PERCY HASLAM (d.1987)
by John Maynard
Percy Haslum's grandfather, Benjamin Haslam,
came to Newcastle as a boy in 1852, where an uncle, Jos Hasslame
(he misspelled his name to disguise his links with Chartists back
in England) was at Derri-gaba (now Wickham) with Farnham's in
the 1830s. Benjamin Haslam joined the railway c1870 and was the
second night officer appointed to Newcastle Railway Station. He
was later the first station master appointed at Glen Innes and
died there as a young man.
Following in the footsteps of his mother's father,
Thomas Denny, who had worked with the Newcastle Morning Herald
for over 50 years from the 1880s, Percy Haslam joined the Newcastle
Herald in 1933, writing a weekly column on friendly societies,
featuring historical material. He became the Newcastle Herald's
industrial and political roundsman and was later an associate
editor. Haslam was also official historian for the now defunct
Newcastle Friendly Societies Association, the only person to undertake
friendly society research in the region, and was published extensively
in lodge magazines.
Percy Haslam's association and interest with
Aboriginal people, culture and history stretches back to the first
decades of the twentieth century, on visits to Lake Macquarie,
Toronto and Belmont. His "first teachers were people of tribal
tradition" like Berntee, Gommera and Yee-oekarlah, whom he
accompanied on bush trips south of Swansea, Cooranbong, Martinsville
and Mandalong. He was taught the language, and claimed to have
been put through Awabakal "ceremonies when he was about twelve
years of age and given the name Pip-peeta (little Hawk)".
The knowledge and bush hunting skills learned from his Aboriginal
teachers proved invaluable during the years of the depression,
when he supplemented his family's food supplies with "a lot
of duck".
Percy's interest in Aboriginal culture and history
never waned. He read and travelled widely throughout the district
in search of stories and mementos, acknowledging the gifts of
"people who were so kind and painstaking to teach… what
they believed to be true from personal experience and oral tradition".
In about 1960 he was approached by the late Mr. D. R. Blakemore,
then President of the Lake Macquarie Historical Society, to assist
him in a research project concerning the Awabakal tribe, using
the writings of missionary Reverend L. E Threlkeld. Mr. Blakemore
was the first principle of Booragul High School and was a scholar
in languages. It was the intention that Blakemore would conduct
the language research whilst Percy Haslam was to deal with the
cultural and historical content of the study. They began by interviewing
old residents aged 90 to 100, particularly in the Swansea, Martinsville
and Cooranbong areas, where the last pockets of tribal Awabakal
people had survived. They spoke to elderly people who as children
either spoke Awabakal or heard it spoken. They ascertained that
from the 1870s to 1880s Awabakal was freely spoken by white people
as well in Swansea, Pelican and possibly Belmont South. They spent
years checking and rechecking the language and traditional stories
and other information handed down from generation to generation.
Haslam continued the project after Blakemore's sudden death in
the early 1970s. For the next seventeen years he continued his
personal quest in search of knowledge of the local Awabakal people.
On his retirement from the Newcastle Morning Herald in 1977 he
was elected as Convocation Research Fellow at the University of
Newcastle to study the local Awabakal language and culture. In
1981 he left Newcastle for a brief visit to the United Kingdom
primarily to research manuscripts relating to primary settlement
in the Hunter Valley and Port Stephens. He visited Cambridge University
in the company of Professor R.G Tanner, Dean of the Faculty of
Arts, University of Newcastle, who introduced him. Professor Tanner
was a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. Haslam also visited
London for further examination of archives particularly at London
Museum and the Congregation World Church Council because of the
records held there of early missionary efforts in New South Wales.
He was particularly interested in discovering new material relating
to the Lake Macquarie missionary, Reverend L.E Threlkeld, whose
"work on language and culture in our region are as good as
any ever recorded, having regard for the times in which he lived
and limited facilities available to record history". On his
return to Australia, the Institute of Aboriginal Development,
headquartered in the Northern Territory, invited Haslum to join
a steering committee to form the first Aboriginal Languages Association
and to address a workshop at Alice Springs. He was appointed official
historian for the Central Aboriginal Sites Committee covering
the area from the Hawksbury to the upper Hunter and Taree.
In 1984 Percy Haslam received and honorary degree
of Masters of Arts at the University of Newcastle. He was instrumental
and a driving force behind an Awabakal language project, which
began at Gateshead High School in 1986. The University of Newcastle
supported the project, which sought to restore the Awabakal mother
tongue to persons of Aboriginal descent residing in the Hunter.
A link to this project was a weekly program of language lessons
conducted by Percy Haslam on radio station 2NUR called 'Awabakal
Voices'. Haslam said "It would be wonderful if by 1988 we
could return to Aborigines something European society took away
from them, this was a vital facet of their identity their mother
tongue". Percy Haslam took his language and cultural teaching
programs to Aboriginal inmates at Cessnock. One Aboriginal man
at Cessnock related that it gave him a sense of pride and understanding
he had not had before, "the things I am learning here will
mean that I won't be back". As a result of the project at
Cessnock he was approached by the Aborigines Prisoners Progressive
Committee at Long Bay to visit them and conduct monthly visits
to conduct Aboriginal history, language and cultural lectures.
Percy Haslam died suddenly aged 75 in 1987 and remains as a great
loss to the local Aboriginal community.
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