BEYOND BLACK AND WHITE: ABORIGINES, ASIAN-AUSTRALIANS AND THE NATIONAL IMAGINARY Peta Stephenson, BA (Hons), MA Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2003 The Australian Centre, Faculty of Arts The University of Melbourne Abstract This thesis examines how Aboriginality, ‘Asianness’ and whiteness have been imagined from Federation in 1901 to the present. It recovers a rich but hitherto largely neglected history of twentieth century cross-cultural partnerships and alliances between Indigenous and Asian-Australians. Commercial and personal intercourse between these communities has existed in various forms on this continent since the pre-invasion era. These cross- cultural exchanges have often been based on close and long-term shared interests that have stemmed from a common sense of marginalisation from dominant Anglo-Australian society. At other times these cross-cultural relationships have ranged from indifference to hostility, reflecting the fact that migrants of Asian descent remain the beneficiaries of the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Despite the long history of contact between Indigenous and Asian-Australians, these cross- cultural alliances have been largely expunged from the white Australian consciousness. By charting white ideological, political and legislative responses to these engagements, the thesis shows why this historical experience has been repressed in dominant narratives of nation. It argues that the Anglo-Australian desire to maintain racial supremacy, economic dominance and exclusive possession of the nation and its resources has motivated attempts to quarantine these communities from each other. This thesis argues that Indigenous and Asian-Australian people’s shared experience of exclusion from one another and from the dominant narrative of nationhood has been a source of agency and of extra-governmental self-determination and cultural exchange. It provides the first scholarly overview of a new wave of cross-cultural literary, artistic and theatrical production that is rewriting the national geographic and social imaginary. The thesis thus offers a new non-Anglocentric account of the national narrative and its fictions. It shows that Asian/Aboriginal cross-cultural alliances problematise ‘Black/white’ and ‘migrant/settler’ dichotomies and, as such, contest dominant narratives of nation, challenge accepted versions of Australian historiography and expose the limitations of the discourses of multiculturalism and reconciliation. Declaration This is to certify that: i. the thesis comprises only my original work, ii. due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, iii. the thesis is less than 100 000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, footnotes, citations, bibliographies and appendices. Signature -------------------------- Date --------------- Acknowledgements This thesis has travelled between two universities, across two states and, what seems at times, two lifetimes. I completed the first 18 months of my candidature at the University of Queensland under the supervision of Associate Professor Carole Ferrier—from the Department of English—and Professor Kam Louie, then head of the Department of Asian Languages and Studies. Carole and Kam provided me with immense support and encouragement and much helpful feedback in devising and structuring my research topic. Kam and especially Carole have continued to assist me in many ways, and I thank them for their ongoing support. I also give thanks to Carole for the opportunity to have some of my work published. Since enrolling in the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne, I have benefited from the careful supervision of Associate Professor Kate Darian-Smith. Kate has been a source of support for me on both professional and personal levels, and I am indebted to her for her friendship, camaraderie and advice about my thesis, papers and many other matters. I am also very grateful to my former associate supervisor Dr Gwenda Tavan for her generosity, guidance and recommendations on my many drafts. Dr Nikos Papastergiadis became my associate supervisor in September 2002, and I have greatly appreciated his many welcome suggestions for improving and refining my argument. This dissertation would not have been possible without the assistance of many others. A number of academics and researchers have very generously helped and supported me by answering my many queries, referring me to important publications, sending copies of relevant material and suggesting other researchers to contact. I give very heartfelt thanks to Associate Professors Chiang Shu-chen and Fran Crawford, Drs Clare Wright, Ros Bandt, Ouyang Yu, Tseen Khoo, Noelene Brasche, Jacqueline Lo, Penny Edwards, Julia Martinez, Mandy Thomas, Eleonare Wildburger, Guy Ramsay and Sara Wills. I owe very special thanks to historian Dr Christine Choo and Pat Dudgeon—head of the centre for Aboriginal Studies, Curtin University of Technology—for speaking with me about the experiences of people of Aboriginal-Asian descent and sharing their personal and family stories. I am indebted to many others for their invaluable assistance. I wish to thank Joan Jack, Austin Chin, Kevin Han, Julie Chan, Adam Aitken, Dou Wei, Anne Chittleborough, Dawn Bessarab and Amanda Lawrence. I am especially grateful to novelist Alex Miller and artist Shi Xiaojun for their time and generosity in allowing me to interview them at length. In the final stages of producing the thesis, I relied heavily on the technical support of Warwick Savvas and I thank him for his expertise, time and advice. To my friends and family, your encouragement to keep going with the project has been greatly appreciated. I give very special thanks to Paul Carter to whom I owe more than words can say. List of Illustrations Items awaiting Copyright Clearance not included in digital copy Thesis title page: Shi Xiaojun, Red, 1995. Collection: the artist, Melbourne. Figure 1: Photographer unknown, An Aborigine and a Malay man opening shell. Source: John Bailey, The White Divers of Broome (2001): 164-65. Figure 2: Alan Tucker, The Macassans, 1994. Source: Alan Tucker, Too Many Captain Cooks (1994): 17. Figure 3: Artist unknown, Chinese Labourers, c. 1880. Source: Australian Gallery Directors Council, Aboriginal Australia (1981): 79. Figure 4: Artist unknown, Macassan Prau, c.1700-1800. Source: Howard Morphy, Aboriginal Art (1998): 222. Figure 5: Artist unknown, Minimini Mamarika [The Malay Prau], c. 1948. Collection: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Figure 6: Muggurrawuy Yunupingu, Macassan Prau, c. 1958. Source: Sotheby’s Auction Catalogue, Aboriginal Art July (2002): 34. Figure 7: Tommy McRae/McCrae, Aborigines Chasing Chinese. Collection: Museum of Victoria, Melbourne. Figure 8: JCF Johnson, A Game of Euchre, 1876. Collection: National Library of Australia Picture Collection, Canberra. Available: http://www.nla.gov.au/. Figure 9: Artist unknown, Whose Multi-culturalism?. Source: Farrago University of Melbourne Student Newspaper (1992): 2. Figure 10: Huo Leong, An Australian. Source: Suvendrini Perera (ed), Asian and Pacific Inscriptions (1995): 114. Figure 11: Huo Leong, An Australian. Source: Suvendrini Perera (ed), Asian and Pacific Inscriptions (1995): 115-116. Figure 12: Donna Brown and Bernardo Duarte, Two Tribes, 2001. Source: Lost & Found: A Shared Search for Belonging Exhibition Catalogue, Melbourne (2001): 8. Figure 13: Artist unknown, ? Lost & Found: A Shared Search for Belonging Exhibition Catalogue, cover image, Melbourne (2001). Figure 14: Photographer unknown, Jimmy Pike and Zhou Xiaoping in Fitzroy Crossing Australia, 1995. Source: Through the Eyes of Two Cultures Exhibition Catalogue, National Gallery of China, Beijing (1999): no page. Figure 15: Photographer unknown, Jimmy Pike and Zhou Xiaoping in China, 1996. Source: Through the Eyes of Two Cultures Exhibition Catalogue, National Gallery of China, Beijing (1999): no page. Figure 16: Artist unknown, Through the Eyes of Two Cultures Exhibition Catalogue, cover image, National Gallery of China, Beijing (1999). Figure 17: Zhou Xiaoping and Jimmy Pike, Drew each other (1 and 2), 1995. Source: Through the Eyes of Two Cultures Exhibition Catalogue, National Gallery of China, Beijing (1999): no page. Figure 18: Zhou Xiaoping, Land, 1998. Source: Through the Eyes of Two Cultures Exhibition Catalogue, National Gallery of China, Beijing (1999): no page. Figure 19: Shi Xiaojun, Red, 1995. Collection: the artist, Melbourne. Figure 20: Shi Xiaojun, Red, 1995. Collection: the artist, Melbourne. Figure 21: Shi Xiaojun, Red, 1995. Collection: the artist, Melbourne. Figure 22: Mithinari Gurruwiwi, Steel Axes, 1976. Source: Howard Morphy, Aboriginal Art (1998): 223. Figure 23: Jonny BulunBulun, Marrukundja Manikay Cycle, 1993-1994. Source: Howard Morphy, Aboriginal Art (1998): 225. Figure 24: Tracey Moffatt, Something More, 1989. Source: Dia Center for the Arts. Available: http://www.diacenter.org/exhibs/moffatt/project/something.html. Figure 25: Lin Onus, Michael and I are just slipping down to the pub for a minute, 1992. Source: Sotheby’s Auction Catalogue, Aboriginal Art July (2001): 121. Figure 26:Photographer unknown, Oodgeroo Noonucal. Source: Kath Walker in China, cover image (1988). Figure 27: Artist unknown, untitled. Source: Jane Harrison, Stolen and Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman, The 7 Stages of Dreaming, play poster. Tokyo International Performing Arts Festival (2002). Figure