- Isobel Schenk
Isobel May Johnston (Mysie) Schenk, BEM (1898-1980) was a Christian missionary who worked for many years alongside her husband, Rev.
Rodolphe Samuel Schenk (1888-1969), at the Mt. Margaret Mission inWestern Australia . Rev. Schenk established the mission in 1921, under the auspices of the "Aboriginal Inland Mission" (later the "United Aborigines Mission " (UAM)).Isobel Johnston was a typist when she met Rodolphe Schenk in
Melbourne , where they married. She later "taught crafts to the women" on the mission. The mission was made a central 'rationing station' and was visited by anthropologists and researchers includingA. P. Elkin ,Phyllis Kaberry ,J. B. Birdsell andNorman Tindale .Along with the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, these researchers engaged in the assimilation debates of the day. Rev. Schenk's "unsympathetic and fundamentalist interference with traditional practices" - such as
infanticide , the ritual drinking of blood ... and in-law avoidance laws - attracted criticism from A. P. Elkin, and resistance from Aboriginal elders.Australian Dictionary of Biography
last=Reece
first=R. H. W.
authorlink=
year=1988
id=A110547b
title= Schenk, Rodolphe Samuel (1888 - 1969)
accessdate=2008-10-09 ] Many Aboriginal children were taken to the mission, which had a children's home and a hospital, and mining- and pastoral-related work was carried out there.Isobel May Schenk was awarded the BEM on 31 December 1977 for her work in Aboriginal welfare. She died in October 1980 in Albany, WA. The Rev. and Mrs. Schenk had three daughters and a son, who survived their parents: Margaret Morgan, Esther Milnes, Elizabeth Miller and Roderick.
Notes
References
* [http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0192b.htm Biodata]
* [http://www.liswa.wa.gov.au/pdf/pictorial/schenk/Era5Part2.pdf Battye Library, State Library of WA, one of archives of 'A drop in a bucket' by Margaret Morgan]
* S Preston Walker, 'Enriching Australia through educating indigenous people', S Preston Walker, Camp Hill, QLD, Australia, 2008, ISBN 9780646495569, (United Aborigines Mission missionary 1940-1955).
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