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Abstract: Historian Greg Dening writes of history as performance. In his book Performances, he considers the limits of knowledge, claiming: we cannot describe the past independently of our knowing it, any more than we can describe the present independently of our knowing it. And, knowing it, we create it, we textualise it. That is the circle, hermeneutic if you like, of our human being. In the light of Dening's statement, I would like to reconsider my own exploration of the Australian colonial archive in writing for performance. My point of departure is a performative lecture, The More I Study Nature: Georgiana Molloy and the Code of Modernity, that I wrote as part of a larger creative work - a play, as yet unproduced, called Orchids and Insects. In the performative lecture, I follow the life story of Georgiana Molloy (1805-43), an early settler of Western Australia, and ask my reader - or audience - to consider the codes of knowledge and behaviour that we in the twenty-first century might have inherited from our colonial predecessors. My research journey led me to reflect upon the kind of stories we draw from the past, so that we might know ourselves in the present, and the role performance might play in this. I consider the choices we make about the stories that we as a culture celebrate and also, as I was to discover, the stories that we repress.
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The cover picture is the front of the program of the 2008 of the Story of Buninyong. It encapsulates the program that Buninyong Primary School has developed in its engagement with a larger and more complex history of the school and its positions in the physical and historical landscaper than European versions of Australian history allow. In this report, I have explored some of that complexity. "From introduction"
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This article focuses on Aboriginal language area reconstruction in north-east Victoria, particularly Mogullumbidj, one of the most problematical areas in Victoria. It shows that a careful analysis of primary sources is still capable of generating fresh insights and removing some of the confusion that surrounds language area reconstruction. The re-analysis of primary references shows that none of the earlier delineations, such as Tindale, Barwick, Clark and Wesson, has integrity. The resolution of the significance of the label 'Mogullumbidj" was found by examining the reaction of southwest Victorian aboriginal peoples to the Tasmanian Aboriginal man who accompanied Robinson on his 1841 journey through their lands. This revealed that the word was descriptive and not a linguistic lab
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Since the time of European exploration of Australia, the topography of the continent has been mapped from a colonial cartographic perspective. Colonial government guidelines have ‘controlled’ the knowledge base of understanding of the landscape for non-indigenous Australians. This perspective has lead to a colonial-tainted sense of place for non-Indigenous (and some Indigenous) Australians. Such euro-centric focused governance and management of the development of our understanding of the landscape was strongly exemplified during a recent six-month review of State forest names in Victoria. By the beginning of 2004 over 90 percent of State forests in Victoria did not have officially registered names in the Australian Gazetteer. Thus, the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment employed the researchers to undertake a pilot study program, investigating different methods for officially naming the State forests in the Midlands Region of Victoria. This pilot study program focussed on producing a best practice model for naming State forest areas, which would then be utilised for all State forests across Victoria. It was understood by the researchers that placenames were markers of national, regional, local and personal identity, and as such, part of the State forest review concentrated on recognising all the various historical and contemporary identities apparent in the Midlands region. This attempt to recognise historical and contemporary associations with the State forest areas proved to be a challenge to the researchers. Difficulties arose in multiple areas of the review process. In the first instance, there was difficulty in applying the vague government guidelines on dual-naming, to a practical and tangible situation. In addition, an interesting challenge faced the researchers in trying to recognise Indigenous heritage, within a colonial geographical framework. Indigenous landscape boundaries did not align with the State forest areas designated on official government maps, and in some instances State forest areas contained three Indigenous language borders. Similarly, there were difficulties in engaging the Indigenous communities into the review process. Fluency in some local Indigenous languages had been lost. Some Indigenous groups were involved in inter-factional disagreements. One Indigenous group did not want to have their heritage ‘controlled’ by government naming guidelines. In addition, the local non-indigenous community also proved difficult on occasion, especially in relation to the proposal of dual-naming State forest areas. The notion of native-title claims, and a deficiency of general community understanding in relation to indigenous sense of place was all pervasive, and caused a great deal of resistance to be built against the recognition of Indigenous heritage in the State forest areas. The paper will explore the issues that arise in conducting research that requires an incorporation of more than one dominant cultural ideology. Moreover, strategies utilised in working through these issues, to ensure inclusivity of all identified parties, will be discussed.
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The operation of the Central Board and the Board for the Protection of Aborigines in Victoria has been studied by Marcard, Penney and Clark. There are numerous studies of particular stations and reserves that existed during the operation of the Board; for example, Lake Condah, Framlingham, Ebenezer and Coranderrk. A third tier of study relates to particular individuals and, though these studies are not expressly concerned with their responsibilities as 'Honorary Correspondents' to the Board, they nevertheless discuss relationships with Aborigines. This paper adds to these studies by concentrating on one of those correspondents, Andrew Porteous
Description:
The operation of the Central Board and the Board for the Protection of Aborigines in Victoria has been studied by Marcard, Penney and Clark. There are numerous studies of particular stations and reserves that existed during the operation of the Board; for example, Lake Condah, Framlingham, Ebenezer and Coranderrk. A third tier of study relates to particular individuals and, though these studies are not expressly concerned with their responsibilities as 'Honorary Correspondents' to the Board, they nevertheless discuss relationships with Aborigines. This paper adds to these studies by concentrating on one of those correspondents, Andrew Porteous
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This paper concerns the question of why there are so few named groups in the Woiwurrung language area compared with other language groups to its west and north-west. It does this by analysing the 1863 Governors levee in which representatives from three Aboriginal groups-the Boonwurrung, Woiwurrung and Tara-Waragal-presented gifts to royalty. In seeking to understand who this third group-the Tara-Waragal-was, Stephens (2003) has suggested that they were a Woiwurrung patriline. Wesson (2001) has suggested that the name was a pejorative label applied to a Gippsland group by the Kulin. This study finds that both interpretations are wrong. First, it finds that the name applies to a Brataualung clan, the Yowung, whose country centred on the Tarra and Warrigal creeks-hence the name. Second, it finds that the attempt by Stephens to identify the Tara-Waragal with a possible Woiwurrung patriline identified in a series of sketches by William Thomas found in the RB Smyth Papers was also a failure. Nevertheless, the implication that the sketch maps may reveal up to 53 patrilines is a possibility worth exploring, as it may address the issue of the apparent under-representation of Woiwurrung named groups with which I began. Analysis reveals the possibility of an additional 27 Woiwurrung patrilines. Although the exact number of additional patrilines will never be known, at least we have addressed the issue that within the ethno-historical record it is possible to find additional named groups in Woiwurrung. Thus there was in all likelihood greater internal division in the Woiwurrung than has been reconstructed by Barwick (1984) and Clark (1990).
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This detailed examination of Aboriginal people on the goldfields of Victoria provides striking evidence which demonstrates that Aboriginal people participated in gold mining and interacted with non-Aboriginal people in a range of hitherto neglected ways.
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This paper discusses the value of clan name research as a means of uncovering Aboriginal place names. It argues that clan names are able to provide a layer of place names that in some instances is the only source of information available to researchers of indigenous toponymy. They are an important data set that is useful in the mapping of Aboriginal spatial organization.
Description:
This paper discusses the value of clan name research as a means of uncovering Aboriginal place names. It argues that clan names are able to provide a layer of place names that in some instances is the only source of information available to researchers of indigenous toponymy. They are an important data set that is useful in the mapping of Aboriginal spatial organization.
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"The central station of the Goulburn River Aboriginal Protectorate District at what is now Murchison, which operated from 1840 until 1853, is a significant post-contact Aboriginal site on the Goulburn River. It was the focus of interaction between Aboriginal communities, particularly the Daungwurrung, Ngurai-illam wurrung, and Yorta Yorta peoples, government officials and settlers during the early years of contact in the Port Phillip District. The site continued to hold significance to Aboriginal people after the 1850s, linking pre- and post-contact histories and geographies. Through a meticulous analysis of official correspondence and other protectorate records, private journals, and reminiscences, this study reveals that the Murchison locality is one of the most important historic Aboriginal places in regional Victoria. " --cover.
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At the 2013 conference of the Australian Historical Association, Tim Rowse brandished a recent copy of Arena Journal in its book form as Stolen Lands, Broken Cultures: The Settler-colonial Present, 1 and railed against what he characterized as a ‘festschrift’ to Patrick Wolfe’s self-fulfilling project of the homogenization of Indigenous histories and experiences. He accused Arena of projecting the overarching singular narrative provided by Wolfe’s ‘elimination paradigm’. The session was tense. Rowse was himself subsequently excoriated by Marcia Langton, a member of the same panel, for using the terms ‘half-caste’ and ‘quadroon’ without raising his bunny ears each time these terms were used. "From paper"
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This paper is concerned with the Coranderrk Aboriginal artist Timothy Korkanoon. Research has uncovered more about his life before he settled at the Coranderrk station in 1863. Evidence is provided that five sketches acquired by George Augustus Robinson, the former Chief Protector of Aborigines, in November 1851 in Melbourne, and found in his papers in the State Library of New South Wales, may also be attributed to the work of the young Korkanoon when he was a student at the Merri Creek Baptist Aboriginal School from 1846 to 1847.
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"Natalie Robarts was the last matron of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station at Healesville, from 1909 until 1924. Her husband Charles Robarts served as the station manager. This publication brings together Natalie Robarts's diary and other works, along with reminiscences from her son Maurice, and publications from her journalist son Oswald. It publishes in full, for the first time, the fourth part of her diary that spans the years 1917-1923. A Robarts family genealogy and family histories are also presented" -- from back cover.
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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.