Banner Credit: The Mirror, Saturday August 28 1951.
Violence and unwanted attention from white men to Aboriginal women often took place in urban areas such as East Perth.
Storytellers remember how white men (known as ‘bunjee men’) would curb-crawl or hang around outside popular gathering areas such as the Kia Ora Wine Saloon or Wellington Square looking to pick up to Aboriginal girls and women for sex.
Local newspapers in the 1950s and ‘60s also ran stories about the “fraternisation of white men and colored or partly colored girls.”
When nineteen year old Noongar woman Violet Indich was interviewed by the ‘The Mirror’ in 1954 about about her experiences with 'bunjee men', she explained:
“They’re starting to call all colored girls gaol bait now. A man has only to be seen talking to us and we get the label…White men starting chasing me when I was 17. At first they started by asking me to go for walks with them…Frequently we girls are accosted by white men. It happens when we are going shopping, to the pictures, or to a café.”
The Mirror, 28 August 1954.
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The Mirror, 28 August 1954
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