Whitewash-Brainwash: An Archival-Poetic Labour Story

Abstract

The majority of Aboriginal families I know in South Australia carry intimate histories of domestic service through living memory and inter-generational blood-memory passed on. Despite the significance of these stories within families, this government-orchestrated system of indentured labour targeting Aboriginal girls remains largely hidden and unacknowledged in the state's dominant and official public narrative of history. This paper considers the historical, unfolding rationale for inter-dependent policies of child-removal, institutionalisation and training, as context to the burgeoning Aboriginal domestic service workforce into the twentieth century. It also examines popular culture discourse, coupled with prevailing racialised attitudes toward Aboriginal women at the time, exemplified through representations of ‘Abo Maids’ in a prominent national women’s magazine, The Australian Woman's Mirror. ‘Archival-poetics’, as an active, embodied reckoning with history and the colonial archive, is also introduced as creative praxis; one way to bridge this labour knowledge gap and contribute to larger stories of resistance, resilience and refusal with healing and decolonising intent.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Notes

1 Lel Black, Jackie Huggins and Leah King-Smith 1994, White Apron - Black Hands: A Project on Aboriginal Women Domestics in Service, a Black Day Dawning Production, exhibition catalogue, July, Brisbane City Hall Gallery, Brisbane.

2 Herb Wharton, ‘Dark Women of the West' in Herb Wharton, Kings with Empty Pockets (Herb Wharton Campfire Group 2003) 69, 70.

3 Adele Murdolo, ‘Warmth and Vanity with all Women? Historicizing Racism in the Australian Women's Movement' (1996) 52(1) Feminist Review 69; Jan Pettman, ‘Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Australia' in Daiva Stasiulis and Nira Yuval-Davis (eds) Unsettling Settler Societies: Articulations of Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Class (Sage Publications 1995) 65.

4 Jackie Huggins, Sister Girl: The Writings of Aboriginal Activist and Historian Jackie Huggins (University of Queensland Press 1998); Maria Nugent, Women's Employment and Professionalism in Australia: Histories, Themes and Places (Australian Heritage Commission 2002).

5 See Anna Haebich, Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families, 1800–2000 (Fremantle Arts Centre Press 2000); Victoria Haskins and Claire Lowrie (eds) Colonization and Domestic Service: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge 2015); Victoria Haskins, ‘“& So We Are ‘Slave Owners’!”: Employers and the NSW Aborigines Protection Board Trust Funds’ (2005) 88(May) Labour History 147; Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, HREOC (1997) <https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/bringing-them-home-preliminary> (last accessed 20 September 2018); Jackie Huggins, ‘‘Firing on the Mind': Aboriginal Women Domestic Servants in the Inter-war Years' Hecate (1987) 13(2) 5; Huggins above note 4; Margaret Jacobs, White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880–1940 (University of Nebraska Press 2009); Rosalind Kidd, Hard Labour: Stolen Wages: National Report on Stolen Wages (ANTaR 2007); Rosalind Kidd, ‘Aboriginal Workers, Aboriginal Poverty' in Natasha Fijn, Ian Keen, Christopher Lloyd and Michael Pickering (eds) Indigenous Participation in Australian Economies II: Historical Engagements and Current Enterprises (ANU EPress 2012) 171 <http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p182561/pdf/ch09.pdf> (last accessed 27 September 2018); Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Talkin'up to the White Woman (University of Queensland Press 2000); Murdolo above note 3; Nugent above note 4; Shirleene Robinson, ‘”We Do Not Want One Who is Too Old … ” Aboriginal Child Domestic Servants in Queensland, 1842–1945' (2003) 27 Aboriginal History 162; Inara Walden, ‘''That was Slavery Days”: Aboriginal Domestic Servants in New South Wales in the Twentieth Century' (1995) 69(November) Labour History 196.

6 For example, Gary Foley and others, ARC LIEF project 2017, ‘National online archive of Aboriginal self-determination and activism resources', Victoria University; Cressida Fforde and others, ‘Return, Reconcile, Renew: Understanding the history, effects and opportunities of repatriation and building an evidence base for the future' (ARC Linkage Grant 2013–2016, ANU); Anna Haebich and others, ARC Indigenous Discovery, ‘Ancestor Words: Noongar letter writing in Western Australian government archives from the 1860s to the 1960s', (Curtin University, Monash University, Colgate University, USA, 2016); Elizabeth Nelson, Sandra Smith and Patricia Grimshaw, Letters from Aboriginal Women of Victoria, 1867–1926 (University of Melbourne 2002).

7 See Gamilaraay/Wailwan artist r e a's work ‘Look Whose Calling the Kettle Black' (1992); Nukunu/Kokatha glass-artist Yhonnie Scarce's work ‘Florey and Fanny' (2011); the exhibition ‘White Apron Black Hands' (1994) curated by Bidjara/Birri-Gubba Jiri author and historian Jackie Huggins, featuring Indigenous artists Lel Black and Leah King-Smith; and Bidjara, Ghungalu artist Dale Harding's ‘Bright Eyed Little Dormitory Girls' (2013); and the work of the Unbound Collective (2014 to present) <http://www.flinders.edu.au/oise/unbound/about-unbound.cfm> (last accessed 8 March 2020).

8 Royal Commission on the Aborigines, Progress Report of the Royal Commission on the Aborigines; Together with Minutes of Proceedings, Evidence and Appendices (1913) <http://aiatsis.gov.au/archive_digitised_collections/_files/archive/removeprotect/92607.pdf> (last accessed 12 May 2015) 30.

9 As above at 75.

10 South Australian Colonization Commission, First Annual Report of the Colonization Commissioners for South Australia to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1836 (House of Commons, London 1836). <https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/38449334?q&versionId=50965307> (last accessed 27 September 2018) 9.

11 Rob Amery, ‘Piltawodli Native Location' in R Ganter (ed) German Missionaries in Australia - A web-directory of intercultural encounters (2016) <http://missionaries.griffith.edu.au/mission/piltawodli-native-location-1838-1845> (last accessed 27 September 2018).

12 Anne Scrimgeour, ‘Notions of Civilisation and the Project to “Civilise” Aborigines in South Australia in the 1840s' (2006) 35(1) History of Education Review 35.

13 Wilhelm J Kühn, ‘Point Pearce Native Institution' in Report of the Sub-Protector of Aborigines for Year ending December 31st 1875 <http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/digitised_collections/remove/59917.pdf> (last accessed 20 September 2018) 4–5.

14 Georg A Heidenreich, ‘Hermannsburg Mission Station, Finke River, Northern Territory' in Report of the Sub-Protector of Aborigines 1878 <http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/digitised_collections/remove/63409.pdf> (last accessed 2 September 2015) 2–3; Matthew Moorhouse, ‘Letter to the Colonial Secretary, 14 March 1846', Protector of Aborigines Out Letter Book, Volume 1, May 21, 1840 to January 6, 1857, transcribed and indexed by Joe Lane August 2012 <http://firstsources.info/uploads/3/4/5/4/34544232/_1._protectors_letter-books_1840-1857_2.pdf> (last accessed 7 September 2015);

15 Nugent above note 4.

16 Anna Haebich, Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families, 1800–2000 (Fremantle Arts Centre Press 2000); Royal Commission on the Aborigines above note 8; Robinson above note 4; Nugent above note 4; Walden above note 5.

17 Royal Commission on the Aborigines above note 8 at 30.

18 Ronald Berndt and Catherine Berndt, From Black to White in South Australia (FW Cheshire 1951) 164.

19 As above at 175.

20 Cameron Raynes, ‘A Little Flour and a Few Blankets': An Administrative History of Aboriginal Affairs in South Australia, 1834–2000 (State Records of South Australia 2002) 18.

21 William G South, ‘Report, Aborigines Office, Adelaide, November 30th 1910' in Report of the Protector of Aborigines for the Year Ended June 30, 1910 (REE Rogers 1910) 1, 1.

22 William G South ‘Report, Aborigines Office, Adelaide, September 15th 1909', in Report of the Protector of Aborigines for the Year Ended June 30, 1910 (REE Rogers 1909) 3–6, 3–4.

23 Royal Commission on the Aborigines above note 8 at vii.

24 William G South, ‘Report, Aboriginals Department, Adelaide, September 30th, 1920' in Report of the Chief Protector of Aborigines for the Year Ended June 30, 1920 (REE Rogers 1920) 2–5, 3.

25 Royal Commission on the Aborigines above note 8 at v.

26 Royal Commission on the Aborigines above note 8 at vii-x.

27 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families (HREOC 1997) <https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/bringing-them-home-preliminary> (last accessed 20 September 2018); Royal Commission on the Aborigines above note 8 at 125.

28 Royal Commission on the Aborigines above note 8 at 122.

29 HREOC above note 27.

30 Royal Commission on the Aborigines above note 8, 75.

31 HREOC above note 27; Cameron Raynes, The Last Protector: The Illegal Removal of Aboriginal Children from their Parents in South Australia (Wakefield Press 2009).

32 HREOC above note 27.

33 Royal Commission on the Aborigines above note 8 at 44.

34 Neal Blewitt and Dean Jaensch, Playford to Dunstan: The Politics of Transition (Cheshire 1971); Dean Jaensch, The Politics of Australia (Macmillan Education Australia 1997).

35 Margaret Macilwain, ‘South Australian Aborigines Protection Board (1939–1962) and Governance Through “Scientific” Expertise: A Genealogy of Protection and Assimilation' (PhD thesis, 2007, School of History and Politics, University of Adelaide).

36 Raynes above note 32 at 20

37 Warwick Anderson, The Cultivation of Whiteness, Science, Health and Racial Destiny in Australia (Melbourne University Press 2002) 202.

38 Macilwain above note 36; Judith Raftery, Not Part of the Public: Non-Indigenous Policies and Practices and the Health of Indigenous South Australians 1836–1973 (Wakefield Press 2006).

39 Anderson above note 37 at 228.

40 John B Cleland, ‘Impressions of a Visit to Point McLeay', 1 May 1940, State Records of South Australia, GRG52/1/1940/93 cited in Raynes above note 32 at 21.

41 Raynes above note 32 at 21.

42 HREOC above note 27; Raynes above note 32.

43 Natalie Harkin, ‘‘‘I Weave Back to You”: Archival-Poetics for the Record' (PhD thesis, 2016, School of Communication, International Studies and Languages, University of South Australia) <http://search.ror.unisa.edu.au/record/UNISA_ALMA11148017760001831/media/digital/open/9916131707301831/12148017750001831/13148017740001831/pdf> (last accessed 8 March 2020) 196.

44 Helen Colman, ‘The Ways of the Abo. Servant', The Australian Woman’s Mirror (16 November 1926) 11.

45 Liz Conor, The Spectacular Modern Woman: Feminine Visibility in the 1920s (Indiana University Press 2004) 184.

46 ‘A Talk about Ourselves’ The Australian Woman’s Mirror (25 November 1924) 2.

47 Liz Conor, ‘‘‘Blackfella Missus Too Much Proud”: Visual Identity, Femininity and Race in the Australian Modern Scene' in Alys E Weinbaum, Lynn M Thomas, Priti Ramamurthy, Uta Poiger, Madeleine Dong and Tani Barlow (eds) The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, Globalization (Duke University Press 2008) 220, 227. Theorised as ‘commodity racism', even the domestic commodity ‘soap' symbolised progress and the civilising work of empire; equating ‘cleanliness' with ‘whiteness' and ‘goodness' and fulfilling the colonial desire to cleanse and remove the Aboriginal presence. See Susan Hosking, ‘Water, Soap and Sanitation; Assimilationist Whitewash and Stolen Generations Narratives in South-west Australia' in Deb Bandyopadhyay, Paul Brown and Christopher Conti (eds) Landscape, Place and Culture: Linkages Between Australia and India (Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011) 218; Anne McClintock, ‘Soft-Soaping Empire: Commodity Racism and Imperial Advertising' in Nicholas Mirzoeff (ed) The Visual Culture Reader (2nd edn, Routledge Press 2002) 506.

48 Conor above note 47.

49 Conor above note 45 at 206.

50 As above at 176.

51 Kay Ferres, ‘How to be a Singer Though Married: Domesticity, Leisure and Modern Love' in Ian Craven, Martin Gray and Geraldine Stoneham (eds) Australian Popular Culture (Cambridge University Press 1994) 149, 153.

52 Michael Dyson, Open Mike: Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion (Basis Civitas Books 2003); McClintock above note 48.

53 Conor above note 45.

54 Jaykay, ‘Another Abo. Help' The Australian Woman’s Mirror (19 October 1926) 37.

55 Haebich above note 16, 184.

56 Natalie Harkin, Dirty Words (Cordite Press 2015) 7.

57 Haskins above note 5; Rosalind Kidd, Hard Labour: Stolen Wages: National Report on Stolen Wages (ANTaR 2007).

58 Black, Huggins and King-Smith above note 1, 16.

59 As above; Haebich above note 16; Haskins above note 58; Jackie Huggins, ‘White Apron, Black Hands: Aboriginal Domestic Servants in Queensland' (1995) 69(Aboriginal Workers) Labour History 188; Huggins above note 4; HREOC above note 27; Margaret Jacobs, White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880–1940 (University of Nebraska Press 2009); Kidd above note 58; Nugent above note 4; Robinson above note 16; Walden above note 16.

60 Kidd above note 58.

61 Walden above note 16.

62 Black, Huggins and King-Smith above note 1.

63 As above at 10.

64 Once ‘exempted' from being Aboriginal under the Aborigines Act, you were automatically subject to ‘Consorting' laws under The Police Offences Act (1869–70), which made it a criminal offence to ‘habitually consort' with Aboriginal people (Raynes above note 20).

65 Black, Huggins and King-Smith above note 1; Huggins above note 60; Robinson above note 16.

66 Black, Huggins and King-Smith above note 1.

67 As above at 6.

68 Wharton above note 2.

69 Okwui Enwezor, Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art (International Centre of Photography 2008) 47.