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Māori and Aboriginal Women in the Public Eye »
Representing Difference, 1950–2000
Authored by: Karen Fox
Publication date: December 2011
From 1950, increasing numbers of Aboriginal and Māori women became nationally or internationally renowned. Few reached the heights of international fame accorded Evonne Goolagong or Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, and few remained household names for any length of time. But their growing numbers and visibility reflected the dramatic social, cultural and political changes taking place in Australia and New Zealand in the second half of the twentieth century.
This book is the first in-depth study of media portrayals of well-known Indigenous women in Australia and New Zealand, including Goolagong, Te Kanawa, Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Dame Whina Cooper. The power of the media in shaping the lives of individuals and communities, for good or ill, is widely acknowledged. In these pages, Karen Fox examines an especially fascinating and revealing aspect of the media and its history — how prominent Māori and Aboriginal women were depicted for the readers of popular media in the past.
Humanities Research: Volume XVII. No. 2. 2011 »
Cruising Country: Automobilities in non-urban Australia
Edited by: Ursula K. Frederick, Lisa Stefanoff
Publication date: December 2011
Humanities Research is an internationally peer-reviewed journal published by the Research School of Humanities at The Australian National University. The Research School of Humanities came into existence in January 2007 and consists of the Humanities Research Centre, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, National Europe Centre and Australian National Dictionary Centre. Launched in 1997, issues are thematic with guest editors and address important and timely topics across all branches of the humanities.
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Law's Anthropology »
From ethnography to expert testimony in native title
Authored by: Paul Burke
Publication date: November 2011
Anthropologists have been appearing as key expert witnesses in native title claims for over 20 years. Until now, however, there has been no theoretically-informed, detailed investigation of how the expert testimony of anthropologists is formed and how it is received by judges. This book examines the structure and habitus of both the field of anthropology and the juridical field and how they have interacted in four cases, including the original hearing in the Mabo case. The analysis of background material has been supplemented by interviews with the key protagonists in each case. This allows the reader a unique, insider’s perspective of the courtroom drama that unfolds in each case. The book asks, given the available ethnographic research, how will the anthropologist reconstruct it in a way that is relevant to the legal doctrine of native title when that doctrine gives a wide leeway for interpretation on the critical questions: what is the relevant grouping, what can be counted as a traditional law and when has there been too much change of tradition? How will such evidence be received by judges who are becoming increasingly sceptical about experts tailoring their evidence to suit the party which called them? This book answers these questions by assuming that there is more at stake here than the mere performance of roles. Rather, there is a complex interaction of distinct social fields each with its own habitus, and individual actors are engaged in an active and constructive agency, however subtle, which the painstaking research for this book uncovers.
Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 35 »
Edited by: Shino Konishi, Maria Nugent
Publication date: November 2011
In this volume, Grace Karskens extends her cross-cultural research on early colonial New South Wales by focusing on the uses of European clothing by Aboriginal men. Leah Lui-Chivizhe describes the participation of Torres Strait Islander men in railway construction work in Western Australia. Noah Riseman focuses on the life of one man to explore the experience of institutionalisation as a member of the Stolen Generations and later as a member of the Australian armed forces. Both these articles reflect on the nature of personal and collective remembrance, the ethics of using oral testimony in writing Indigenous history, and the relationship between oral and archival evidence. Ian D. Clark’s article answers Michael Connor’s refutation of the ‘Convincing Ground’ massacre and gives his own interpretations and conclusions regarding the evidence.
Christine Choo and Peta Stephenson, leaders of research into Aboriginal–Asian relations, have edited a special section on this topic, 30 years after James Urry’s Aboriginal History 1981 volume 5 on the same theme. They note in their introduction that the four papers together ‘retrieve pre-colonial and colonial relationships that place white settler narratives of Australia’s social development in a wider perspective. In the process, they challenge the ideological foreclosures and sometimes methodological timidity of mainstream nationalist histories’. Campbell Macknight published a piece in the 1981 volume on his research into contact between Macassans and Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land; in this volume, he reflects on the development of his own scholarship and on research in this area. Anna Shnukal did not contribute a piece to the 1981 volume, but in 1985 (Volume 9) she published an article on Torres Strait Islander creole. Her contribution this time focuses on Filipinos in the outer Torres Strait islands and the families they established with Indigenous women. Marriage is also the theme in Julia Martínez’s article, exploring marriages between Indonesian men and Indigenous Australian women. Victoria Haskins documents one Chinese family’s efforts to be allowed to employ Aboriginal workers in the early twentieth century.
Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra.
For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Echoes of the Tambaran »
Masculinity, history and the subject in the work of Donald F. Tuzin
Edited by: David Lipset, Paul Roscoe
Publication date: October 2011
In the Sepik Basin of Papua New Guinea, ritual culture was dominated by the Tambaran —a male tutelary spirit that acted as a social and intellectual guardian or patron to those under its aegis as they made their way through life. To Melanesian scholarship, the cultural and psychological anthropologist, Donald F. Tuzin, was something of a Tambaran, a figure whose brilliant and fine-grained ethnographic project in the Arapesh village of Ilahita was immensely influential within and beyond New Guinea anthropology. Tuzin died in 2007, at the age of 61. In his memory, the editors of this collection commissioned a set of original and thought provoking essays from eminent and accomplished anthropologists who knew and were influenced by his work. They are echoes of the Tambaran.
The anthology begins with a biographical sketch of Tuzin’s life and scholarship. It is divided into four sections, each of which focuses loosely around one of his preoccupations. The first concerns warfare history, the male cult and changing masculinity, all in Melanesia. The second addresses the relationship between actor and structure. Here, the ethnographic focus momentarily shifts to the Caribbean before turning back to Papua New Guinea in essays that examine uncanny phenomena, narratives about childhood and messianic promises. The third part goes on to offer comparative and psychoanalytic perspectives on the subject in Fiji, Bali, the Amazon as well as Melanesia. Appropriately, the last section concludes with essays on Tuzin’s fieldwork style and his distinctive authorial voice.
Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition »
Edited by: Martin Thomas, Margo Neale
Publication date: June 2011
In 1948 a collection of scientists, anthropologists and photographers journeyed to northern Australia for a seven-month tour of research and discovery—now regarded as ‘the last of the big expeditions’. The American–Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land was front-page news at the time, but 60 years later it is virtually unknown. This lapse into obscurity was due partly to the fraught politics of Australian anthropology and animus towards its leader, the Adelaide-based writer-photographer Charles Mountford. Promoted as a ‘friendly mission’ that would foster good relations between Australia and its most powerful wartime ally, the Expedition was sponsored by National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution and the Australian Government. An unlikely cocktail of science, diplomacy and popular geography, the Arnhem Land Expedition put the Aboriginal cultures of the vast Arnhem Land reserve on an international stage.
'I Succeeded Once' »
The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula, 1839–1840
Authored by: Marie Hansen Fels
Publication date: May 2011
In ‘I Succeeded Once’ – The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula, 1839-1840, Marie Fels makes the work of William Thomas accessible to anthropologists, archaeologists, historians and the descendants of the Aboriginal people he wrote about. More importantly, people who live, work, study, holiday or just have a general interest in the area from Melbourne to Point Nepean can learn about the original inhabitants who walked the land before it was cleared for agriculture and urban development. Of course, development of the Mornington Peninsula is ongoing and this book will help those involved in development or the management of Aboriginal cultural heritage to identify, document and protect Aboriginal places that may not be identifiable through archaeological investigations alone. Marie Fels supplements Thomas’s writings with other contemporary accounts and her exhaustive historical research sheds new light on critical events and the significant places of the Boon Wurrung people. Of particular importance is the critical review of information about the kidnapping of Boon Wurrung people from the Mornington Peninsula.
Winner of the Best Community Research, Register, Records at the Community History Awards by the Royal Historical Society of Victoria and the Public Record Office of Victoria in 2011.
For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
In Good Faith? »
Governing Indigenous Australia through God, Charity and Empire, 1825-1855
Authored by: Jessie Mitchell
Publication date: January 2011
In the early decades of the 19th century, Indigenous Australians suffered devastating losses at the hands of British colonists, who largely ignored their sovereignty and even their humanity. At the same time, however, a new wave of Christian humanitarians were arriving in the colonies, troubled by Aboriginal suffering and arguing that colonists had obligations towards the people they had dispossessed. These white philanthropists raised questions which have shaped Australian society ever since.
Did Indigenous Australians have rights to land, rationing, education and cultural survival? If so, how should these be guaranteed, and what would people have to give up in return? Would charity and paternalism lead to effective government or dismal failure – to a powerful defence of an oppressed people, or to new forms of oppression?
In Good Faith? paints a vivid picture of life on Australia’s first missions and protectorate stations, examining the tensions between charity and rights, empathy and imperialism, as well as the intimacy, dependence, resentment and obligations that developed between missionary philanthropists and the people they tried to protect and control. In this work, Mitchell brings to life hitherto neglected moments in Australia’s history, and traces the origins of dilemmas still present today.
For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 34 »
Edited by: Shino Konishi, Maria Nugent
Publication date: January 2011
In this volume, Mitchell Rolls reconsiders the question of silence in Aboriginal history by examining a wide range of literature on Indigenous themes, which was produced during the period dubbed by W.E.H. Stanner as the ‘Great Australian Silence’. Felicity Jensz uncovers the significance of matrimony in Moravian missionaries’ attempts to Christianise Aboriginal people in the nineteenth century, and Anne McGrath traces the history and continuing legacy of relationships between Aboriginal and Irish people in Australia. Meg Parsons’ study is focused on Sir Raphael Cilento, an often overlooked figure who oversaw Queensland’s Aboriginal leprosy management strategies in the 1930s and the establishment of the Fantome Island leprosarium. Pamela McGrath and David Brooks examine William Grayden’s 1957 film Their Darkest Hour, and how it was interpreted by contemporary audiences, Indigenous activists and, finally, the Ngaanyatjarra people’s perceptions of the film now. Martin Thomas looks at the 1948 American–Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, the Indigenous response to it and its continuing legacy. Sylvia Kleinert discusses the little-known history of Bill Onus’s Aboriginal Enterprises, a tourist outlet that fostered an influential Indigenous art scene in Melbourne and its impact on Aboriginal identity formation in south-eastern Australia. Jessie Mitchell examines questions of Aboriginal cultural performance in her study of the Aboriginal reception of Prince Alfred’s 1868 royal tour. Finally, Petter Naessan gives a rich linguistic history of the name Coober Pedy, evaluating a range of sources each claiming different Indigenous etymological origins of the name.
Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra.
For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Demographic and Socioeconomic Outcomes Across the Indigenous Australian Lifecourse »
Evidence from the 2006 Census
Authored by: Nicholas Biddle, Mandy Yap
Publication date: December 2010
Across almost all standard indicators, the Indigenous population of Australia has worse outcomes than the non-Indigenous population. Despite the abundance of statistics and a plethora of government reports on Indigenous outcomes, there is very little information on how Indigenous disadvantage accumulates or is mitigated through time at the individual level. The research that is available highlights two key findings. Firstly, that Indigenous disadvantage starts from a very early age and widens over time. Secondly, that the timing of key life events including education attendance, marriage, childbirth and retirement occur on average at different ages for the Indigenous compared to the non-Indigenous population. To target policy interventions that will contribute to meeting the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) Closing the Gap targets, it is important to understand and acknowledge the differences between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous lifecourse in Australia, as well as the factors that lead to variation within the Indigenous population.