A Not So Innocent Vision : Re

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

A Not So Innocent Vision : Re A NOT SO INNOCENT VISION: RE-VISITING THE LITERARY WORKS OF ELLEN LISTON, JANE SARAH DOUDY AND MYRTLE ROSE WHITE (1838 – 1961) JANETTE HELEN HANCOCK Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Discipline of Gender, Work & Social Inquiry School of Social Science University of Adelaide February 2007 A Not So Innocent Vision CONTENTS Abstract ……………………………………………………………………….ii Declaration……………………………………………………………………iv Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………..v Chapter One ‘Three Corner Jacks’: Where it all began…...……….1 SECTION ONE Chapter Two ‘An Innocent Presence’……...……………………..29 Chapter Three ‘Occupying an Unsettled Position’…………...…...57 Chapter Four ‘Powerful Contributors’……………………..…….76 Chapter Five ‘Decolonising the Neutral Identity’………………103 SECTION TWO ELLEN LISTON (1838 – 1885) Chapter Six ‘There is Always a Note of Striving’…………….128 Chapter Seven ‘An Apostle of Labour’…….………...…………..164 Chapter Eight ‘Those Infernal Wretches’……………………….191 SECTION THREE JANE SARAH DOUDY (1846 – 1932) Chapter Nine ‘Sweetening the World’…………...……………..220 Chapter Ten ‘Laying the Foundations of Our State’…..….……257 Chapter Eleven ‘Jolly Good Fellows’…………………..………...287 SECTION FOUR MYRTLE ROSE WHITE (1888 – 1961) Chapter Twelve ‘More than a Raconteur’…………..……………..323 Chapter Thirteen ‘Footprints in the Sand’…………..……………...358 Chapter Fourteen ‘Faith Henchmen and Devil’s Imps’......…………379 SECTION FIVE Chapter Fifteen ‘Relocating the Voice which speaks’….………...410 Chapter Sixteen ‘Looking Forward in Reverse’………………..….415 Janette Hancock i A Not So Innocent Vision Bibliography ………………………………………….……..…423 Abstract Foundational narratives constitute intricate and ideologically driven political works that offer new information about the colonial moment. They present divergent and alternate readings of history by providing insight into the construction of ‘national fantasies’ and the nationalist practice of exclusion and inclusion. White middle class women wrote a substantial body of foundational histories. They were influential mythmakers, historians in a sense, who actively manufactured compelling foundational stories of colonial possession and conquest, settler belonging and nation building. An interrogation of their writing casts fresh light on understanding how cultural discourses of national representation and identity often relied on a system of omission, misremembering and the dehumanisation of the Aboriginal peoples. This thesis examines various literary works by three little known writers, Ellen Liston, Jane Sarah Doudy and Myrtle Rose White between the years 1838- 1961 and investigates how they used prescriptive ideas on race, nation, landscape, domesticity and progress to advance notions of successful settlement in South Australia. Their narratives were much more than ‘sentimental diversions’. They were political works that operated within white structures of power, privilege and control. They were designed to validate colonial expansion and white occupation by normalising the position of the Janette Hancock ii A Not So Innocent Vision white settler subject while simultaneously marginalising the ‘disorderly’ Aboriginal presence. This thesis provides an analysis of these women’s novels, short stories, articles and unpublished manuscripts to reveal the unique agentive role that white women writers possessed. These authors didn’t just write to participate on the public scene and to advance women’s role as nation builders, they wrote as ‘politicians in print’, intent on constructing very clear ideas about social behaviour, cultural norms, national patriotism and racial hierarchies. Indeed, the concern over who rightfully belonged and who did not pervaded much of their writing, as did the derogatory scripting of others. In short, these women were assertive ‘nationalist managers’ who had a lot to say about the creation of their ‘homely nation’. By applying theoretical understandings, such as the colonial rhetoric of exclusion and control, the historicisation of whiteness and the decolonisation of ‘national fantasies’, to these women’s narratives, this body of work builds on, and advances, new understandings of white women writers and the ethnocentric cultural assumptions which coloured their writing. It not only rediscovers previously published works but also introduces new unpublished archival material as evidence for re-conceptualising the power involved in producing and consuming women’s writing from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Janette Hancock iii A Not So Innocent Vision Declaration This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being available for loan and photocopying. SIGNED:________________________________ DATE: ________________ Janette Hancock iv A Not So Innocent Vision Acknowledgment I wish to thank Margaret Allen, my supervisor, who directed, encouraged and advised me throughout this thesis. Her incredible knowledge of feminist history and women writers inspired me to pursue the subject matter for this body of work and for this I am truly grateful. This thesis would not have been possible without the kindness and support of the various family members who held private papers on the three women studied here, and allowed me the time to view these collections. I would therefore like to thank those people who kindly shared their treasures, letting me read and photocopy old manuscripts, journals and letters. I also wish to thank the National Library of Australia for their assistance in allowing me to view the Myrtle Rose White papers and for their advice concerning the use of these papers. I want to additionally thank the Gender, Work and Social Inquiry Discipline at the University of Adelaide for the many useful comments made during departmental seminars and for the unerring encouragement and inspiration this discipline provides to its scholars. Lastly, but certainly not least, I wish to thank my family for their help, assistance and continued encouragement. To James, Eleisa and Brandon who inspired me every step of the way, especially towards the end when it seemed like a never-ending chore, I thank you dearly. Your love, empathy and Janette Hancock v A Not So Innocent Vision thoughtfulness will always be remembered. To my mother, Isabella, who asked me how it was going every time I spoke on the phone and to my father, Keith who, while on holiday at Elliston, decided to undertake a little research of his own and found me some useful information, I also wish to say thank you. Janette Hancock vi A Not So Innocent Vision ‘Three corner jacks’: Where it all began. We seek, here, to open a dialogue, an investigation, on the subject of cultural identity and representation. Of course, the ‘I’ who writes here must also be thought of as, itself, ‘enunciated’. We all write and speak from a particular place and time from a history and culture which is specific. What we say is always ‘in context’, positioned (Hall 1994: 392). I have always lived in rural South Australia. As a child I can remember running barefoot across clinging red dust and hard-baked clay pans, often feeling the stinging pain of a three corner jack piercing dirt encrusted heels. I played for countless hours in unforgiving sweltering heat, heedless of the sun’s rays on my freckles and would sit entranced on the hard besser brick of the front fence watching golden sheafs of wheat dance in the wind. But perhaps one of my most vivid memories is of sitting around the dining table listening to the smooth tones of my mother as she proudly recounted stirring tales from a bygone era. Like a spider weaving a web in the anticipation of snaring its prey, she would spin her tale, pausing at all the right moments and hastening at others. The stories she told seemed unreal and yet as a child growing up through an era of badly scripted Tarzan films and western serials, they fed my thirst for adventure. Little did I know that some twenty-five years later; one of these stories would lead me to the research I have undertaken. Little did I know that such memories now signal my own whiteness, my own appropriation of the landscape and force me to question my belonging. Janette Hancock 1 A Not So Innocent Vision This land, in which I once felt so comfortable, now begins to scratch my conscience. It irritates my sense of white identity like an annoying rash that no simple medicinal cream will sooth. Scratching it only inflames it and yet I am masochistically drawn to doing just that as I attempt to somehow muddle my way through the murky haze that is my own whiteness. I now see this land I once considered part of me, and me part of it, as Aboriginal land. This land that I was planted upon, raised and nurtured upon is a land predicated on dispossession, and as uncomfortable as it may be, upon a hidden story of genocide. It is a land predicated upon an unmarked and un-named whiteness. It may take a while to tell my story and get to the questions I seek to answer but for me this telling is needed in order to answer the question of my belonging and the questions surrounding the historical positioning of white women writers from the past. The journey, in a sense will be self-critical and will be an attempt to balance my voice with voices from the past and present. Before continuing, however, I find I must position myself as a middle-class white woman, a direct descendant of the dispossessors. I have never had to defend my colour, my nationality nor my right to live how I want to live – my whiteness has provided me with a privileged protection. For many years I have accepted this, never questioning, never wondering, never stepping outside the comfort zone. I now find, however, that it provides no safety net for my own self-analysis.
Recommended publications
  • Rosetta Head Well and Whaling Station Site PLACE NO.: 26454
    South Australian HERITAGE COUNCIL SUMMARY OF STATE HERITAGE PLACE REGISTER ENTRY Entry in the South Australian Heritage Register in accordance with the Heritage Places Act 1993 NAME: Rosetta Head Well and Whaling Station Site PLACE NO.: 26454 ADDRESS: Franklin Parade, Encounter Bay, SA 5211 Uncovered well 23 November 2017 Site works complete June 2019 Source DEW Source DEW Cultural Safety Warning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this document may contain images or names of people who have since passed away. STATEMENT OF HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE The Rosetta Head Well and Whaling Station Site is on the lands and waters of the Ramindjeri people of the lower Fleurieu Peninsula, who are a part of the Ngarrindjeri Nation. The site represents a once significant early industry that no longer exists in South Australia. Founded by the South Australian Company in 1837 and continually operating until 1851, it was the longest-running whaling station in the State. It played an important role in the establishment of the whaling industry in South Australia as a prototype for other whaling stations and made a notable contribution to the fledgling colony’s economic development. The Rosetta Head Whaling Station is also an important contact site between European colonists and the Ramindjeri people. To Ramindjeri people, the whale is known as Kondli (a spiritual being), and due to their connection and knowledge, a number of Ramindjeri were employed at the station as labourers and boat crews. Therefore, Rosetta Head is one of the first places in South Australia where European and Aboriginal people worked side by side.
    [Show full text]
  • Indigenous Design Issuesceduna Aboriginal Children and Family
    INDIGENOUS DESIGN ISSUES: CEDUNA ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AND FAMILY CENTRE ___________________________________________________________________________________ 1 INDIGENOUS DESIGN ISSUES: CEDUNA ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AND FAMILY CENTRE ___________________________________________________________________________________ 2 INDIGENOUS DESIGN ISSUES: CEDUNA ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AND FAMILY CENTRE ___________________________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .................................................................................................................................... 5 ACKNOWELDGEMENTS............................................................................................................ 5 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 5 PART 1: PRECEDENTS AND “BEST PRACTICE„ DESIGN ....................................................10 The Design of Early Learning, Child-care and Children and Family Centres for Aboriginal People ..................................................................................................................................10 Conceptions of Quality ........................................................................................................ 10 Precedents: Pre-Schools, Kindergartens, Child and Family Centres ..................................12 Kulai Aboriginal Preschool .............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia 1788-1930: Sources
    Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia 1788-1930: Sources © Ryan, Lyndall; Pascoe, William; Debenham, Jennifer; Gilbert, Stephanie; Richards, Jonathan; Smith, Robyn; Owen, Chris; ​ Anders, Robert J; Brown, Mark; Price, Daniel; Newley, Jack; Usher, Kaine, 2019. The information and data on this site may only ​ be re-used in accordance with the Terms Of Use. ​ ​ This research was funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council, PROJECT ID: ​ ​ DP140100399. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1340762 Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia 1788-1930: Sources 0 Abbreviations 1 Unpublished Archival Sources 2 Battye Library, Perth, Western Australia 2 State Records of NSW (SRNSW) 2 Mitchell Library - State Library of New South Wales (MLSLNSW) 3 National Library of Australia (NLA) 3 Northern Territory Archives Service (NTAS) 4 Oxley Memorial Library, State Library Of Queensland 4 National Archives, London (PRO) 4 Queensland State Archives (QSA) 4 State Libary Of Victoria (SLV) - La Trobe Library, Melbourne 5 State Records Of Western Australia (SROWA) 5 Tasmanian Archives And Heritage Office (TAHO), Hobart 7 Colonial Secretary’s Office (CSO) 1/321, 16 June, 1829; 1/316, 24 August, 1831. 7 Victorian Public Records Series (VPRS), Melbourne 7 Manuscripts, Theses and Typescripts 8 Newspapers 9 Films and Artworks 12 Printed and Electronic Sources 13 Colonial Frontier Massacres In Australia, 1788-1930: Sources 1 Abbreviations AJCP Australian Joint Copying Project ANU Australian National University AOT Archives of Office of Tasmania
    [Show full text]
  • Longreach Outback Getaway
    5 DAYS LONGREACH OUTBACK GETAWAY dinner at the historic Wellshot Hotel. Then Day 1 | SUN | LONGREACH it’s time for Longreach’s latest sensation, Feel that sense of freedom and adventure TOUR HIGHLIGHTS the Luminescent Longreach Sound & Light as you arrive into Longreach. Fly/Rail guests Camden Park Station Smoko Tour Show, which brings the 100-year story of will be met at Longreach Airport on arrival. Qantas to life. Qantas Founders Museum & You’re standing in the true heartland of Airpark Tour Outback Queensland, home of legends, Drover's Sunset Cruise including larrikins and our pioneering giants. Get Day 3 | TUE | WINTON Smithy's Outback Dinner & Show acquainted on an introductory town Be prepared to be impressed with the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Tour tour with our Savannah Guides Operator changing landscapes as we travel from Waltzing Matilda Centre and Driver-Guide before checking into your Longreach to Winton. We visit the Australian Winton Tour accommodation. Dinner tonight will be at Age of Dinosaurs perched high on a Rosebank Station Tour & the Bird Cage Hotel, a local favourite! magnificent mesa overlooking the plains Morning Tea 4 nights Longreach Motor Inn, where dinosaurs once roamed! Onsite Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame (Optional upgrade to Mitchell Grass dinosaur enthusiasts treat us to a top- Ilfracombe Tour & Historic Retreat or Saltbush Retreat) class interpretive tour of the laboratory, Wellshot Hotel collection room and Dinosaur Canyon. In Luminescent Longreach Sound & Day 2 | MON | LONGREACH Winton see the quirky Arno’s Wall, the Light Show Meet the Smith family at historic Musical Fence and learn the story behind Rosebank Station for an exclusive tour and Australia’s unofficial national anthem at a relaxed homestead morning tea.
    [Show full text]
  • Aboriginal Agency, Institutionalisation and Survival
    2q' t '9à ABORIGINAL AGENCY, INSTITUTIONALISATION AND PEGGY BROCK B. A. (Hons) Universit¡r of Adelaide Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History/Geography, University of Adelaide March f99f ll TAT}LE OF CONTENTS ii LIST OF TAE}LES AND MAPS iii SUMMARY iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . vii ABBREVIATIONS ix C}IAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION I CFIAPTER TWO. TI{E HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 32 CHAPTER THREE. POONINDIE: HOME AWAY FROM COUNTRY 46 POONINDIE: AN trSTä,TILISHED COMMUNITY AND ITS DESTRUCTION 83 KOONIBBA: REFUGE FOR TI{E PEOPLE OF THE VI/EST COAST r22 CFIAPTER SIX. KOONIBBA: INSTITUTIONAL UPHtrAVAL AND ADJUSTMENT t70 C}IAPTER SEVEN. DISPERSAL OF KOONIBBA PEOPLE AND THE END OF TI{E MISSION ERA T98 CTIAPTER EIGHT. SURVTVAL WITHOUT INSTITUTIONALISATION236 C}IAPTER NINtr. NEPABUNNA: THtr MISSION FACTOR 268 CFIAPTER TEN. AE}ORIGINAL AGENCY, INSTITUTIONALISATION AND SURVTVAL 299 BIBLIOGRAPI{Y 320 ltt TABLES AND MAPS Table I L7 Table 2 128 Poonindie location map opposite 54 Poonindie land tenure map f 876 opposite 114 Poonindie land tenure map f 896 opposite r14 Koonibba location map opposite L27 Location of Adnyamathanha campsites in relation to pastoral station homesteads opposite 252 Map of North Flinders Ranges I93O opposite 269 lv SUMMARY The institutionalisation of Aborigines on missions and government stations has dominated Aboriginal-non-Aboriginal relations. Institutionalisation of Aborigines, under the guise of assimilation and protection policies, was only abandoned in.the lg7Os. It is therefore important to understand the implications of these policies for Aborigines and Australian society in general. I investigate the affect of institutionalisation on Aborigines, questioning the assumption tl.at they were passive victims forced onto missions and government stations and kept there as virtual prisoners.
    [Show full text]
  • There's a Lot Going on in 'Australia': Baz Luhrmann's Claim to the Epic
    10 • Metro Magazine 159 There’s a lot going on in Australia Baz Luhrmann’s Claim to the Epic Brian McFarlane REVIEWS BAZ LUHRmann’s EAGERLY AWAITED ‘Event’ FiLM. ou’ve got to admire the cheek of scape of a restricted kind. Does Luhrmann a director who calls his film simply believe that it is only Dorothea Mackellarland YAustralia. It implies that what is (all ‘sweeping plains’ and ‘ragged mountain going on in it is comprehensive enough, or ranges’ and ‘droughts and flooding rains’) at least symptomatic enough, to evoke the that the world at large will recognize as Aus- continent at large. Can it possibly live up to tralia? What he shows us is gorgeous be- such a grandiose announcement of intention? yond the shadow of a doubt – gorgeous, that There have been plenty of films named for is, to look at on a huge screen rather than to cities (New York, New York [Martin Scorsese, live in. It is, though, hardly the ‘Australia’ that 1977], Barcelona [Whit Stillman, 1994], most most of its inhabitants will know intimately, recently Paris [Cédric Klapisch, 2008]), but living as we do in our urban fastnesses, but summoning a city seems a modest enterprise the pictorial arts have done their bit in instill- compared with a country or a continent ing it as one of the sites of our yearning. (please sort us out, Senator Palin). D.W. Griffith in 1924 and Robert Downey Sr in Perhaps it’s really a love story at heart, a love 1986 had a go with America: neither director story in a huge setting that overpowers its is today remembered for his attempt to fragile forays into intimacy.
    [Show full text]
  • Quercus ×Coutinhoi Samp. Discovered in Australia Charlie Buttigieg
    XXX International Oaks The Journal of the International Oak Society …the hybrid oak that time forgot, oak-rod baskets, pros and cons of grafting… Issue No. 25/ 2014 / ISSN 1941-2061 1 International Oaks The Journal of the International Oak Society … the hybrid oak that time forgot, oak-rod baskets, pros and cons of grafting… Issue No. 25/ 2014 / ISSN 1941-2061 International Oak Society Officers and Board of Directors 2012-2015 Officers President Béatrice Chassé (France) Vice-President Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven (Belgium) Secretary Gert Fortgens (The Netherlands) Treasurer James E. Hitz (USA) Board of Directors Editorial Committee Membership Director Chairman Emily Griswold (USA) Béatrice Chassé Tour Director Members Shaun Haddock (France) Roderick Cameron International Oaks Allen Coombes Editor Béatrice Chassé Shaun Haddock Co-Editor Allen Coombes (Mexico) Eike Jablonski (Luxemburg) Oak News & Notes Ryan Russell Editor Ryan Russell (USA) Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven International Editor Roderick Cameron (Uruguay) Website Administrator Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven For contributions to International Oaks contact Béatrice Chassé [email protected] or [email protected] 0033553621353 Les Pouyouleix 24800 St.-Jory-de-Chalais France Author’s guidelines for submissions can be found at http://www.internationaloaksociety.org/content/author-guidelines-journal-ios © 2014 International Oak Society Text, figures, and photographs © of individual authors and photographers. Graphic design: Marie-Paule Thuaud / www.lecentrecreatifducoin.com Photos. Cover: Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven (Quercus macrocalyx Hickel & A. Camus); p. 6: Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven (Q. oxyodon Miq.); p. 7: Béatrice Chassé (Q. acerifolia (E.J. Palmer) Stoynoff & W. J. Hess); p. 9: Eike Jablonski (Q. ithaburensis subsp.
    [Show full text]
  • REGISTER Kaurna Welcome to Country
    WELCOME REGISTER Kaurna Welcome to Country The following is a key contact list of Kaurna people and groups that have been approved by the Kaurna Nation Cultural Heritage Committee. It is suggested that you please negotiate fees before booking the performer. This information is correct at the time of posting NAME CONTENT CONTACT INFORMATION Georgina Williams Senior Female Ms Georgina Williams Greeting to Country Mobile: 0448 536 912 Email: [email protected] Aunty Georgina Williams, Ngankiburka-Mekauwe is a Kaurna Senior Woman. She grew up on Point Pearce Mission, Yorke Peninsula. She has spoken at numerous forums on Aboriginal issues and is a long term campaigner on Aboriginal rights, also working to renew the knowledge of her ancestors in a contemporary urban world and to bridge the divide between black and white worlds. Creatively, Georgina has been involved in theatre, music, poetry and the visual arts. Lewis O’Brien Kaurna Elder Dr Lewis O’Brien AO Welcome to Country Mobile: 0424 001 095 Uncle Lewis Yerloburka O’Brien is a Kaurna Elder born at Point Pearce. Named Aboriginal Elder of the Year in 1977, awarded ‘Local Hero’ Australia Day Awards in 2003, Fellow of the University of SA in 2004, Citizen of Humanity Awarded by the National Committee of Human Rights in 2009 and an Order of Australia Medal in 2014. Uncle Lewis is widely regarded as a leader of reconciliation and custodian of Kaurna culture. Frank Wanganeen Kaurna Elder Mr Frank Wanganeen Welcome to Country Email: [email protected] Cultural Tour Guide and Educator Uncle Frank Wanganeen is a Kaurna Elder born at Wallaroo on Narungga country.
    [Show full text]
  • Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788-1930: Bibliography
    Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788-1930: Bibliography Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788-1930: Bibliography © Ryan, Lyndall; Pascoe, William; Debenham, Jennifer; Brown, Mark; Smith, Robyn; Richards, Jonathan; Anders, Robert J;. Price, Daniel; Newley, Jack, 2018. The information and data on this site may only be re-used in accordance with the Terms Of Use. This research was funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council, PROJECT ID: DP140100399. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1340762 Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788-1930 1 Sources 2 Abbreviations 2 UNPUBLISHED SOURCES 2 STATE RECORDS OF NSW (SRNSW) 3 MITCHELL LIBRARY – STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, SYDNEY (ML) 3 COURT REPORTS 3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON (PRO) 3 OXLEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY STATE LIBRARY OF QUEENSLAND 3 QUEENSLAND STATE ARCHIVES (QSA) 4 TASMANIAN ARCHIVE AND HERITAGE OFFICE, TASMANIA (TAHO) 4 VICTORIAN PUBLIC RECORDS SERIES (VPRS), Melbourne 4 STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA - LA TROBE LIBRARY, Melbourne 4 MANUSCRIPTS 5 THESES AND TYPESCRIPTS 5 NEWSPAPERS 5 PRINTED SOURCES 7 1 Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788-1930: Bibliography Sources Abbreviations AJCP Australian Joint Copying Project AOT Archives of Office of Tasmania BC Brisbane Courier BCHAR Barrow Creek Heritage Assessment Report, (NT) BPP British Parliamentary Papers CCCL Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands CSIL Colonial Secretary In Letters CSO Colonial Secretary’s Office
    [Show full text]
  • Reclaiming the Kaurna Language: a Long and Lasting Collaboration in an Urban Setting
    Vol. 8 (2014), pp. 409-429 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4613 Series: The Role of Linguists in Indigenous Community Language Programs in Australia1 Reclaiming the Kaurna language: a long and lasting collaboration in an urban setting Rob Amery University of Adelaide A long-running collaboration between Kaurna people and linguists in South Australia be- gan in 1989 with a songbook. Following annual community workshops and the estab- lishment of teaching programs, the author embarked on a PhD to research historical sources and an emerging modern language based on these sources. In response to numer- ous requests for names, translations and information, together with Kaurna Elders Lewis O’Brien and Alitya Rigney, the author and others formed Kaurna Warra Pintyandi (KWP) in 2002. It is a monthly forum where researchers, and others interested in Kaurna lan- guage, can meet with Kaurna people to discuss their concerns. KWP, based at the Univer- sity of Adelaide, is not incorporated and attendance of meetings is voluntary. The com- mittee has gained a measure of credibility and respect from the Kaurna community, gov- ernment departments and the public and has recently signed a Memorandum of Under- standing with the University of Adelaide. However, KWP and the author sit, uneasily at times, at the intersection between the University and the community. This paper explores the nature of collaboration between Kaurna people and researchers through KWP in the context of reliance on historical documentation, much of which is open to interpretation. Linguistics provides some of the skills needed for interpretation of source materials.
    [Show full text]
  • Place Names of South Australia: W
    W Some of our names have apparently been given to the places by drunken bushmen andfrom our scrupulosity in interfering with the liberty of the subject, an inflection of no light character has to be borne by those who come after them. SheaoakLog ispassable... as it has an interesting historical association connectedwith it. But what shall we say for Skillogolee Creek? Are we ever to be reminded of thin gruel days at Dotheboy’s Hall or the parish poor house. (Register, 7 October 1861, page 3c) Wabricoola - A property North -East of Black Rock; see pastoral lease no. 1634. Waddikee - A town, 32 km South-West of Kimba, proclaimed on 14 July 1927, took its name from the adjacent well and rock called wadiki where J.C. Darke was killed by Aborigines on 24 October 1844. Waddikee School opened in 1942 and closed in 1945. Aboriginal for ‘wattle’. ( See Darke Peak, Pugatharri & Koongawa, Hundred of) Waddington Bluff - On section 98, Hundred of Waroonee, probably recalls James Waddington, described as an ‘overseer of Waukaringa’. Wadella - A school near Tumby Bay in the Hundred of Hutchison opened on 1 July 1914 by Jessie Ormiston; it closed in 1926. Wadjalawi - A tea tree swamp in the Hundred of Coonarie, west of Point Davenport; an Aboriginal word meaning ‘bull ant water’. Wadmore - G.W. Goyder named Wadmore Hill, near Lyndhurst, after George Wadmore, a survey employee who was born in Plymouth, England, arrived in the John Woodall in 1849 and died at Woodside on 7 August 1918. W.R. Wadmore, Mayor of Campbelltown, was honoured in 1972 when his name was given to Wadmore Park in Maryvale Road, Campbelltown.
    [Show full text]
  • Votes for Women ©
    1 VOTES FOR WOMEN © Condensed for the Women & Politics website by Dr Helen Jones from her book In her own name: a history of women in South Australia revised edition (Adelaide, Wakefield Press, 1994). On a hot December morning in 1894, a week before Christmas, the South Australian House of Assembly voted on the third reading of the Constitution Amendment Bill: ‘The Ayes were sonorous and cheery, the Noes despondent like muffled bells’. When the result was announced, thirty-one in favour and fourteen against, the House resounded to loud cheering as South Australia’s Parliament acknowledged its decision to give votes to women. The legislation made South Australia one of the first places in the world to admit women to the parliamentary suffrage; it was alone in giving them the right to stand for Parliament. Its passage caused elation, rejoicing and relief among those who had laboured to achieve it, for the Act opened the way for women’s political equality and their fuller participation in public life. Before this Act, one level of rights and responsibilities existed for men, another for women. These were determined under the Constitution of 1855-56, which allowed eligible men over twenty-one years to vote and to stand for election for the House of Assembly. Men over thirty years with further residential and property qualifications were eligible to vote and stand for election to the Legislative Council. The masculine gender only, or the word ‘person’, assumed to be male, was used in the Constitution. Women could neither vote nor stand for Parliament.
    [Show full text]