The Erotic and the Exotic: French in Australia

Bonnie Thomas, University of Western Australia

At first sight one may wonder if there is any role for French in a country colonized by the British in 1788 and lying thousands of kilometres from the European continent, in a place where English has been the national language since that time and whose inhabitants are descendents of convicts and settlers. The largest island and the smallest continent in the world, Australia remains one of the most isolated countries on earth and until recently has been firmly monolingual. While Aboriginal languages number in the hundreds 1, they are increasingly dying out through lack of use. When one thinks of Australia images such as kangaroos and koalas come to mind, the outback, an ancient Aboriginal culture, the Sydney Opera House and beautiful beaches. What, then, do all of these things have in common with France? A brief survey of Australian history reveals in fact that this isolated land could have been a French colony. As one researcher into Australia’s past puts it: “A French Australia? Almost!” 2

Known as terra australis incognita (unknown southern land) from the twelfth century onwards, 3 significant exploration in Australia began in the 1600s by the Dutch. The first recorded French attempt occurred even earlier - between 1503 and 1505 - by Paulmier de Gonneville. 4 Although no discoveries resulted from this voyage and all the charts mapped were lost in a shipwreck, the French continued their interest into this unknown southern continent. Various expeditions were conducted throughout the eighteenth century, the most important of which occurred in 1788. Following Captain Cook’s landing at Botany Bay in 1770 and his claiming of the land as New South Wales, Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in the area in 1788 and set up the first Australian colony. Alongside this story of British exploration and colonization, however, there is the little known fact that the Comte de la Pérouse arrived only three days after Phillip and Australia could in fact have come under French sovereignty. “If the wind off Botany Bay had been blowing from a different direction during the last week in January 1788, so that La Pérouse had edged into the bay ahead of Arthur Phillip, we might have all been brought up on La Fontaine and ‘la cuisine’.” 5

For most Australians, this connection with France is unknown, overshadowed by the exploits of British explorers. The French played an important role at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, however, with French navigators such as Bougainville, Saint-Allouarn, d’Entrecasteaux, Baudin, La Pérouse and others helping to put Australia on the maps “which Europeans were plotting of the oceans, islands and lands distant from their home.” 6 While these French

1 Pierre Grundmann, En Australie , Hachette, , 1983, p. 54. 2 Noelene Bloomfield, “Introduction” to a CD Rom on French Exploration in Australia, Perth, Australia, 2002. No page numbers given. 3 Joel P. Henderson, Encyclopaedia Britannica , Brown, 1993. Accessed by internet: http://65.107.211.206/post/australia/austchron.html. 4 Bloomfield. 5 Joseph Lo Bianco & Alain Monteil, French in Australia: New Prospects , Centre d’Etudes et d’Echanges Francophones en Australie / Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers’ Associations, Canberra, 1990, p. 103. 6 Ibid . explorations did not result in any colonization, they nevertheless bequeathed a legacy of scientific discoveries, place names and a few memorials as a witness to their activities in the Southern Hemisphere. 7 Nicolas Baudin conducted the most influential of these expeditions of scientific discovery between 1800 and 1804. 8 With his ships ‘Le Géographe’ and ‘Le Naturaliste’, Baudin arrived on the west coast of Australia in May 1801 and spent three months in Western Australian waters charting parts of the coast and collecting scientific data. He soon turned his attention to southern Australia which he called “Terre Napoléon” and gave French names to many parts of this region. In Western Australia today, French names abound with places such as Esperance, D’Entrecasteaux National Park, Cape Legrand, Freycinet Estuary, Cape Naturaliste and Geographe Bay. There are also countless examples of the French influence in Australia in other names throughout the continent.

Accompanying Baudin on his travels were two artists, Charles Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas Martin Petit, who recorded the zoological, geographical and ethnographical features of the region in drawings and engravings. 9 François Peron, a naturalist on board the ‘Géographe’, published his account of the Voyage to the Southern Lands in 1807. In a striking synthesis of French, Australian and Martinican history, this book featured an engraving of a small zoological garden at the palace of ’s wife, Josephine, at Rueil-Malmaison, close to Paris. 10 It seems that the Empress had requested that some animals from the southern lands be brought back for her and in this picture there are black swans, kangaroos, emus and other Australian fauna. It is a rare discovery indeed to find traces of Australia in a publication of that era.

In a further connection with France, English explorer Matthew Flinders 11 was the first person to promote the use of the name ‘Australia’ rather than ‘ terra australis ’ from 1804 while he was reworking his charts on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. The French, under General Decaen, detained him there as a suspected spy from 1803 until 1810 whilst on his return voyage to England despite him having a French passport. When he was finally released and returned back to England, Flinders worked on his monumental book, A Voyage to Terra Australis , published just before his death in 1814. The chart accompanying this book carried the title General Chart of Terra Australis or Australia . Thus, in a sense, the concept of ‘Australia’ began in Mauritius.

Against this backdrop, then, the role of France is far more significant than one might initially think. The continuing French association with Australia is evident in the kaleidoscope of societies established between the two countries. A small selection includes the multiple Alliances Françaises found throughout the continent, the Association of French Speaking Doctors, the Association of French Teachers in Victoria and the French Australian Chamber of Commerce. 12 At the same time, the popularity of the French language in Australia remains as a powerful testament to the role of France in the country. Mauritius, although no longer politically a part of

7 Anny P.L. Stuer, The French in Australia , Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1982, p. 25. 8 Bloomfield. 9 Ibid . 10 Ibid . 11 For more information on Flinders see the website www.slnsw.gov.au/flinders. 12 Bianco & Monteil, p. 16. France, represents a large body of French speakers in Australia, particularly in Perth. Traditionally the foreign language drawing the largest number of students, French has formed part of the education of many Australians. Although this phenomenon is gradually changing with the rise in popularity of Asian languages in Australia, French continues to be the most studied European language in the country. While adult memories of French education in high school vary from the fond to the horrific, the experience remains an important one and is rarely forgotten. In a humorous recollection, one Australian records the legacy of these linguistic studies. “Like many Australians of my vintage, I learnt French at high school, five torturous years. Like most of my peers, fortunate enough to later travel to France, I could neither understand nor be understood. As a consequence, I have eaten grilled pituitary glands when I thought I had ordered steak.” 13 Thus, on a historical and practical level, French retains an enduring presence in Australia.

In a special edition of Bouillon de culture broadcast from Sydney in January 2000, 14 Bernard Pivot explores the relationship between France and Australia with invited guests from Australia’s academic, literary, Aboriginal and musical worlds. 15 Robert Dessaix, a celebrated writer and broadcaster and one of Australia’s few public intellectuals, describes what he sees as the intriguing yet largely unexplored relationship between France and Australia. For Australians, Dessaix locates the mystery of France in its embodiment of the erotic. When Australians speak of France images of romance, the soft and musical French accent, beautiful women, alluring men and the magic of the City of Lights flood the imagination. For the French, by contrast, Australia represents everything that is exotic in its unusual flora and fauna, the mythology of the bush and its isolation from the rest of the world. Indeed, Australia for the French becomes a certain ‘terre du rêve’ or dream land which has little to do with the daily reality of urban life in Australia. Beyond these evocative impressions stimulated by the notion of ‘France’ and ‘Australia’, Dessaix also sheds light on the deeper meaning of French for Australians.

Reminiscing about the search for his biological mother in his absorbing autobiography, A Mother’s Disgrace , Dessaix describes the potency of his discovery of French intellectuals as an adolescent. “Much more interesting than meeting my mother by then, in my mid-teens, during stolen moments in foreign languages, was encountering Jean-Paul Sartre in French. And André Gide soon followed ( Si le grain ne meurt , L’immoraliste and others). This gave rise to a shadowy Impure Land in my head. French and France were suddenly cloaked in deviance and desire, eroticised, not just by sexuality, but more powerfully, perhaps, by being simply so deeply knowing . Over there they knew .” 16 Dessaix’s poetic introduction to French intellectual life reflects the more general importance of French thinkers in the world of ideas. There are many domains in which these intellectuals have established their authority, ranging from philosophy and history to architecture and gender studies. Whilst thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard have been the target of

13 A. Horin, Sydney Morning Herald , 20 th December 1988. Cited in Bianco & Monteil, p. viii. 14 The programme was recorded in Sydney on the 6 th December 1999 and broadcast on television on the 7 th January 2000. 15 Pivot’s guests are Robert Dessaix (writer), Margaret Sankey (head of French at the University of Sydney), Chris Cody (pianist & composer), Nathan Waks (cellist & composer), Djon Mundane (curator for Aboriginal art) and Marion Potts (theatre director). 16 Robert Dessaix, A Mother’s Disgrace , HarperCollins, Australia, 1994, p. 35. extensive criticism for their allegedly opaque and incomprehensible writing, it is impossible to look at the field of history today without taking their theories into account. French theorists thus occupy a place of vital importance in the intellectual life of Australia.

In the domain of gender studies, for example, the influence of French thinkers remains decisive. At the advent of second wave feminism, it was the groundbreaking work of French existentialist and writer who reignited the flagging feminist movement with the publication of The Second Sex in 1949. Gender studies and women’s studies courses have flourished throughout anglophone universities around the world and it is impossible to gain any understanding of women’s situation without considerable focus on de Beauvoir’s insightful analyses. A small tribute to de Beauvoir’s continuing relevance is the spiralling number of theses and books of which she is the subject. De Beauvoir thus joins an illustrious list of English-speaking feminists such as Germaine Greer and Betty Friedan who helped to refocus the feminist movement.

As the feminist movement has expanded and diversified as a result of the upheavals of May 1968 and through to the twenty-first century, the role of French thinkers has continued to grow. The feminist universe is now loosely divided between Anglo- American feminists (including Australians) and French feminists, the former characterized by a more pragmatic approach aimed at bringing policies favouring equality into action and the latter distinguished by a preoccupation with changing the way we think about issues of oppression. While these paths to liberation are remarkably different, the relevance of French thinkers to Anglo-American feminists is evident in the numerous publications aimed at introducing their ideas to English speakers. Texts such as French Feminist Thought: A Reader 17 and New French Feminisms: An Anthology 18 synthesize the ideas of French feminism and present them as an important tool in the fight for equality between men and women. Indeed, the works of influential French gender theorists such as Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray and Hélène Cixous have been widely translated and are used frequently by academics and theorists interested in questions of male/female relationships.

For Australian feminists too, the theories of French intellectuals have become a vital agent in the unravelling of complex philosophical problems. Moira Gatens, an associate professor in philosophy at the University of Sydney, has focused on the links between feminism and philosophy in much of her work. In one of her more recent publications, Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power and Corporeality ,19 Gatens challenges traditional notions of the body and the distinction between sex and gender. Arguing that feminist philosophy must address the issue of the symbolic representation of women, Gatens draws on the insights of theorists such as Luce Irigaray and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan as well as Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault. Representing a continuous link with the French preoccupation of philosophy rather than the pragmatic approach of Anglo-American writers, Gaten’s work underlines the relevance of French ideas to Australia. Fellow Australian

17 Toril Moi (ed.), French Feminist Thought: A Reader , Blackwell, Cambridge & Oxford, 1987. 18 Elaine Marks & Isabelle de Courtivron (eds.), New French Feminisms: An Anthology , Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hertfordshire, 1980. 19 Moira Gatens, Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power and Corporeality , Routledge, London & New York, 1996. Elizabeth Grosz has also conducted considerable research into French theorists with works such as Sexual Subversions: Three French Feminists 20 and Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction .21 Whilst the domain of gender studies is only one example of the way French is important in Australia, it nevertheless illustrates the far-reaching influence of these thinkers on Australian reality.

Looking more deeply into the world of ideas, the role of French in Australia can be extended to include countries geographically and culturally distinct from France, but which remain francophone. The insights generated by Martinican intellectuals such as Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant offer theoretical tools with which to approach some of the most complex issues facing Australia today. These questions arise above all in relation to the Australian Aborigines who remain largely unassimilated into Australian society and who, as a consequence of white settlement, are plagued by a variety of social and health problems. In a country which is multicultural and which thrives on the mix of Asian and European immigrants who have chosen to make Australia their home, acceptance of Aborigines remains minimal. While some people of non-European Australian backgrounds have experienced racism as a result of their difference, it is the Aborigines who are the most frequent targets of this destructive form of prejudice. To the average Australian, Aborigines are violent drunks who camp out in parks and take money from the government. As a result of increasing attempts by Aborigines to reclaim the land taken from them after British settlement through native title policies, many Australians see them as trying to gain possession of the country in exchange for nothing. On a sociological level, Aborigines are highly under-represented in universities and schools, they are not present in significant numbers in the professions and they are not even particularly visible in everyday life.

Perth author and artist Sally Morgan published her autobiography, My Place , in 1987 to an enthusiastic reception. This work represents one of the first examples of a writer expressing the lived reality of growing up as an Aborigine in Australia. In one of the most memorable scenes of the book, Morgan reminisces about the questions other children at school posed her and her siblings about their origins. On the advice of her mother, Morgan reported back that she was Indian, not Aboriginal. 22 For the young Morgan, it “was good finally to have an answer and it satisfied our playmates. They could quite believe we were Indian, they just didn’t want us pretending we were Aussies 23 when we weren’t.” 24 This poignant souvenir is a striking reminder of the overwhelming prejudice levelled towards Aborigines in Australia over all other races. Many Aborigines do not claim Aboriginal blood if they are of mixed race because of this intolerance, except in the few situations where their heritage is to their advantage, such as special university scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. If you ask an Australian if they have any Aboriginal friends, the answer would most likely be in the negative. Friendships and relationships with people from other cultures, though, are normal and common. How, then, to overcome these gross divisions and inequalities and create a more harmonious Australia? The ideas of créolité pave the way for a new approach to synthesize these radically different

20 Elizabeth Grosz, Sexual Subversions: Three French Feminists , Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1989. 21 Elizabeth Grosz, Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction , Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, 1990. 22 Sally Morgan, My Place , Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, 1987, p. 38. 23 Slang for ‘Australians’. 24 Ibid. , p. 39. cultures despite the fact that the original inhabitants of were wiped out while Australian Aborigines constitute the indigenous population of the country.

A brief survey of Australian history reveals that the British settlers declared the land of Australia terra nullius (land belonging to nobody) upon their arrival in 1788 which meant that sovereignty was achieved when the land was occupied. 25 However, the land was not empty and the Australian Aborigines had lived a peaceful and nomadic existence on the continent for an estimated 40 000 years. The reaction of the settlers towards the indigenous population foreshadows the oppressive treatment suffered by the Aboriginal people until the present. “With few exceptions, Aboriginal people, their beliefs, customs and lands were treated with scant respect by the invaders. In many parts of the continent, the original inhabitants were forced from their homes, denied access to natural resources, and witnessed the dismemberment of their society.” 26 As the British settled increasing areas of the country throughout the nineteenth century, the government began to institutionalize racism in the form of assimilation by the early 1900s. “In essence, assimilation declared the discrete Aboriginal culture redundant, and sought to submerge Aboriginal Australians in what was considered to be, in the Darwinian sense, the dominant society.” 27 From the 1930s, the Aborigines began to organize themselves politically and to demand the social and political rights that had been denied to them. By the 1960s, “the Aboriginal struggle gained momentum with the first concerted land rights claims and the establishment of organizations for social advancement. Official recognition of rights to land was high on the Aboriginal agenda, the centrality of land to Aboriginal social and religious life being paramount.” 28 A significant victory occurred in 1967 when Aboriginal Australians finally gained citizenship and suffrage. Academic Margaret Sankey posed the question in Bouillon de culture of whether the French would have allowed this denial of humanity to another culture to continue as long if they had succeeded in colonizing Australia. While access to the privileges of citizenship have allowed Aborigines to gain a greater standing in Australian society and to become a more vocal and coherent group with considerable support from non- indigenous Australians, it is undeniable that they still suffer from extensive prejudice. A new way of conceptualizing this situation is thus of paramount importance.

Encapsulated in the work of Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant with the publication of Eloge de la créolité in 1989, the philosophy of créolité provides a possible blueprint for approaching the issue of Aboriginal inequality in Australia. Opening this powerful and poetic work with the lines “[n]either Europeans, nor Africans, nor Asians, we proclaim ourselves Creoles”, 29 these thinkers emphasize the embracing of all races present in the Caribbean. Far from being a closed, complete society, créolité advocates a place that is open, forward-looking and constantly in flux. In a review of three of Chamoiseau’s books 30 in the Times Literary Supplement , John Taylor notes that Chamoiseau “transforms himself into the ‘others’

25 Michael Bachelard, The Great Land Grab , Hyland House, Melbourne, 1997, p. 5. 26 Wally Caruana, Aboriginal Art , Thames & Hudson, London, 1993, p. 16. 27 Ibid . 28 Ibid , p. 17. 29 Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau & Raphaël Confiant, Eloge de la créolité , Gallimard, Paris, 1989, p. 75. 30 The three books reviewed were Ecrire en pays dominé , L’Esclave vieil homme et le molosse and School Days (translated by Linda Cloverdale). inhabiting the islands, in turn calling himself a ‘moi-colons’, ‘moi-Amérindiens’, ‘moi-Africains’, ‘moi-Indiens’, ‘moi-Chinois’, ‘moi-Syro-Libanais’. 31 Taylor goes on to affirm that Chamoiseau “gradually realizes that his own self is actually composed of all these ‘others’ (significantly designated in the plural) and perceives that a ‘prismatic foundation’ for ‘existing in the world’ can be obtained by viewing himself as an aggregate ‘moi-Créole’.” 32 Créolité , then, becomes a powerful unifying element in a culture which is composed of a myriad cultures, races and historical experiences.

In an interview with Ottmar Ette and Ralph Ludewig in 1992, Chamoiseau elaborates on his perception of créolité , characterizing it above all as a “ mosaic identity ”33 which unites a string of disparate elements. Chamoiseau makes an important distinction between the concepts of unity and ‘unicity’ with the latter taking a monolithic approach attempting to create a single, unique object and the former embodying a certain transcultural human quality which exists despite the diversity of cultures and races. 34 For Chamoiseau, “this human unity can only be contemplated in diversity.” 35 Coining the expression ‘diversality’, Chamoiseau looks to the diversity of the human race as a means to its unity. In this way, then, difference becomes an asset and indeed, an empowering tool to a deeper and richer understanding of life. For the Australian context, the multiple differences that exist between the Aboriginal and European cultures thus become a way to enhance the Australian identity and not endanger it.

In conclusion, it is evident that the role of French in a cultural, as well as linguistic, sense occupies a place of extraordinary importance in Australia. From the earliest days of history to the popularity of the language and particularly in the profound influence of French and francophone thinkers on the Australian imagination, French continues to fascinate and inspire Australia. It is one vivid example of the way the countries of the world are interconnected and linked by their ‘diversality’.

31 John Taylor, “Rabelais in Martinique”, Times Literary Supplement , 10 th October 1997, p. 32. 32 Ibid . 33 Patrick Chamoiseau in Ottmar Ette & Ralph Ludewig, “En guise d’introduction: Points de vue sur l’évolution de la littérature antillaise: Entretien avec les écrivains martiniquais Patrick Chamoiseau et Raphaël Confiant ”, Lendemains , 67, 1992, p. 10. 34 Unpublished interview with Bonnie Thomas, 26 th June 2001, Martinique. Translated by B. Thomas. 35 Ibid .