60 Aboriginal people come to Parramatta to share in the annual feast. The Governor and his wife Elizabeth set up a school in Parramatta for the education of Aboriginal children. Macquarie specifically asks Captain Wallace who is part of the Punitive Expedition in Appin (see SouthWest) to bring back healthy children from the “dispersal”. Some Koori (Gandangarra) children are brought in after their families are massacred. After an appeal by Macquarie, six boys and six girls are given over in care to the Native Institute. Some are willingly handed over by their Koori parents.
The famous ‘Native Institute’ is thus established at Parramatta. Macquarie writes “It seems only to require the fostering Hand of Time, Gentle Means and Conciliatory Manners, to bring these poor Unenlightened People into an imported Degree of Civilisation.” Elders who agree to hand their children over probably do not understand that if they leave their children there, they will not be able to get them back.
