Caprice by Doris Pilkington Garimara Read Free Book Online

The watery stews were made from mutton or sausages that tasted slightly off, with unsliced cabbage leaves floating on top, potatoes and sometimes carrots,” said Kate pulling an ugly face. “Weevilly porridge was sweetened with molasses or sugar if it was available. There was at least one redeeming factor, and that was there was always plenty of hot fresh bread, baked daily at the bakehouse, and of course big mugs, or in our cases fruit or Nestles milk tins, of sweet tea. The same fare was served daily and seldom varied.
    â€œYou ate the food served to you or you starved, and you said grace before you sat down to eat a meal.
    â€œIt was always the same prayer, ‘For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful. Amen.’
    â€œWhat I hated most and it always makes me want to puke when I think about it, sometimes we had tinned fruit and custard. Custard indeed, it looked and tasted like lemon coloured glue. Yuk,” said Kate looking positively ill.
    The girls were awakened at 5:30am rain, hail or shine. After breakfast they bathed and dressed for school. Most of the children enjoyed attending classes in the two-roomed school. The infant school (pre-primary) was attached to the kindergarten. Their teacher was Miss Chapman, a slightly built lass with short curly brown hair. Miss Hillman, a very large middle-aged woman with very short curly grey hair, was also the headmistress who taught upper levels (standards 3-8), while a sturdy, spry Yorkshire woman, a Mrs Brinkley, took the lower primary levels (standards1-3). Mrs Brinkley’s class sat at long oaken desks—four to a desk—with individual inkwells.
    â€œI had the most difficult time—I suppose the same as many of my classmates, trying to write with a pen and ink,” said Kate. “I don’t know how many times I got hit across the knuckles, with a command to ‘hold it straight’. They gave up in disgust. ‘Kate Muldune you’ll never learn,’ they said.
    â€œI hated the bloody pens, I am glad we have biros now.”
    The availability of a formal education was seen by inmates not as a privilege but as a right, one to replace the birthright that was taken away from them. All the children looked forward to school because it was a place where pupils could forget their degrading living conditions and their horrible meals and concentrate on more important and far more interesting subjects. Apart from the three Rs there were stories to be heard, stories not about Dreamtime heroes, but about the European heroes such as William Tell, Robin Hood, the Scarlet Pimpernel and others. There were tales of the adventures of “Black Beauty”, “Robinson Crusoe” and “Treasure Island” and more. Myths and legends of foreign countries replaced the mythical beings of their traditional culture.
    Now their mythical beings had names like fairies, elves, witches, goblins and hobyahs. These appeared to be more real to the children because there were colourful pictures of them in many of the books available at the school. Kate’s education was constantly expanding.
    The standard of education was equal to all other state or government schools in Western Australia. This was indicated by requests from the school inspector Mr Thornton for samples of work done by pupils at the Settlement school. The pupils were being groomed to become “model citizens” to be placed in positions of responsibility thatwould enable them to take their places in any level of society—or so they were told.
    The school was the venue for all social functions, such as the monthly dances for the adults from the compound and the camps. The children watched on with delight as the old people danced around the floor. School concerts three times a year were very popular. The pupils enjoyed showing off their skills as performers as they sang, danced and acted out mini dramas. Despite the fact that these