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The tourism spectacle of fire making at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, Victoria, Australia–a case study

  • Authors: Clark, Ian , McMaster, Sarah , Roberts, Phillip , Cahir, David (Fred) , Wright, Wendy
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Heritage Tourism Vol. 15, no. 3 (2020), p. 249-266
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  • Description: This paper explores the emergence of traditional Aboriginal fire making practices as a tourism spectacle at the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station near Healesville, Victoria, Australia, in the late nineteenth century. Coranderrk was an important site where domestic and international tourism intersected with efforts of the state to Europeanise and Christianise its Aboriginal residents. It highlights the agency of Aboriginal people in this emergence. Through a survey of the myriad uses of fire in Aboriginal society, it contrasts Aboriginal methods of making fire with European methods as a way of contextualising the tourist interest in fire making demonstrations. Fire making was the perfect foil for tourism – it easily incorporated aspects of performance – such as the build, the show, the closer, and the hat. The skill of fire making was a demonstration of ‘Aboriginality’, and its appropriation by tourism was a means by which a traditional craft was maintained and sustained. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Volcanism in Aboriginal Australian oral traditions : Ethnographic evidence from the Newer Volcanics Province

  • Authors: Wilkie, Benjamin , Cahir, David (Fred) , Clark, Ian
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research Vol. 403, no. (2020), p. 1-11
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  • Description: This article collects and presents nineteenth-century ethnographic evidence from the Newer Volcanics Province of Australia and explores how volcanism was recorded and understood in Aboriginal oral traditions. It investigates whether Aboriginal Australian oral traditions can be understood as persistent eyewitness accounts of volcanic eruptions in the Newer Volcanics Province, how andwhat kind of geological and volcanological knowledge was embedded within Aboriginal Australian oral traditions, and considers what value the ethnographic evidence has for understanding both the socio-cultural and geological histories of the Newer Volcanics Province.

"My Country all gone the white men have stolen it" : The invasion of Wadawurrung Country 1800-1870

  • Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Book
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  • Description: "The Wadawurrung are the Aboriginal people whose Country includes the cities now known as Ballarat and Geelong. Fred Cahir examines the contact history in the period 1800-1870 of the Wadawurrung and the ngamadjidj (generally translated as white stranger belonging to the sea). Divided into chronological and thematic section, the book chronicles three waves of invasion: the early invasion period incorporating trespassers predominately from the sea, the sheepherders or squatters who followed in their wake and usurped the Wadawurrung of all their Country for sheep runs, and the third wave of invaders - the gold seekers. This historical study is transformative as it presents a compelling argument of how the Wadawurrung were active agents of change and sought cultural enrichment in the midst of the frontier war on their Country." --back cover.

The aboriginal adjustment movement in colonial Victoria

  • Authors: Cahir, David (Fred) , Kerin, Rani , Rippon, Kylie
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Journal article , Conference paper
  • Relation: Journal of Religious History Vol. 43, no. 4 (2019), p. 478-494
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  • Description: Whilst much has been written about Aboriginal religious syncretism in Australia, particularly about what has become known as the “Adjustment Movement” that occurred in Arnhem Land in the 1950s (see McIntosh 2004), there were several remarkable examples of spiritual adjustment by Aboriginal people a century earlier on the Victorian goldfields that hitherto have not been explored by historians. Building on Magowan's (2003) discussion of the connection between Christianity and the ancestral law of Aboriginal culture in northern Australia, this article will examine how Christian influences in colonial Victoria competed with, and conversely moulded, southern Kulin ancestral understanding. Several Kulin ceremonies — including the Myndee ceremony and the “Veinie Sacred Sunday Dance” — will be examined. These ceremonies were described by colonial officials (Joseph Panton, a Gold Commissioner, and William Thomas, the Aboriginal Guardian of Aborigines in Victoria) in the midst of a second wave of invasion and rupture for Victorian Aboriginal people — the first being the sheep herders in the 1830s, and the second being the gold rush which commenced in 1851. Serving as exemplars of what might be called the Victorian Aboriginal Adjustment Movement, these ceremonies demonstrate the extent to which Aboriginal people on the goldfields of Victoria engaged in a culturally congruent mode of Christianity. © 2019 Religious History Association

"All that appears possible now is to mitigate as much as possible the trials of their closing years"

  • Authors: Cahir, David (Fred) , Tout, Dan
  • Date: 2018
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Australian Journal of Politics and History Vol. 64, no. 2 (2018), p. 177-193
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  • Description: This article examines Alfred Deakin’s attitudes towards, and impacts upon, Aboriginal people during the period 1880-1910, drawing on newspaper articles and parliamentary debates as principal source materials. The discussion begins by charting the long, influential and often positive relationships Deakin had with several Aboriginal communities during a period as a Victorian MLA between 1881 and 1884. It then proceeds to document Deakin’s extraordinary descent into paternalism and racially-based fatalism which pervaded his later association with Aboriginal affairs whilst Victoria’s Chief Secretary (1886–1890), Victorian MLA for Essendon and delegate to Federal conventions (1890-1900), as the Federation debates took shape. And finally, the article outlines the attitudes Deakin expressed towards Aboriginal people in his various post-Federation political roles, including Attorney-General, Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs. In doing so, the discussion draws out the connections between Deakin’s advocacy of a white Australia and his attitudes towards Aboriginal Australia, and demonstrates the extent to which the creation of a new nation both informed and responded to socio-racial ideologies that mandated the exclusion of non-white identities from the nation-to-come

Aboriginal biocultural knowledge in South-eastern Australia : Perspectives of early colonists

  • Authors: Cahir, David (Fred) , Clark, Ian , Clarke, Philip
  • Date: 2018
  • Type: Text , Book
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  • Description: Indigenous Australians have long understood sustainable hunting and harvesting, seasonal changes in flora and fauna, predator-prey relationships and imbalances, and seasonal fire management. Yet the extent of their knowledge and expertise has been largely unknown and under-appreciated by non-Aboriginal colonists, especially in the south-east of Australia where Aboriginal culture was severely fractured. Aboriginal Biocultural Knowledge in South-eastern Australia is the first book to examine historical records from early colonists who interacted with south-eastern Australian Aboriginal communities and documented their understanding of the environment, natural resources such as water and plant and animal foods, medicine and other aspects of their material world. This book provides a compelling case for the importance of understanding Indigenous knowledge, to inform discussions around climate change, biodiversity, resource management, health and education. It will be a valuable reference for natural resource management agencies, academics in Indigenous studies and anyone interested in Aboriginal culture and knowledge.

The importance of the Koala in Aboriginal society in nineteenth-century Victoria (Australia) : A reconsideration of the archival record

  • Authors: Schlagloth, Rolf , Cahir, David (Fred) , Clark, Ian
  • Date: 2018
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Anthrozoos Vol. 31, no. 4 (2018), p. 433-441
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  • Description: The principal aim of this study was to provide a close examination of nineteenth-century archival records that relate to Victorian Aboriginal people’s associations with koalas, in order to gain a greater understanding of the utilitarian and symbolic significance of koalas for Aboriginal communities, as recorded by colonists during the early period of colonization. The etymology of “koala” is discussed, before an examination is made of the animal’s spiritual importance, associated cultural traditions, and simultaneous utilitarian role. At the time of European colonization in 1788, koalas were probably found in coastal and lowland forests and woodlands across southern, central and north-eastern Victoria.

Landscape, koalas and people : A historical account of koala populations and their environment in South Gippsland

  • Authors: Wedrowicz, Faye , Wright, Wendy , Schlagloth, Rolf , Santamaria, Flavia , Cahir, David (Fred)
  • Date: 2017
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Australian Zoologist Vol. 38, no. 4 (2017), p. 518-536
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  • Description: We present an ecological history of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) population and its environment in South Gippsland, Victoria, both pre- and post-European settlement. We consider the role that the region's history may have had on the genetic structure of the current koala population in South Gippsland, which is the only known koala population in Victoria that does not originate from animals re-introduced as part of the Victorian translocation program. Following European colonisation of Australia, a range of anthropogenic factors, including hunting for the fur trade, resulted in widespread population declines for the koala. In Victoria, the situation was extreme. Currently, many koala populations in Victoria are derived from only a few individuals which existed less than 120 years ago. These populations therefore have comparatively low genetic diversity, a factor that plays a key role in long term population viability. In Victoria, the koala is not listed as a threatened species. Despite the low genetic diversity of most populations, the species is widely distributed across the state, and relatively common. Indeed, some populations are considered overabundant. However, many koala populations are not abundant, and population data are lacking for most. The South Gippsland koala population is of high conservation significance as it has greater genetic diversity compared to other Victorian populations, though there is little additional data to inform its conservation. An improved understanding of genetic diversity and gene flow between populations across the koala's range is required to guide the conservation of genetic diversity in this species. Monitoring population size, health and genetic relationships both within and between koala populations will enable better conservation outcomes.

The centrality of Aboriginal cultural workshops and experiential learning in a pre-service teacher education course: a regional Victorian University case study

  • Authors: Weuffen, Sara , Cahir, David (Fred) , Pickford, Aunty Marjorie
  • Date: 2017
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Higher Education Research & Development Vol. 36, no. 4 (2017), p. 838-851
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  • Description: This paper discusses a cross-cultural pedagogical approach, couched in a theory-practice nexus, used at a Victorian regional university to guide non-Indigenous pre-service teachers' (PSTs) engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and cultures. We have drawn on qualitative and statistical data, and current issues in Australian and international literature, to explore the relevance and success suggested by data from this cross-cultural pedagogical approach, in particular the notion of teacher ethnicity in racialised spaces. In doing so, we have addressed recent sentiments about a lack of quantitative and qualitative research that explores inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and discussions of ways in which tertiary educators construct and influence teachings about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. It is anticipated that this paper will generate further dialogue and research-based evidence on ways in which other tertiary education providers may draw on cross-cultural theories to guide inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and perspectives in PST education courses.

The children of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate : An anthology of their reminiscences

  • Authors: Clark, Ian , Cahir, David (Fred)
  • Date: 2016
  • Type: Text , Book
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  • Description: During the life of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate from 1839 until late 1849 some 35 children of the Protectors were associated with the Protectorate. These children have been largely neglected by scholars and rendered historically invisible. Six of them have however left 28 distinct records of their experiences. In this work we hear the voice of Protectorate children - the authors bring them out of the shadows of their fathers and allow them to appear as influential actors in their own right, with their own motivations, goals, ideas, and relationships with Aboriginal people. Detailed biographical entries, where possible, are included on every protectorate child and on their spouses. For the first time, the reminiscences of William Jackson Thomas and Albert Le Souef are published in their entirety, and all of the writings of the Protectorate's children are brought together so that their contribution to our understanding of the Protectorate may be acknowledged and interpreted.

The mystery of the Moranghurk sculptures

  • Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
  • Date: 2016
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Goldfields and the gothic : A hidden heritage & folklore p. 143-150
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  • Description: Since the earliest colonial days in Australia there have been a large number of reports of what have variously been described as stone carving, rock sculptures, earthen sculptures and rock engravings by Aboriginal people. The most prominent of these has been on the wooden sculptures emanating from northern Australia. Few anthropologists have minutely reported on what McCarthy described as examples of Aboriginal 'plastic art'. Aboriginal sculptures 'crudely fashioned' from beeswax, some of them 'made to represent human figures' but more generally 'modelled' to represent 'kangaroos, turtles, goannas, crocodiles and birds'. One of the most widely reported earthen carvings in what is now known as Victoria was described as the Challicum Bunyip. This was reputed to be an outline of a creature known as a bunyip, which was gouged into the ground. Other accounts of life-sized Aboriginal sculpture in Victoria are not numerous but certainly extant.

Winda lingo parugoneit or Why set the bush on fire? Fire and Victorian Aboriginal people on the colonial frontier

  • Authors: Cahir, David (Fred) , McMaster, Sarah , Clark, Ian , Kerin, Rani , Wright, Wendy
  • Date: 2016
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Australian Historical Studies Vol. 47, no. 2 (2016), p. 225-240
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  • Description: There is an ethnographic and historical record that, despite its paucity, can offer specific insight into various contextual matters (purpose, motivations, acknowledgement) relating to how and why fire was being used by Victorian Aboriginal people in the nineteenth century. This insight is essential to developing cross-culturally appropriate land and fire management strategies in the present and into the future. This article demonstrates the need for further research into historical accounts of Aboriginal burning in Victoria.

'John and Jackey': An exploration of Aboriginal and Chinese people's associations on the Victorian goldfields

  • Authors: Cahir, David (Fred) , Clark, Ian
  • Date: 2015
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Australasian Mining History Vol. 13, no. No. (2015), p. 23-41
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  • Description: While much has been written about Chinese miners, much less has been said about Aboriginal miners and even less about Aboriginal-Chinese relations on the gold fields and elsewhere. Historians and other writers, such as Stephenson, Dunstan, Gittins, Cronin, Ramsay and Edwards and Shen, have largely ignored Aboriginal associations with Chinese people in colonial Victoria. Eric Rolls's study is representative of this absence - when discussing Australia's colonial racial policies towards the Chinese on the Victorian gold fields, Rolls is reluctant to draw many parallels between the Chinese, one group of people largely hidden from the historical gaze, and Aborigines, another group almost expunged from memory. A similar pattern can be seen in the historiography of encounters in other nations between Indigenous and Chinese people, such as in New Zealand and British Columbia where the paucity of the records initially led Yu to note: 'Here was a world only glimpsed'.

'We had a good many visits from them': Aboriginal/Scottish shared performance spaces on the Victorian frontier

Finding Indigenous history in the RHSV collections

  • Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
  • Date: 2014
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Victorian Historical Journal Vol. 85, no. 1 (2014), p. 12-30
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  • Description: This paper is a fuller version of a lecture delivered at the RHSV for the Annual Melbourne Day Lecture in 2011, which focused on locating Aboriginal history in the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV) collections. This paper highlights some of my finds within the RHSV archives over the years - sometimes just a rakish sentence, and other times a major peeling back of the historical onion. In addition, the strengths and challenges of researching Aboriginal history, and specifically at the RHSV, are discussed, providing a greater indication of the enormous worth of the RHSV manuscript collection in adding to our knowledge of the impact of Aboriginal Victorians on the development of the colony.

Introduction : The songlines of the Scots in Australia

  • Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
  • Date: 2014
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Scots under the Southern Cross p. 7-12
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  • Description: 'Scots Under the Southern Cross' is a collection of essays from speakers at the Scottish Symposium held in Ballarat 9-11 May 2014. The chapters reflect the many styles, themes and formats embracing the Scottish Diaspora in Australia. This publication complements the Art Gallery of Ballarat Exhibition 'For Auld Lang Syne: Images of Scottish Australia from First Fleet to Federation'. The five interrelated sections of 'Scots Under the Southern Cross' are: 'Retrospect', 'The Scots in Aboriginal Australia', 'Biographical Studies of Scottish Australians', 'Scottish Artists on Australia' and 'Commemorating Scotland in Australia'. The essays tell the stories of Scottish immigrants and their successful establishment of economic and cultural networks in Australia. These chapters hopefully will form a basis for expansion into research of the Scottish diaspora and the way the Scots and their descendants have contributed to adapted to Australian conditions.

John Green, manager of Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, but also a 'Ngamadjidj? New insights into his work with Victorian Aboriginal people in the ninteenth century

  • Authors: Clark, Ian , Cahir, David (Fred)
  • Date: 2014
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Colonial contexts and postcolonial theologies : Story weaving in the Asia-Pacific p. 129-144
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  • Description: As a result of recommendations from the New South Wales Legislative Council Select Committee appointed in June 1849 to assess the success or failure of the Aboriginal Protectorate system in Port Phillip, the protectorate was dismantled in late 1849. The abolition of the Protectorate heralded a decade of laissez faire policy and neglect of Aboriginal people in Victoria. William Thomas, the assistant protector responsible for the Melbourne or Western Port Protectorate District, was retained and given the title of 'Guardian of Aborigines', but he concentrated on Aboriginal people living or visiting Melbourne.

The Mãori presence in Victoria, Australia, 1830-1900 : A preliminary analysis of Australian sources

Why did squatters in colonial Victoria use Indigenous placenames for their sheep stations?

  • Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
  • Date: 2014
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Indigenous and minority placenames : Australian and international perspectives (Aboriginal history series) Chapter 12 p. 225-238
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  • Description: The archival records of many squatters in 19th century Victoria (formerly known as the Port Phillip District) often contain brief references to the processes involved in and decisions that led to the naming of their pastoral leases. This documentation is hardly surprising given that a squatter wishing to obtain a pastoral license would have to register a legal document with the colonial government, stating among other things the name of the run. What is perplexing is why a large number of pastoralists chose an Indigenous name - given that squatters were not under any instructions to bestow 'native names' whenever possible - unlike the surveyors who came after them.

"Devil been walk about tonight - not devil belonging to blackfellow, but white man devil. Methink Burke and Wills cry out tonight " What for whitefellow not send horses and grub?" An exmination of Aboriginal oral traditions of colonial explorers.