WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

The church's exterior is in the inter–war Gothic style. The interior is extraordinary.
Initial work on the altar was undertaken by Father Droste and two Aboriginal boys,
Joseph Neebery (Niada) and Joseph Gregory (Rosie Victor quoted in Nailon and
Heugel 1990). The main altar was decorated by Father Droste, Sister Raymond and a
number of skilled Aboriginal people. They used hundreds of pearl shell, cowries,
volutes and olives, and the side altars are inlaid with the lids, or 'trapdoors' from the
opening of mollusc shells. Whole pearl shell inlays of Pinctada maxima, of great
spiritual significance to Aboriginal people, were used to decorate the main altar and
are featured throughout the church. For many, the use of pearl shell on the altar was a
symbol of the close relationship between the Catholic church and the local Aboriginal
people (Akerman et al. 010). The altar is a place of great beauty, imbued with the
shimmering power of the shell, as the luminescent surfaces reflect the light. Pearl
shell inlays of Christian and Nyul Nyul, Bardi and Nimanborr tribal symbols are also
incorporated into the altar's tiled floor.
Former resident Rosie Victor, a Nyikina woman, remembered being taken in a canoe
by her parents from Sunday Island, via Lombardina Mission, to Beagle Bay Mission
in 1918. 'I had to do the shell work. They had done three altars in the church
already… at the age of twelve I helped in the church putting the shells around the
Stations of the Cross' (Stanley Victor Senior 1, unpublished pamphlet). Aboriginal
people and their descendents often express an ongoing relationship with their former
missions, and speak with fondness of their times there as children. Rosie Victor left,
but later returned to Beagle Bay to bring up her children with her husband, Stanley
Victor Senior, a Nyul Nyul Traditional Owner for the area. Three of their four
children and later Stanley developed leprosy and lived at Bungarun, where Stanley
was known as a medicine man. At the leprosarium, 'the Sisters admired Dad's
trustworthiness and reliability – he was there when he was needed, always involved as
a peacemaker and organiser – and he never complained through his long illness…[he]
…was a competent musician and played the violin and the cello and was a leading
member of Sister Alphonse's orchestra (Stanley Victor Senior 2, unpublished
pamphlet). The family continued to have a long association with Beagle Bay mission.
Their son Stephen returned to the mission to work in various jobs as an adult. He
married his wife Dorothy when she was moved to the mission from Broome in 1962.
In 1964 he re-cemented the Church floor with pearl shells.
The years have brought a number of changes to the Sacred Heart Church. A 12-metre
bell tower was added in the 1920s, and houses the original bell brought by the
Trappist monks, as well as two other bells donated by a German parish. The bell
tower collapsed in September 2001 and was restored in 2002. The church retains a
high degree of authenticity despite the original floor and ceiling finishes being
replaced. Currently the mission is leased to the Beagle Bay Aboriginal community
and the church is the centre of a large and vibrant community under the control of the
Spiritan Missionaries. The church is also a beautiful and unique focal point for the
thousands of visitors touring the Kimberley during the dry season each year.
Some of the missions were initially established to provide protection and rations for
local populations. The twentieth century brought increasing government intervention
in the form of removal of Aboriginal children from their home environments, and this,
along with the offer of per capita subsidies, led missions to cast a wider net in their
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