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Colonial Sanitary Statistics and Aboriginal Depopulation
- Wilfrid Laurier University Press
- Chapter
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Colonial Sanitary Statistics and Aboriginal Depopulation B y the late twentieth century residential schools for aboriginal children, in Canada at least, were condemned for the suppression of aboriginal culture, religion and language and numerous instances of physical and sexual abuse. In Nightingale’s day the issue was excessive illness and mortality, with the related fear of ‘‘depopulation ,’’ at least the decline in aboriginal numbers and fears for extinction in some instances. There is simply no discussion either of possible abuse (the informants of course were the authorities themselves) or of language loss. The issue of cultural and religious suppression comes up only obliquely. Nightingale evidently wanted the children to be ‘‘civilized ,’’ which meant to adapt to Western ways and enjoy the advantages of Western science and medicine, but was sensitive to the pace and cost of change. She was interested in such practical questions as clothes for people who normally went without, recognizing that rain runs off naked skin quickly and people can dry themselves easily at a fire, while with clothes on they are chilled and vulnerable to pulmonary disease. It seems that the initial idea of conducting a study of mortality rates in aboriginal schools came from Sir George Grey,1 whom Nightingale met in 1859 when he was governor of Cape Colony, in southern Africa. He had completed a term as governor in New Zealand and was concerned about losses in the Maori population there. Although he later returned to New Zealand, he seems not to have done anything more on the subject (there is further correspondence with him on other matters). Nightingale worked out the questionnaire to collect the data with her close colleague, a doctor and sanitary expert, John Sutherland . She also consulted William Farr, statistician and medical doctor, 1 Sir George Grey (1812-98), after a term as governor of New Zealand, 1845-53, became governor of Cape Colony in 1854. He returned for a second term as governor of New Zealand in 1861, was elected to the New Zealand Parliament in 1875 and later became prime minister. / 163 and Edwin Chadwick, who was then the most prominent ‘‘sanitarian’’ in Britain and himself interested in school questions (especially the incorporation of physical activity with mental). Like Chadwick, Nightingale advocated more physical exercise for schoolchildren in all schools, not just those for aboriginal pupils. She saw the dangers of inactivity as greater for the latter, for they had been taken from ‘‘openair habits’’ and placed in ill-ventilated, overcrowded buildings. The questionnaires were sent out by the Colonial Office; the then colonial secretary was the Duke of Newcastle (1811-64), an acquaintance of Nightingale’s from the Crimean War (he was secretary of state for war 1854-55). Nightingale approached him in 1860 and he was highly supportive of the project. Nightingale herself did the data analysis , including the tedious work of organizing data reported for different time periods into one comparable unit (annual mortality rates). This she described as ‘‘reducing’’ the data. The paper was read at the meetings of the Social Science Congress at Edinburgh in 1863 and published in its Transactions. That it was read by a Colonel Sykes at a meeting of the British Association in Newcastle was ‘‘not an arrangement of mine.’’ Perhaps it was the Duke of Newcastle’s, for the same note states that he asked that the paper not be sent out to the colonial governors and bishops until after that meeting.2 Nightingale also had the material printed separately as a book, with the same title, now including the tables, hence 47 pages.3 In a letter to Dr Farr Nightingale despaired of the quality of the returned questionnaires, inviting him to dinner with an offer to ‘‘show you those scrofulous returns.’’4 She evidently gave him some of the forms, for he replied with some advice. She then thanked him for his ‘‘proposal’’ and asked for the return of the forms. ‘‘All we want is to make a practical proposition for the Duke of Newcastle and this we shall do upon your advice that we have data enough.’’5 To Edwin Chadwick Nightingale reported that the replies were ‘‘imperfect for practical purposes but very interesting for ethnography .’’6 The following year she regretted that she did not have a paper 2 Incomplete letter 29 July 1863, Wellcome (Claydon copy) Ms 9023/44. 3 There is a receipt for £45.9 from Eyre & Spottiswoode, 24 July 1863, for printing and sewing together 300 copies of the...