Aboriginal History

Volume twenty-four 2000 Aboriginal History Incorporated The Committee of Management and the Editorial Board Peter Read (Chair), Rob Paton (Secretary), Peter Grimshaw (Treasurer/Public Officer), Richard Baker, Gordon Briscoe, Aim Curthoys, Brian Egloff, Julie Finlayson, Geoff Gray, Ribnga Green, Niel Gunson, Luise Hercus, David Johnston, Harold Koch, Isabel McBryde, Ingereth Macfarlane, Francis Peters-Little, Deborah Bird Rose, Ian Howie-Willis, Elspeth Young. Correspondents Jeremy Beckett, Valerie Chapman, Ian Clark, Eve Fesl, Fay Gale, Ronald Lampert, Campbell Macknight, Ewan Morris, John Mulvaney, Andrew Markus, Bob Reece, Henry Reynolds, Shirley Roser, Lyndall Ryan, Bruce Shaw, Tom Stannage, Robert Tonkinson, James Urry. Aboriginal History is a refereed journal that aims to present articles and information in the field of Australian ethnohistory, particularly in the post-contact history of the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Historical studies based on anthropological, archaeological, linguistic and sociological research, including comparative studies of other ethnic groups such as Pacific Islanders in , will be welcomed. Issues include recorded oral traditions and biographies, narratives in local languages with translations, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, resumes of current events, archival and bibliographic articles, and book reviews. This volume of the journal is formally dated 2000, but is published in 2001. Aboriginal History is administered by an Editorial Board which is responsible for all unsigned material in the journal. Views and opinions expressed by the authors of signed articles and reviews are not necessarily shared by Board members. The editors invite authors to submit contributions to either the journal or monograph series for consideration; reviews will be commissioned by the reviews editor. Editors 2000 Managing Editor, Ian Howie-Willis; Reviews Editor, Luise Hercus. Aboriginal History Monograph Series Published occasionally, the monographs present longer discussions or a series of articles on single subjects of contemporary interests. Previous monograph titles are: D. Barwick, M. Mace and T. Stannage (eds), Handbook of Aboriginal and Islander History; Diane Bell and Pam Ditton, Law: The old and the new; Peter Sutton, Country: Aboriginal boundaries and land ownership in Australia; Link-Up (NSW) and Tikka Wilson, In the Best Interest of the Child? Stolen Children: Aboriginal pain/white shame; Jane Simpson and Luise Hercus, History in Portraits. Biographies of nineteenth-century South Australian Aboriginal people; Diane Barwick, Rebellion at Coranderrk, Dennis Foley and Ricky Maynard, Repossession of Our Spirit: Traditional Owners of Northern Sydney. Contacting Aboriginal History All correspondence should be addressed to Aboriginal History, Box 2837 GPO Canberra, 2601, Australia. Sales, orders and subscriptions: Science Media, PO Box 4599, Kingston, ACT 2604, email: [email protected]. Acknowledgement Aboriginal History Inc. gratefully acknowledges the support of the School of Humanities, History, The Australian National University. © 2001 Aboriginal History Inc., Canberra, Australia. Apart for any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher. Typesetting: Tikka Wilson Printed in Australia by ANU Printing, Canberra ISSN 0314-8769 Aboriginal History

Volume 24 2000

Ian Howie-Willis Preface vi

Introduction vii

Robert Foster Rations, co-existence, and the colonisation of 1 Aboriginal labour in the South Australian pastoral industry, 1860-1911

Karl Neuenfeldt and ‘Our home, our land...something to sing about’: an 27 Kathleen Oien Indigenous music recording as identity narrative

Frank Bongiorno Aboriginally and historical consciousness: Bernard 39 O’Dowd and the creation of an Australian national im aginary

Pamela A. Smith Into the Kimberley: the invasion of Sturt Creek basin 62 (Kimberley region, Western Australia) and evidence of Aboriginal resistance

Pamela A. Smith Station camps: legislation, labour relations and rations 75 on pastoral leases in the Kimberley region, Western A ustralia

Minoru Hokari From Wattie Creek to Wattie Creek: an oral historical 98 approach to the Gurindji walk-off

Murray Johnson ‘Cranial connnections’: Queensland’s ‘Talgai skull’ 117 debate of 1918 and custodianship of the past

R.C. Petersen Instructing the Indians at Botany Bay 132

John Morris Memories of the buffalo shooters: Joe Cooper and the 141 Tiwi, 1895-1936

Isabel McBryde Travellers in storied landscapes: a case study in 152 exchanges and heritage

Geoffrey Gray ‘[The Sydney school] seem[s] to view the Aborigines 175 as forever unchanging’: southeastern Australia and Australian anthropology iv ABORIGINAL HISTORY 2000 VOL 24

Brian Egloff ‘Sea long stretched between’: perspectives of 200 Aboriginal fishing on the south coast of in the light of Mason v Tritton

Stephanie Anderson French anthropology in Australia, a prelude: the 212 encounters between Aboriginal Tasmanians and the expedition of Bruny d’Entrecasteaux, 1793

Benjamin Richard The Ayapathu people of Cape York Peninsula: a case 224 Sm ith of tribal resurgence

In Memory of Kwementyaye Perrurle P erk in s

Gordon Briscoe Kwementyaye Perrurle Perkins: a personal memoir 253 Ann Curthoys Charles Perkins: ‘no longer around to provoke, irritate 256 and inspire us all’

Niel Gunson The imprimatur of Charles Perkins on A b o rig in a l 258 H istory

Notes and documents

James F. Weiner The epistemological foundations of contemporary 260 Aboriginal religion: some remarks on the Ngarrindjeri

R e v ie w s

Frontier Lands and Pioneer Legends: H ow Pastoralists 264 Gained Kuruwali Land by Pamela Lukin Watson

Obliged to be Difficult, Nugget Coombs Legacy in 265 Indigenour Affairs by Tim Rowse

Eseli’s Notebook by Peter Eseli 272

Black Angels - Red Blood by Steven McCarthy and 273 Dreaming in Urban Areas by Lisa Bellear

Australian Rainforest: Lslands o f Green in a L a n d o f Fire by 276 David Bowman

Native Title and the Descent o f Rights, Commonwealth o f 279 Australia, National Title, Perth by Peter Sutton

Race, Colour a nd Identity by John Docker and Gerhard 280 Fischer (eds)

An Historical Atlas o f the Aborigines o f Eastern Victoria 264 and fa r South-eastern New South Wales by Sue Wesson

Unbranded by Fierb W harton 292

Listen to the People, Listen to the L a n d by Jim S inatra an d 293 Phin Murphy ABORIGINAL HISTORY 2000 VOL 24 v

Palaeopathology o f Australian Aboriginals by Stephen 295 Webb Words and Silences: Aboriginal Women, Politics and Land 296 by Peggy Brock (ed.) Talkin’ Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and 301 White Feminism by Aileen Moreton-Robinson Where Yd Been Mate? by Herb Wharton 303 Cooloola Coast: Noosa to Fraser Island: The Aboriginal and 303 Settler Histories o f a Unique Environment by Elaine Brown The Hated Protector: The Story o f Charles Wightman 305 Sievwright Protector o f Aborigines, 1839—42 by Lindsey Arkley The Riches o f Ancient Australia: An Indispensable Guide 314 for Exploring Prehistoric Australia by Josephine Flood Wherever I Go. Myles Lalor’s ‘Oral History’ by Jeremy 316 Beckett O f Muse, Meandering and Midnight by Sam Wagan 317 Watson Woman from No Where by Hazel Mckellar as told to 321 Kerry McCall urn

Contributors 323