"For the Benedictines, it was a grand experiment. For the two Aboriginal boys the Catholic religious order took to Rome to train as missionaries, it was to be a great adventure. On January 8, 1849, filled with hope and eager expectation, Francis Xavier Conaci, 7, and John Baptist Dirimera, 11, left Perth with Rosendo Salvado, the energetic abbot of the Benedictine monastery at New Norcia, 160 kilometres north of Perth.

This extraordinary journey was part of Salvado's great mission, conducted over more than 50 years, to enculturate the Aborigines into Christianity. He lived and camped with them, wrote dictionaries of their language and lobbied for them with colonial authorities.

Conaci and Dirimera were from the Yuat tribe, and had begged Salvado to take them to Rome. The Benedictines hoped to train the boys in European ways and send them as missionaries to the Aborigines of Western Australia. Advertisement: Story continues below

The Benedictines and the boys' godfather, the colonial secretary of Western Australia, Richard Robert Madden, believed that their intelligence, curiosity and adaptability made them ideal candidates to join the order.

Conaci (meaning Black Cockatoo) and Dirimera were their tribal names, Francis Xavier and John Baptist their baptismal names. They were not the first Aborigines to be taken to Rome: the year before another Benedictine took seven-year-old Benedict Upumera, the first Aboriginal boy baptised at New Norcia, but he died on the way."

Get the Story:
A boys' own adventure (The Age 12/15)