Indirect Rule in a Settler Colony: Race, Indigeneity, Government Submitted by Ben Silverstein, BA (Hons), LLB (Hons) A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Historical and European Studies Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences La Trobe University Bundoora, Victoria 3086 Australia May 2012 CONTENTS: Thesis Summary iii Acknowledgements vi Introduction 1 Chapter One. Colonial Transformations in India and Fiji: The Ideological Origins of Indirect Rule 37 Chapter Two. An African Political System: Lugard’s Indirect Rule 59 Chapter Three. Framing a Biopolitical Tribe: Functionalist Anthropology and Colonial Government 97 Chapter Four. The Northern Territory: Colonial Order and Contradiction in Australia, 1918–45 135 Chapter Five. Framing a Positive Policy: Advocates for Indirect Rule in Australia 167 Chapter Six. Native Administration in the Northern Territory: From a White North to a Colonial Biopower 211 Chapter Seven. When is Rule Indirect? Time, History and Unfree Labour in the Aboriginal New Deal 233 Conclusion 283 Bibliography 295 ii List of Illustrations: Title Page Map of Northern Territory, Pastoral Leases and Grazing Licences, from J H Kelly, Report on the Beef Cattle Industry in Northern Australia (Canberra: Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Dept. of Commerce and Agriculture, 1952), opposite p 92. 134 Northern Territory, Shepherd Committee vehicle smashed approximately 50 miles north of Alice Springs, 1924, NAA: M4435, 235. 146 Northern Territory, Cattle – Koolpinyah, 1924, NAA: M4435, 361. 152 F J Rogers, Cattle muster from 'Elsey Station', 1930, State Library of South Australia, B 54408. 152 Map of Northern Territory from Peter Read and Jay Read, eds, Long Time, Olden Time: Aboriginal Accounts of Northern Territory History (Alice Springs: Institute for Aboriginal Development, 1991), p xv. 210 Brunette Downs homestead, 1935, Northern Territory Library, S S Godfrey Collection. 268 Album of anthropological photographs - Aboriginal Inquiry Central and North Australia - J.W. Bleakley - Native single men's quarters, Brunette Downs cattle station - (Page 70a), 1928, NAA: A263, ALBUM. 268 Album of anthropological photographs - Aboriginal Inquiry Central and North Australia - J.W. Bleakley - Typical married natives camp - Northern Territory Cattle Station - (Page 70b), 1928, NAA: A263, ALBUM. 269 iii Thesis Summary: This thesis examines archives and texts of colonial administration to study the emergence of ideas and practices of indirect rule in the first half of the twentieth century. It demonstrates that the practice of indirect rule was everywhere an effect of Indigenous or ‘native’ people’s insistence on maintaining and re-inventing their political formations, their refusal to be completely dominated, and their frustration of colonial aspirations to total control. These conditions of difference and contradiction, of the struggles of people in contact, produced a colonial state that was created both by colonialists and by ‘natives’. But while indirect rule took a particular institutional form, producing distinctive technologies for organising and articulating production and for subsuming questions of sovereignty, the thesis also presents the argument that it was theorised in writing as a political rationality: a language and epistemology of power, comprising an object, an aim and technologies for governing that object, and a justification for government. In the first half of the thesis, I present readings of Arthur Gordon’s and Frederick Lugard’s descriptions of indirect rule in Fiji and Nigeria, as well as texts in the genre of British social anthropology. Through these, the thesis traces the cross-imperial emergence and diffusion of ideas, noting their development through colonial practice in contact and conflict with Indigenous and ‘native’ people and politics. The thesis argues that administrators’ textual representations of indirect rule, which rendered it as an art of government, abstracted from the contingent and uncertain processes of state formation a representation of, and guide to, the colonial state as both the wilful creation and instrument of total colonial control. The thesis then turns to the influence that this developing art of indirect rule had on Australia’s government of Indigenous people in the interwar period. Indirect rule has often been associated with a rejection of settler dominion. In the second half of this study, which explores the Commonwealth of Australia’s 1939 policy for governing Aboriginal ‘tribes’ and workers in the pastoralist north, I argue that it was both influential and partially implemented in Australia. This argument both reconfigures the orthodoxy within which Australian colonies have ordinarily been considered archetypal sites of settler colonialism, and demonstrates that the mentalities of indirect rule were producible in, and travelled to, a settler colony. iv This thesis thus problematises the distinction, often overdrawn in recent historiography, between settler and franchise colonialisms, preferring to trace policy gradations across a dynamic and unified empire. It thus locates Aboriginal history within imperial history and Aboriginal struggles as colonial struggles, situating the settler colonial politics of Indigeneity in a broader governmental context. Australian settler governmentality, in other words, was not entirely exceptional; in this instance, we find the settler colonial state participating in, and constituting, an integrated, empire-wide repertoire of the arts of governing and colonising peoples. v Statement of Authorship: Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma. No other person's work has been used without due acknowledgment in the main text of the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. Signed: ………………………………………… Date: ……………………………. vi Acknowledgements: This thesis is the product of too many years work, and over time I have been lucky to work with several different supervisors, associate supervisors, or co-supervisors. Julie Evans was there at the beginning, pushing me to think more broadly. David Philips’ exacting standards provoked me to stop reading for a moment and begin actually writing a thesis. His unfailingly direct and honest criticism forced out of me clarity, precision, and meticulously ordered arguments. He is sadly missed. Penny Edmonds gave the finest attention to ideas, thoughts and some early claims, and found the time for close readings of chapter drafts even amidst an overwhelming workload. Patrick Wolfe has been deeply influential both as a writer and supervisor. He has been constantly engaged and encouraging, and has inspired specificity and sophistication. Patrick has dwelled on each chapter, urging me to draft and refine until ready. His judgement, support and advice have pushed me to produce the best work I can. Tracey Banivanua-Mar, finally, has been an extraordinary supervisor from beginning to end. The thesis, frankly, would probably never have been finished without her encouragement, guidance and close reading. On more than one occasion, I relied on Tracey to tell me what I was writing about, and am especially grateful for her care and support over the years. Her generous patronage has, at times, paid my rent, and her work has challenged me to keep thinking. There are traces of her, and of each of my supervisors, in this thesis. I thank them all. In carrying out the wide-ranging research that went into this thesis, I have also relied on a great many archivists and library staff, whose expertise and help have been invaluable in directing me to relevant material. Julia Mant at the University of Sydney Archives and Lucy McCann at the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies in Oxford were particularly helpful. Thanks also to all the staff at the Borchardt library at La Trobe University, the National Archives of Australia offices in Canberra and Darwin, the Northern Territory Archives Service, the Manuscripts Reading Room at the National Library of Australia, the Australian Manuscripts collection at the State Library of Victoria, the Mitchell Library, the Mortlock Library, the Manuscripts Collection at the British Library, the LSE Archives, and the National Archives of South Africa office at Pretoria/Tshwane. Materially the work and some of the necessary travel has been supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award, a La Trobe University Postgraduate Scholarship, and the Lloyd Robson Memorial Award. vii Many ideas were instigated way back in the Melbourne Colonial and Postcolonial Histories coffee and reading group which included, among others, my dear comrade and partner in ratbaggery Claire McLisky, Caitlin Murray, Katie Pace, Georgia Shiells, and Alecia Simmonds. Crystal McKinnon also came along to La Trobe University, where she remains a dear friend, colleague, and inspiration. At La Trobe, I have been lucky enough to share various rooms in the ever-diminishing postgraduate office space with a vibrant cohort of postgrads as we have moved through the PhD program together. Michelle Carmody, Sarah de Santis, Damir Mitric, and Randal Sheppard have all done terrific work, and together we provided solidarity in some difficult times. I have been fortunate to discuss parts of the thesis with colleagues, friends