William Wyatt follows Walter Bromley: the Aboriginals’ enlightened 2nd part-time protector
William Wyatt, who succeeded Walter Bromley as South Australia's third part-time protectors of Aboriginals.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
Walter Bromley, whose attitudes were “singularly enlightened for his day” was South Australia’s second part-time Aboriginal protector. Previously, in Nova Scotia, Bromley had shown he totally dismissed the idea that native people were naturally inferior and set out to help them through settlement, agriculture, education and their pride through his own study of their languages.
Walter Bromley was originally a soldier, rising to the rank of captain with the Royal Welch Fusiliers, who saw overseas action including Nova Scotia (1808-10)
In 1813, he returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he founded the Royal Acadian School that offered education for middle- and low-income families, including girls, black and immigrant children. The school was controversial with some of its biggest supporters came from the Nova Scotia elite.
Bromley also started the Poor Man’s Friend Society and devoted himself to Mi'kmaq indigenous people among the poor of Halifax and in the rural communities.
Bromley’s schemes didn't succeed and he returned to England. He arrived in South Australian with its colonial first fleet aboard the Tam O’Shanter in 1836.
Bromley has come to South Australia for the British and Foreign Bible Society and was the colony’s first school teacher. His brief term (1836-37) as South Australia’s part-time protector, when he lived among the Aboriginals and learned their language, was cut short after he was criticised in the Register newspaper as a bad choice for the position.
The Register’s editor, George Stevenson, had been the first part-time protector who had applied to British colonies secretary Lord Glenelg for the position, citing his experience with North American “Indians” and his benevolence. (In 1848, in the SA Gazette and Mining Journal, Stevenson argued that "physically and mentally inferior: Aboriginal race should be superseded by the "superior" white civilisation.)
The third part-time protector William Wyatt took on the role as part of being Adelaide city coroner and colonial magistrate in 1837. Without funding or power, Wyatt never felt comfortable as protector.
Wyatt was criticised but couldn’t give much help to the Aboriginal people. But he learnt Aboriginal cultures, customs and languages.
When the second governor George Gawler, arrived in 1838, Wyatt interpreted his address to the local Aboriginal population. This speech and Wyatt’s Kaurna translation were also published in the Register newspaper.
Bromley was found drowned in the River Torrens in 1838. The Register’s opposition, The Southern Australian felt Bromley had been treated unfairly and had done more for the Aboriginals than Wyatt.
• Quoting Canadian historian Judith Finguard who says Bromley’s contribution to exposuring to the plight of the Mi'kmaq "particularly contributes to his historical significance".
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