Northam – 1840s-50s

After 1841, relations between Europeans and Noongars were generally peaceful.[xiii]

Noongar people were employed as shepherds for European farmers, allowing us to stay on our own country and to live and practice traditional Noongar ways. We let the sheep range freely and relied on our tracking skills to locate the animals and bring them in each afternoon.[xiv]

Noongar women worked as domestic servants in the kitchen and gardens of farmhouses. Usually we lived in humpies or mia mias in the vicinity of the homestead. [xv]

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