‘A Halo of Protection’: Colonial Protectors and the Principle of Aboriginal Protection through Punishment

Abstract

Scholarship on Australia's colonial protectorates has examined the ways in which protectors largely failed in their humanitarian mission, as well as the ambivalent roles they played as agents of ‘civilisation’. Yet as well as representing ‘friends and benefactors’ of Aboriginal people, colonial protectors worked to bring them within the legal reach of police, courts and prisons. This article will compare the work of the protectorates during the 1840s in Port Phillip and South Australia with that of Western Australia, where a more systematic and forebodingly modern policy of Aboriginal governance existed. It argues that in Western Australia a logic of Aboriginal protection emerged through a principle of discipline and punishment facilitated by the distinctive policy regime of Governor Hutt.

Notes

¹This article connects to a larger collaborative research program with Robert Foster (University of Adelaide) on the Australian frontier. I would like to thank Robert for his longstanding collegiality, and Richard Broome for his helpful comments on this paper.

²For instance Perth Gazette, 9 January 1841, 13 January 1844, 18 January 1845, 17 January 1846, 23 January 1847, 7 February 1849.

³Annual report 1842, Perth Gazette, 14 January 1843.

⁴Alan Lester and Fae Dussart, ‘Trajectories of Protection: Protectorates of Aborigines in early 19^th Century Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand’, New Zealand Geographer, 64 (2008): 208–10.

⁵Alan Lester and Fae Dussart, ‘Trajectories of Protection: Protectorates of Aborigines in early 19^th Century Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand’, New Zealand Geographer, 64 (2008): 208–10.

⁶For instance Paul Hasluck, Black Australians (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1942), 72–79; R. H. W. Reece, Aborigines and Colonists (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1974), 198–205; Richard Broome, Aboriginal Australians (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1982), 49–51; Vivienne Rae-Ellis, Black Robinson (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1988), 231–288; Lindsey Arkley, The Hated Protector (Melbourne: Orbit, 2000); Richard Cotter, A Cloud of Hapless Foreboding (Sorrento: Nepean Historical Society, 2005), 1–7.

⁷Jessie Mitchell, In Good Faith: Governing Indigenous Australia through God, Charity and Empire 1825–1855 (Canberra: ANU Press, 2006); Alan Lester, ‘Colonial Networks, Australian Humanitarianism and the History Wars’, Geographical Research 44, no. 3 (2006): 229–241.

⁸For instance Samantha Wells, ‘Negotiating Place in Colonial Darwin: Interactions between Aborigines and Whites’ (PhD dissertation, University of Technology, Sydney, 2003); Mitchell (2006).

⁹Anna Johnston and Mitchell Rolls, ‘Reading Friendly Mission in the 21^st Century’ in Reading Robinson, eds, A. Johnson and M. Rolls (Hobart: Quintus, 2008), 20.

¹⁰Lord Glenelg, 31 January 1838, Despatches of the Governors of the Australian Colonies, with the Reports of the Protectors of Aborigines, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (HCPP), no. 627 (1844), 166–7.

¹¹Reece, 49.

¹²Memorial to Governor Gipps and response, 18 April 1840, HCPP 627, 51–53.

¹³Gipps to Lord Russell, 3 February 1841, HCPP 627, 85.

¹⁴Gipps to Lord Russell, 3 February 1841, HCPP 627, 85.

¹⁵La Trobe to Colonial Secretary, 20 September 1840 and Major Lettsom, 10 October 1840, HCPP 627, 91; 95.

¹⁶La Trobe to Colonial Secretary 4 March 1842; Gipps to Lord Stanley 16 May 1842, HCPP 627, 216–7.

¹⁷Broome, 50.

¹⁸Lord Russell to Gipps, 21 December 1839, HCPP 627, 25.

¹⁹Lord Stanley to Gipps, 20 December 1842, HCPP 627, 221–22.

²⁰Lord Stanley to Gipps, 20 December 1842, HCPP 627, 221–22.

²¹Gipps to Lord Stanley, 21 March 1844, HCPP 627, 286.

²²Dredge to Robinson, 17 February 1840; Thomas to Robinson, 29 September 1840, HCPP 627, 54; 96.

²³Reece (1974); Broome (1982); Arkley (2000); Lester and Dussart (2008).

²⁴Robert Foster, Rick Hosking and Amanda Nettelbeck, Fatal Collisions: The South Australian Frontier and the Violence of Memory (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2001), 33–34.

²⁵Moorhouse to Colonial Secretary, 19 March 1846 and 29 August 1846, Protector's Letterbook GRG 52/1, State Records of South Australia (SRSA).

²⁶Moorhouse to Colonial Secretary, 21 January 1847, Protector's Letterbook GRG 52/1, SRSA.

²⁷Amanda Nettelbeck and Robert Foster, ‘Colonial Judiciaries, Aboriginal Protection and South Australia's Policy of Punishing with Exemplary Severity’, Australian Historical Studies 41, no. 3 (2010): 319–36.

²⁸Moorhouse to Colonial Secretary, 8 October 1849, Protector's Letterbook GRG 52/1, SRSA.

²⁹Instructions to Governor Stirling 1831, Acc 619 State Records of Western Australia (SROWA).

³⁰ Perth Gazette 2 March 1833 and 30 August 1834.

³¹Instructions to the Protectors of the Aborigines of Western Australia 11 February 1840, HCPP 627, 371–373.

³²Hasluck, 69–121.

³³Hutt to Lord Glenelg, 3 May 1839, HCPP 627, 363–66.

³⁴Lord Russell to Hutt, 30 April 1841, HCPP 627, 377. Such an Act was passed in 1849 and revised over the years. See John McCorquodale, Aborigines and the Law: A Digest (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 1987), 90–92; Julie Evans, ‘The Formulation of Privilege and Exclusion in Settler States’ in Honour Among Nations, eds, M. Langton et al., (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2004), 69–82.

³⁵Hutt to Lord Russell, 20 January 1842, HCPP 627, 400.

³⁶Hutt to Lord Glenelg, 3 May 1839 and 19 August 1840, HCPP 627, 363–66; 373–75.

³⁷Hutt to Lord Russell, 15 May 1841, HCPP 627, 380–86.

³⁸Hutt to Lord Russell, 10 July 1841, HCPP 627, 392.

³⁹‘Report upon the Best Means of Promoting the Civilisation of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Australia’, George Grey to Lord Russell, 4 June 1840, HCPP 627, 100–04.

⁴⁰‘Report upon the Best Means of Promoting the Civilisation of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Australia’, George Grey to Lord Russell, 4 June 1840, HCPP 627, 100–04.

⁴¹Hutt to Lord Russell, 10 July 1841, HCPP 627, 392.

⁴²Hutt to Lord Russell, 15 May 1841, HCPP 627, 383.

⁴³Hutt to Lord Russell, 15 May 1841, HCPP 627, 383.

⁴⁴Symmons to Colonial Secretary, 31 March, 30 June and 30 September 1840, CSO Acc 36, vol 89 (1840), SROWA.

⁴⁵Although determined that Aboriginal people learn the law's lesson, Hutt resisted calls for ‘the vengeance of the law’. Against the advice of his Executive Council, he commuted the death penalty of Yambup, the third man tried for Sarah Cook's murder, since Doodjeep's and Barrabong's executions had already achieved the object of ‘salutary terror’. Executive Council meeting 7 October 1841, Encl in No. 16, HCPP 627, 396.

⁴⁶Annual report 1840, Perth Gazette 9, January 1841.

⁴⁷Criminal Sittings Register 1830–1887, Acc 3422/1, SROWA.

⁴⁸Hutt to Lord Russell, 1 March 1842, HCPP 627, 402.

⁴⁹Lord Stanley to Grey, 10 July 1843, HCPP 627, 341.

⁵⁰Barrow to Colonial Secretary, 30 June 1840, CSO Acc 36, vol. 89 (1840), SROWA.

⁵¹Barrow to Colonial Secretary, 30 September 1840, CSO Acc 36, vol. 89 (1840), SROWA.

⁵²Barrow to Colonial Secretary, 15 December 1840, CSO Acc 36, vol. 89 (1840), SROWA.

⁵³Hutt to Lord Russell, 15 May 1841, HCPP 627, 380–86.

⁵⁴Colonial Secretary to Drummond, 27 August 1840, Appendix 2 in A. R. Pashley, A Colonial Pioneer: The Life and Times of John Nicol Drummond (Perth: Educant, 2002), 96.

⁵⁵Journals of Inspector Drummond, CSO Acc 36, vol. 115 (1842), SROWA.

⁵⁶For instance Drummond to Bland, 11 June 1842, CSO Acc 36, vol. 115 (1842), SROWA.

⁵⁷Annual report 1842, Perth Gazette, 14 January 1843.

⁵⁸Bland to Colonial Secretary, 1 January 1846, CSO Acc 36, vol. 142 (1846), SROWA.

⁵⁹Bland to Colonial Secretary, 17 January 1846, CSO Acc 36, vol. 142 (1846), SROWA.

⁶⁰Bland to Colonial Secretary, 5 March 1846, CSO Acc 36, vol. 142 (1846), SROWA.

⁶¹Bland to Colonial Secretary, 13 January 1847, CSO Acc 36, vol. 156 (1847), SROWA.

⁶²Instructions to Edward Hester, Enc 2 in No 23, Hutt to Lord Stanley, 21 January 1843, HCPP 627, 421.

⁶³Hutt to Lord Stanley, 21 January 1843, HCPP 627, 415–6.

⁶⁴Symmons to Colonial Secretary, 1 January 1846, CSO Acc 36, vol. 147 (1846), SROWA.

⁶⁵Symmons to Colonial Secretary, 1 June 1846, CSO Acc 36, vol. 147 (1846), SROWA.

⁶⁶Annual report 1843, Perth Gazette 13 January 1844.

⁶⁷Clark to Lord Stanley, 7 March 1842, HCPP 627, 414.

⁶⁸Clark to Lord Stanley, 31 March 1843, CSO Acc 36, vol. 116 (1843), SROWA.

⁶⁹Clark to Lord Stanley, 31 March 1843, CSO Acc 36, vol. 116 (1843), SROWA.

⁷⁰Hutt to Lord Stanley, 19 June 1843, HCPP 627, 424.

⁷¹Lord Stanley to Hutt, 11 October 1842, HCPP 627, 415.

⁷²Hutt to Lord Stanley, 6 April 1843, HCPP 627, 422.

⁷³E. W. Landor, The Bushman: Life in a New Country (London: Richard Bentley, 1847), 187–95.

⁷⁴See the trials of Charles Bussell (Perth Gazette 13 July 1842), Edward Lee and James Wilkinson (Inquirer 8 April 1863) and David Reader (Perth Gazette 6 January 1865).

⁷⁵Annual report 1846, Perth Gazette, 23 January 1847.

⁷⁶Annual report 1848, Perth Gazette, 10 February 1849.

⁷⁷Annual report 1846, Perth Gazette, 30 January 1847.

⁷⁸ Government Gazette, 3 April 1849, cited in Hasluck, 78.

⁷⁹Lester and Dussart, 213.

⁸⁰Lester, 237.

⁸¹Annual report 1848, Perth Gazette, 10 February 1849.

⁸²Hutt to Lord Russell, 15 May 1841, HCPP 627, 380–86.

⁸³Marie Fels, Good Men and True: The Aboriginal Police of the Port Phillip District (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1988), 32–39.

⁸⁴Journal entry of William Thomas for June 1843, reported in HCPP 627, 325.

⁸⁵Hutt to Legislative Council, 4 May 1840, Perth Gazette, 9 May 1840.

⁸⁶Annual report 1848, Perth Gazette, 10 February 1849.

⁸⁷Hutt to Lord Russell, 15 May 1841, HCPP 627, 383–84.