HMS Sirius, Mosman and NICS

Close to 200 visitors are arriving on Norfolk over this weekend to join in the events planned to commemorate the 225^th anniversary of the wrecking of HMS Sirius at Slaughter Bay on the 19^th March 1790. As the flagship of the First Fleet, the Sirius is arguably Australia’s most important shipwreck and her artefacts the only cultural heritage material we have of the First Fleet. At the museum we are very excited in particular to be welcoming back to the island as special guest speakers, Graeme Henderson and Myra Stanbury both from Western Australia. Graeme led all the 1980s expeditions to recover the Sirius’ artefacts and Myra was the Registrar for these and the 2002 expedition. Now retired, Graeme was the founding Director of the Western Australian Maritime Museum, where Myra still works.  

The Sister Community Agreement between the Municipality of Mosman and Norfolk Island

In addition to the presentations and an official public event to be held at the Sirius monument site on the morning of Thursday the 19^th March by the Office of the Administrator, our Norfolk Island Central School (NICS) children are involved in marking this important historical event in a number of ways.

A video conference will be occurring on the 19^th between Year 7 NICS kids and Mosman Primary school children. Mosman is located on the lower north shore in Sydney and shares a special relationship with Norfolk Island centred on our shared Sirius histories, which was formalised in 1989 with the signing of a Sister Community Relationship Agreement. Since then there have been a number of exchanges between our two locations. In 1990 on the occasion of the 200^th anniversary of the Sirius wrecking, Norfolk Island received a beautiful gift from the people of Mosman of a bas-relief sculpture of the Sirius made by Dr. Alex Sandor Kolozsy that stands in the compound at the back of the Sirius museum.

A handsomely inscribed certificate (photo seen here) confirming the friendship agreement, signed by the then Mayor of Mosman Mr Barry O’Keefe and the then President of the Legislative Assembly of Norfolk Island Mr David Buffett, hangs in the Legislative Assembly offices. It reads:

Bas relief sculpture by Dr. Alex Sandor Kolozsy

Whereas Mosman and Norfolk Island share a strand of the early history of Australia through their association with His Majesty’s Ship Sirius, which following its return from the Cape of Good Hope with food supplies for the fledgling colony of New South Wales, was careened for repairs and refit between 19 June and 7 November, 1789 in a “convenient retired cove” on the north side of the Harbour which became known as Careening Cove and is now Mosman Bay, and which ran aground on the Reef in Sydney Bay, Norfolk Island on 19 March, 1790 and was wrecked whilst carrying personnel and provisions to the Island.

And whereas the Legislative Assembly of Norfolk Island and the Mayor and Aldermen of the Municipality of Mosman have expressed a desire to strengthen the links between peoples of the two communities.

And whereas the Mayor and Alderman of the Municipality of Mosman in Council assembled on the eighth day of August in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Eighty Nine resolved to enter into a Sister Community Relationship with the people of Norfolk Island.

And whereas the President and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Norfolk Island have also agreed to enter into such a Relationship.

Now these presents confirm the establishment of a Sister Community Relationship between the Municipality of Mosman and Norfolk Island to promote greater awareness of our links and to foster understanding, goodwill and exchanges in diverse fields, including culture, education, sport and tourism between Mosman and Norfolk Island.

Our NICS students have been busy preparing the stories they want to share with Mosman Primary including the wrecking event and what is happening on the island for the commemoration. By using video link-up the kids from Mosman and Norfolk Island can engage directly with each other, fostering the sort of understanding and goodwill that the Agreement envisaged.

Other NICS students have also been busy taking footage of themselves around the island to be sent to the ABC TV show BTN (Behind the News) and made into a ‘Rookie Reporter’ segment, bringing the news of the wrecking anniversary and also life generally on Norfolk to all mainland schools across Australia. BTN is watched daily by students in schools around the country. This is a fantastic opportunity to educate many, many children across Australia of the importance of the Sirius to the Nation. It’s also a wonderful opportunity for our students to proudly showcase their island and unique island life. 

Yet more NICS students, this time the youngest ones, will be displaying art work inspired by the wrecking of the Sirius in the windows of the vacant shop at Leeside Arcade. Make sure you call by during the week to admire their work! Our thanks to Carole and Dan Yager for allowing use of the shop.

And lastly, a NICS primary choir will be entertaining our visitors attending the anniversary day luncheon and presentations by Graeme and Myra which will occur under a marquee behind Slaughter Bay. The students have been rehearsing a song they will present alongside colonial era singer Paul Bonner-Jones. Sincere thanks to NICS Principal Michelle Nicholson and teachers Tanya Delaney, Kate Lindstrom and Mark Hall for embracing this important anniversary and involving our students in so many ways.

The wrecking of the Sirius was ‘the’ major disaster of the earliest years of the new colony. Norfolk Island’s place at the very heart of the start of what was to become Australia has the opportunity to be more widely told and acknowledged through the events happening on the island this week.  It’s going to be a great week to be on Norfolk Island!

For more information on the Sirius see the Museum’s dedicated web site at www.hmssirius.com.au

Island Education and Norf'k language

Norfolk Island school girls and teachers in 1896

Over the last few weeks a number of school groups have been in and out of the museum and we have also met with Prof. Peter Muhlhausler on a recent trip, following up on Norf’k language projects. Peter is Professor of Linguistics at Adelaide University and was largely responsible for supporting the initial training of Norf’k language teachers at NICS.

At the prize giving at the school this week, Principal Michelle Nicholson quoted from a report to the NSW Minister for Public Instruction by the first school inspector to visit the island in 1897. He said “The inhabitants of the island, without exception…exhibit considerable interest in the education of their children and cause them to attend school most regularly and punctually”. Michelle remarked on the fact that the education of our children continues to be highly valued on Norfolk.

This began on Pitcairn Island, most probably with John Adam’s conversion and teaching of the children to read using the Bounty Bible and Book of Common Prayer. Brian Mercer records in “An Island Education, A history of the Norfolk Island Central School” that from 1835 all children were compelled to go to school, many attending from the age of six until they were married. He says “In N.S.W. by contrast, it was not until 1880 that the Public Instruction Act made it law for parents to send their children aged 6-14 to school. But even then, children were only required to attend about three days per week. Not until 1916 were pupils in N.S.W. compelled to attend every day”.

On arrival at Norfolk Island on 8 June 1856 one of the first decisions the community made was about founding a school. The first classroom was set up in the New Military Barracks and classes began just six week later on the 14^th of July. Attendance of all children was compulsory. Norfolk Island should stand proud of the fact that with the introduction of legislation in 1857, we were the first in the British Empire to legislate compulsory school attendance.

Clear evidence of the continued value of participation in school life and education on island today, is through the annual awarding of the Queen Victoria Scholarship. Begun in 1887 as a memorial for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee the committee deciding on how the island would commemorate this important event said: On 20^th June Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, will have reigned for fifty years. The event will be commemorated throughout the British Empire. Norfolk Island must not be behind…it (is) highly desirable that a permanent memorial of the happy event should be established on the island. After due consideration and a careful weighing of such suggestions as were brought forward, it was finally decided that this memorial should take the form of an Endowment of (for the present three) Queen Victoria Scholarships in the Norfolk Island Public School. These scholarships are to be obtained by competitive examination”.

In the first year the scholarships were £2 each for the senior winners and £1 for the junior winners. These days the scholarship is still competed for and represents an honour rather than monetary reward. The original Scholarship Board naming all winners between 1887 and 1971 is on display in the Pier Store, the current one being at the school itself.

As we were reminded during Peter Muhlhausler’s visit, the teaching of Norf’k language at the school today is cause for celebration, especially given early efforts to eradicate its use by NSW authorities. This began after 1896 when the executive government of Norfolk was changed from a locally appointed head of government, to a NSW appointed Chief Magistrate.  One of the first acts of the first Chief Magistrate, Colonel Spalding, was to arrange for the 1897 inspection of the school. As well as the positive comment about parental interest in education made in the Report as quoted by Michelle, a key recommendation was that a trained teacher be sent from Sydney to take up the position of Headmaster. However, it was not until 1906 that the first ‘outside’ appointed principal arrived on the island (beginning the system of short-term three to five year appointments which continues to today).

With non-Norfolk Islanders now in charge of the school, it was not long before a concerted effort was made to eradicate the use of the Norfolk language by children when at school. This was initiated in 1915 with a new school rule banning anything but the ‘King’s English’ being spoken during school hours. Infringements would be dealt with by a caning or writing out lines to the effect of “I must not talk gibberish at school”.

This policy followed from a 1914 Memorandum relating to Norfolk Island written by Atlee Hunt, Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Department of External Affairs. In a section headed “The Local Jargon” Hunt wrote:

“It is not picturesque nor effective, and justifies its description as “a barbarous attempt to garrotte the English language”. Its use contributes to maintain a spirit of exclusiveness amongst these folk, and for this reason, as well as because it has no merits to justify its continual existence, it is hoped that its employment may be discouraged in every way”.

The first headmaster to introduce the rule predicted “I feel confident that it is only a matter of a few generations when the island “jargon” will disappear altogether”.  After WWII the policy was not policed as rigorously and in 1987 the policy was reversed, with Norf’k language being included in the school curriculum.

The Norfolk Island Language (Norf’k) Act 2004 allows the teaching of Norf’k at school and affirmed “the right of people to speak and write it freely and without interference or prejudice from Government or other persons”. Norf’k language has been taught as a Secondary School, NSW Board of Studies endorsed elective from 2001. It is now taught to all students from Kindergarten to Year 9.