![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
Aboriginal writing produced on Flinders Island off the coast of Van Diemen's Land, Australia, between 1836 and 1847 portrays continued resistance and attempts to influence public opinion and government policy. The journal, petition to Queen Victoria, private letters and colonial press coverage document the tumultuous existence Van Diemen's Land's surviving Aboriginal people endured. Leximancer software and a manual content analysis are used to identify the key themes and communication devices existing within the documents. Applying a typology of public sphere characteristics over the content analysis provides evidence of the existence of a subaltern Aboriginal public. This paper concludes that the Flinders Island people adopted European communication structures to overtly and covertly resist colonial domination and to exert control over their own lives. The documents and events surrounding their production suggest that the surviving people, despite being from different tribes in Van Diemen's Land, formed an Aboriginal subaltern public through which they took a unified stand against colonial oppression.
Notes
1. ABS, Australian Historical Population Statistics, tab.1.
2. Boyce, Van Diemen's Land, 145; and ABS, Australian Historical Population Statistics.
3. West, History of Tasmania, 19; and Plomley, Friendly Mission, 25.
4. Hartwell, Economic Development, 58; and Boyce, Van Diemen's Land, 146.
5. Boyce, Van Diemen's Land, 74–5, 82–3, 162, 173–4; and Reynolds, Fate of a Free People, 92–4.
6. Petrow, “Policing in a Penal Colony,” 353.
7. Hughes, The Fatal Shore, loc. 8278.
8. Petrow, “Policing,” 355–6, 387.
9. “Hobart Town,” Colonial Times: Friday, May 5; “Table Talk,” Colonial Times; and “Launceston,” Launceston Advertiser.
10. Petrow, “Policing,” 360.
11. Petrow, “After Arthur,” 1; Petrow, “Policing,” 355, 376; and Hughes, The Fatal Shore, loc. 8278.
12. Hartwell, Economic Development, 26; and Boyce, Van Diemen's Land, 169.
13. Reynolds, Fate, 93.
14. Plomley, Friendly, 28.
15. Melville, A History, 24–5.
16. Boyce, Van Diemen's Land, 262; and Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 88.
17. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 88.
18. Plomley, Friendly, 29.
19. Bonwick, Lost Tasmanian, 50.
20. Heaton, Early Tasmanian Press, 18.
21. Heaton, Early Tasmanian Press, 14.
22. “Supreme Court,” Hobart Town Courier, 3.
23. Heaton, Early Tasmanian, 3.
24. Heaton, Early Tasmanian, 3; Miller, Pressmen and Governors, 5.
25. Miller, Pressmen, 5.
26. Heaton, Early Tasmanian, 16–25.
27. Heaton, Early Tasmanian, 19–20.
28. Heaton, Early Tasmanian, 20.
29. Melville, A History, 70; and Heaton, Early Tasmanian, 20; and “Glorious,” Colonial Times, 2–3.
30. Heaton, Early Tasmanian, 20.
31. “Hobart Town,” The Courier, December 24, 2.
32. Schultz, Fourth Estate, 26.
33. Institute of Historical Research, 2013.
34. Habermas, Structural Transformation, 33, 87, 111.
35. Habermas, Structural Transformation, 60; and Gestrich, Public Sphere, 424.
36. “Hobart Town,” Colonial Times, March 16, 2–3 and “India and Australasia,” Launceston Advertiser, 50–1.
37. Trove, Digital Newspaper Archive, National Library Australia.
38. Mill, On Liberty, 33–4.
39. Mill, On Liberty, 34.
40. Cryle, Disreputable Profession, 11–2.
41. Raymond, “History of Newspapers,” 225; and Putnis, “Reuters,” 68–9.
42. Mill, On Liberty, 24.
43. “Hobart Town,” The Courier, December 24, 2.
44. “Trade and Shipping,” Hobart Town Courier, 3.
45. “English Press,” Observer.
46. “Black Question,” Courier, 3.
47. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, xxii, 14; and Walsh and Yallop, Language.
48. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, xxii, 14.
49. Bonwick, Lost Tasmanian, 85–105; and Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 4, 110–2.
50. George Augustus Robinson journals (1829–1849) and Letter Books. ML. Series 2, Vol. 11 (A 7032)-13 (A 7034) and Series 3, Vol. 22 (A 7043) – Vol. 25 (A 7046) (previously Endnote 1).
51. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 152–9.
52. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 183.
53. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 11, 13; and Walsh and Yallop, Language.
54. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 14.
55. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 14, 26–7; Plomley, Weep, 4; and Kerwin, Aboriginal Dreaming, 7.
56. Reynolds, Frontier, 11.
57. Reynolds, Fate, 49–50.
58. Avison and Meadows, “Speaking and Hearing,” 353–4; Avison, “Aboriginal Newspapers,” 26; and Molnar and Meadows, Songlines, 50.
59. Moreton-Robinson, “Whiteness,” 78.
60. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 113–5, 122, 174; Plomley, Weep, 1; Bonwick; Lost Tasmanian, Haebich, Broken Circles, 69–75; and Walsh and Yallop, Language.
61. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 115.
62. Fraser, “Rethinking the Public Sphere,” 116, 124; Eley, “Nations,” 292, 306; Squires “Black Voices”; and Squires “Rethinking.”
63. Fraser, “Rethinking the Public Sphere,” 124.
64. Squires, “Black voices,” 3, 31–9.
65. Squires, “Black voices,” 31–9.
66. Squires, “Black voices,” 34–5.
67. Squires, “Black voices,” 31–3; and “Rethinking,” 448, 457–8.
68. The Aboriginal or Flinders Island Chronicle. Mitchell Library ML A 7073 (Vol. 52) and Plomley, Weep.
69. Meadows and Molnar, “Bridging the Gaps,” 10; Plomley, Weep, 484; and Rose, Record, 2.
70. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 184; Haebich, Broken Circles, 111; van Toorn, Writing, 101.
71. Cretchley, Rooney, and Gallois, “Mapping,” 319.
72. Squires, “Black voices,” 32; and “Rethinking,” 458.
73. Rose, Record, 2.
74. George Augustus Robinson journals (1829–1849) and Letter Books. ML. Series 2, Vol. 11 (A 7032)-13 (A 7034) and Series 3, Vol. 22 (A 7043) – Vol. 25 (A 7046).
75. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 88, 103,124, 152; Plomley, Friendly, 68–9, 91, 96–7; and Hughes, Fatal Shore.
76. George Augustus Robinson journals (1829–1849) and Letter Books. ML. Series 2, Vol. 11 (A 7032)-13 (A 7034) and Series 3, Vol. 22 (A 7043) – Vol. 25 (A 7046).
77. Plomley, Weep, 488–93.
78. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 189; Rose, Record, 2.
79. “Flinders Island Establishment for the Aborigines,” Hobart Town Courier, September 23, 2–3.
80. “Slopians,” Colonial Times, September 27, 2–3.
81. Squires, “Black voices,” 33.
82. George Augustus Robinson journals (1829–1849) and Letter Books. ML. Series 2, Vol. 11 (A 7032)-13 (A 7034) and Series 3, Vol. 22 (A 7043) – Vol. 25 (A 7046).
83. Plomley, Friendly, 497.
84. George Augustus Robinson journals (1829–1849) and Letter Books. ML. Series 2, Vol. 11 (A 7032)-13 (A 7034) and Series 3, Vol. 22 (A 7043) – Vol. 25 (A 7046).
85. George Augustus Robinson journals (1829–1849) and Letter Books. ML. Series 2, Vol. 11 (A 7032)-13 (A 7034) and Series 3, Vol. 22 (A 7043) – Vol. 25 (A 7046).
86. Plomley, Friendly, 489.
87. Plomley, Friendly, 490, 495.
88. Birmingham and Wilson, “Archaeologies,” 24–5, 35.
89. Birmingham and Wilson, “Archaeologies,” 24–5, 25.
90. Squires, “Black voices,” 32; and Moreton-Robinson, “Resistance,”127–8.
91. George Augustus Robinson journals (1829–1849) and Letter Books. ML. Series 2, Vol. 11 (A 7032)-13 (A 7034) and Series 3, Vol. 22 (A 7043) – Vol. 25 (A 7046).
92. Ryan, Aboriginal Tasmanians, 197, 200; Plomley, Weep, 134, 143; “Domestic Intelligence,” Colonial Times; and “Correspondence,” Launceston Advertiser.
93. W.G. Arthur to G. W. Walker letter. ML A612:221-223.
94. Petition from Flinders Island Aborigines to Queen Victoria, ML PRO 280/195:311-312.
95. Walsh and Yallop, Language; van Toorn, Writing, 104; Squires, “Black voices,” 33; and Fraser, “Rethinking the Public Sphere,” 124.
96. Fraser, “Rethinking the Public Sphere,” 124; and Eley, “Nations,” 292, 306.
97. Letter from Eardley-Wilmot through J.E. Bicheno to the Flinders Island people requesting they write to the Lieutenant-Governor. ML PRO 280/195:346-347.
98. Squires, “Black voices,” 34.
99. Letter from W.G. Arthur on behalf of the Flinders Island Aboriginal people to Joseph Milligan asking permission for the catechist to help with a petition to the Queen. 19 February 1846. ML PRO 280/195:310.
100. Letter from Joseph Milligan, Acting Superintendent of Flinders Island Aboriginal Settlement, to Robert Clark, Flinders Island catechist undated, ML PRO 280/195:308-309.
101. Letter from Joseph Milligan, Acting Superintendent of Flinders Island Aboriginal Settlement, to Robert Clark, Flinders Island catechist undated, ML PRO 280/195:308-309.
102. Letter to Lieutenant-Governor Eardley-Wilmot from King Alphonso, King Alexander, Flinders Island.16 June 1846. ML PRO 280/195:329-330.
103. Letter to Lieutenant-Governor Eardley-Wilmot from King Alphonso, King Alexander, Flinders Island.16 June 1846. ML PRO 280/195:329-330.
104. Letter from Mary Ann Arthur to Lieutenant-Governor Eardley-Wilmot. June 1846. ML PRO 280/195:318-319.
105. Letter from W.G Arthur to Lieutenant-Governor Eardley-Wilmot. 16 June 1846. ML PRO 280/195:331-333.
106. Letter from John Allan to Lieutenant-Governor Eardley-Wilmot. 16 June 1846. ML PRO 280/195:324-325.
107. Letter from Washington to Lieutenant-Governor Eardley-Wilmot. 18 June 1846. ML PRO 280/195:327-328; Letter from Davey Bruny to Lieutenant-Governor Eardley-Wilmot. 16 June 1846. ML PRO 280/195:322-323.
108. Letter from W.G Arthur to Lieutenant-Governor Eardley-Wilmot. 16 June 1846. ML PRO 280/195:331-333.
109. Lieutenant Friend's report to Lieutenant-Governor Eardley-Wilmot. 24 October 1846. Tasmanian State Archives, CSO 11-27, p. 35.
110. Launceston Examiner, 30 September 1846, p. 6.
111. Letter from Wilmot to Gladstone dated 13 August 1846. ML PRO CO280/195:297-302.
112. Moreton-Robinson, “Resistance,” 127.
113. Moreton-Robinson, “Resistance,”, 127–8.
114. Reynolds, Fate, 140–2.
115. Trugernanna to Calder in Reynolds, Fate, 142.
116. Calder, Some Account of the Wars, 108.
117. Kerwin, Aboriginal Dreaming; Reynolds, Fate, 149.
118. Squires, “Black voices,” 31–3; and Squires “Rethinking,” 448, 457–8.
119. Scott, Domination, 18–9.
120. Squires, “Black voices,” 31–3; and Squires “Rethinking,” 448, 457–8.
121. Kurtzer, Wandering Girl, 188.
122. Kurtzer, Wandering Girl, 188.
123. Burrows, “Tools,” 38.
124. Burrows, “Tools,” 38–9.
125. Reynolds, Frontier, 101.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Elizabeth Burrows
Elizabeth Burrows, School of Humanities, Griffith University and the Griffith Centre for Cultural Research.