the letter and sent it to the NSW state government, which in turn passed it onto the Aborigines Protection Board — about whom Ms Duren was complaining.

Forgotten political warrior

In her letter, Ms Duren also protested against the Aborigines Protection Board revoking land designated for Aboriginal reserves.

Emeritus Professor at the University of Newcastle and proud Worimi man, John Maynard, said the letter to the King was a significant moment in the history of Indigenous rights.

“The Crown was actually informed of what was happening as far as Aboriginal people were concerned,” he said.

He said the grandchildren were allowed to return to school two years later, albeit with strict segregation rules.

Mr Maynard, whose grandfather founded the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association with Ms Duren, said she was one of the great forgotten Aboriginal political warriors of the 20th century but largely forgotten from history.

“It’s not rare that someone of this significance, and that history, disappears through that period,” he said.

“I came through the school system in the 50s and 60s and we weren’t in it [the curriculum]. 

“Aboriginal people weren’t in those history books except as a dying race or belonging to the Stone Age.

Letter didn’t stop loss of land

Moruya resident Mary Brierley was educated, in part, thanks to the pioneering efforts of her great-grandmother.

“She was all about education and she used to write lots of letters,” Ms Brierley said.

Ms Brierley grew up in the family home on the banks of the Moruya River. 

It was the same property where Ms Duren lived, wrote her letters from, and died in 1947.

The Brierley Homestead, as it was called, was largely self-sufficient.

It had no electricity, no running water, used kerosene-fuelled Tilley lamps for light, and wooden stoves for cooking.

Ms Brierley remembered the home being transformed into a tent city at Christmas when cousins appeared in droves.

She said they would catch “every fish you could name” from the river for tucker.

Yet, reminiscent of the injustice her great-grandmother wrote to the monarch about, the home was ripped away from the family.

In 1943 the house was compulsorily acquired for the establishment of a Royal Australian Air Force base.

In 1968, title for the house was transferred to the Eurobodalla Shire Council who condemned and demolished the house in 1976, moving the family into Moruya.

“It’s a terrible, terrible thing in this country when Aboriginal people have been taken off their lands.”

The site of the former homestead at Moruya’s North Head has been named a heritage conservation area.

Brierley’s Boat Ramp has recently been upgraded, including a tribute to Jane Duren and acknowledgement of the council’s role in the demise of the house.

Ms Brierley said sharing her great-grandmother’s story at the boat ramp brought justice and healing for her family.