Telling Absence:
Aboriginal Social History
and the
National Museum of Australia
Christine Frances Hansen
December 2009
A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of
The Australian National University
This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or
diploma in any tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge, the thesis contains no
material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made
in the text.
Signed:
Word count: 85,023
Figure 1.
Deanna Davison in the Snowy Mountains, 10 November 2007
Acknowledgements The generosity of others made the writing of this thesis possible. Firstly, for awarding me an
APAI scholarship I am deeply grateful to Ann McGrath, Tom Griffiths and Margo Neale, all of
whom wrote the original research proposal on which this thesis is based and all of whom have
travelled the long distance with me as I developed their original aims. Ann remained a vigilant
and supportive supervisor throughout my candidature. Tom’s creative and caring teaching was
an inspiration as was his encouragement to follow my instincts. Margo offered an invaluably
perceptive analysis of my research task as well as professional and private support.
Along the way I have called on the wise counsel of many friends and colleagues who have been
unendingly kind. Denis Byrne agreed to join my advisory panel to which he made a valuable
contribution. Anne Marshall read drafts and introduced me to Cheryl Davison, where the story
began. Cheryl was patient and fun, as were Donald and Tamsin. Iris White was thoughtful and
wise. Jim Osborne was enthusiastic and generous with information. The members of the Cooma
and Bombala Historical Societies were both interested and forthcoming with their local
knowledge. My colleagues in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program at the National
Museum of Australia were always willing to give me feedback and endlessly offered
encouragement. Glenda Cloughley listened, which is her great gift. Ian Coates read drafts and
looked the other way when I was trying to finish writing. Ross Moore always seemed to ring at
the right time with the perfect advice. Ingereth Macfarlane, a companion on the road, read and
corrected drafts, made suggestions, listened to my whingeing and drank wine with me. The
wonderful colleagues and friends in the History Program, in particular those in the Australian
Centre for Indigenous History, not only shared coffee and conversation but turned up to my
seminars and asked insightful questions. The wider ANU community funded my research, leant
me books, and allowed me to glory in their collective achievements. To all of the above I am
deeply grateful.
Most of all, Deanna Davison made me welcome in her country and allowed me to tell this story
of her ancestors. I dedicate this work to her and her family, past, present and future.
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Abstract The ordinary stories of ordinary Aboriginal people are a necessary part of Australian history. Yet
museums throughout Australia, and in particular the National Museum of Australia, which are
charged with the task of telling these stories, struggle to find appropriate material means to do
so: the history which shaped Australian museum collections and the history which shaped
contemporary Aboriginal communities do not neatly converge. This research reflects on both.
The structure of this thesis is fashioned around three distinct voices. The first of these is my own
where I give an account of my engagement with the Ngarigo community from the Snowy
Mountains region of New South Wales into whose contemporary reality and history I am drawn.
This reflexive narrative also provides the means for consideration of the complex and sometimes
confronting research process as it unfolds in the field. Stories rather than objects were central to
the interests of the community participants and it was a story, or rather a series of stories, which I
felt would best serve the thorny conjunction of politics, history and representation at the core of
this project. Story is also the central method in the second voice of this work, that of the
historical narrative. Here the plot centres not so much on reflection as on reconstruction of a
Ngarigo family history. It is this voice that provides a powerful juxtaposition between the reality
of lived lives and the constructions of Aboriginality emanating from both the academy and from
within institutions of popular culture such as museums. The third voice of the thesis offers an
analytical examination of the ideas underpinning the conceptual and historical elements out of
which a museum is constructed. In this way I explore how the processes which have constituted
the museum might be re-configured to accommodate the particularities of Aboriginal social
history.
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When people talk about ‘the history of Australia’ they mean the history of the white
people who have lived in Australia. There is good reason why we should not stretch the
term to make it include the history of the dark-skinned wandering tribes who hurled
boomerangs and ate snakes in their native land for long ages before the arrival of the
first intruders from Europe… for they have nothing that can be called a history. They
have dim legends, and queer fairy tales, and deep-rooted customs which have come down
from long long ago; but they have no history, as we use the word. When the white man
came among them, he found them living just as their fathers and grandfathers and remote
ancestors had lived before them.1
Australian school primer1917
It is easier to register the loss of traditional orders of difference than to perceive the
emergence of new ones.2
James Clifford 1988
1
2
Cited by Attwood (1996):103
Clifford (1988):15
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Figure 2.
3
Australia - showing study area
3
All maps by author unless otherwise stated
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Figure 3.
Study area detail
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Table of Figures Figure 1.
Deanna Davison in the Snowy Mountains, 10 November 2007 .......................................................... iv
Figure 2.
Australia -­‐ showing study area ............................................................................................................ vi
Figure 3.
Study area detail ................................................................................................................................ vii
Figure 4.
Aborigines at Wallaga Lake Station circa 1898 by William Corkhill .................................................. 12
Figure 5.
Eden mosaics, February 2006 ............................................................................................................ 16
Figure 6.
Eden mosaics, February 2006, panel detail ....................................................................................... 16
Figure 7.
Aboriginal language groups of south-­‐east New South Wales ........................................................... 19
Figure 8.
Nungatta station map showing Brindle’s paddock ........................................................................... 24
Figure 9.
Map shewing the Routes of Cpt. Currie ............................................................................................. 28
Figure 10.
Sauvages du Cap de Diemen preparant leur repas ........................................................................... 56
Figure 11.
Sauvages du Cap de Diemen preparant leur repas detail ................................................................. 57
Figure 12.
armes et ornemens by Nicolas Petit .................................................................................................. 58
Figure 13.
Water carrier held by the British Museum ........................................................................................ 59
Figure 14.
Julie Gough Blanket return 4 ............................................................................................................. 60
Figure 15.
kelp water carrier in case .................................................................................................................. 61
Figure 16.
kelp water carrier on exhibition, National Museum of Australia 2009 ............................................. 62
Figure 17.
Baldwin Spencer’s exhibition of the evolution of the Aboriginal boomerang ................................... 75
Figure 18.
Girls on the Avon River, Charles Walter1865 .................................................................................... 93
Figure 19.
Ramahyuck Mission Station, Gippsland, Victoria .............................................................................. 97
Figure 20.
Letter signed by James and Emily Brindle ....................................................................................... 103
Figure 21.
Brindle children in Ramahyuck School group photograph (not identified) ...................................... 106
Figure 22.
Blacks Camp at Lake Tyers 1886 by N. Caire. .................................................................................. 109
Figure 23.
Deanna and Christine in front of displays at Saw Pit, 2006 ............................................................. 126
Figure 24.
Australian Aborigine, Monaro District, Henry King, date unknown ................................................ 127
Figure 25.
Moth Hunters of the Australian Capital Territory ........................................................................... 129
Figure 26.
Detail of boomerang from Cherbourg Mission, QLD ....................................................................... 170
Figure 27.
Detail of boomerang from Cherbourg Mission, QLD ....................................................................... 171
Figure 28.
Map of Aboriginal Land Council areas for the south coast of NSW ................................................. 185
Figure 29.
Deanna and Ossie, Berridale nursing home, 19 October 2007 ...................................................... 190
Figure 30.
Snowy Echo, November 2007 .......................................................................................................... 192
Figure 31.
Dalgety cottage/shop, Rutherfords’ residence c1920s .................................................................... 194
Figure 32.
Billy Rutherford, Dalgety, c1934 ...................................................................................................... 198
Figure 33.
Delegate Reserve hut and family .................................................................................................... 207
th
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Figure 34.
Dalgety Police residence, Jun 2009 ................................................................................................. 209
Figure 35.
Cootamundra Training Home for Girls -­‐ back view ......................................................................... 216
Figure 36.
Cootamundra Training Home for Girls – Dormitory ........................................................................ 216
Figure 37.
Girls c1920 (Iris would be in this picture but she is not identified) .................................................. 218
Figure 38.
Birriga Rd penthouse apartment where Iris was sent as a maid ..................................................... 220
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Contents Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... i
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii
Table of Figures ........................................................................................................................... viii
Contents ......................................................................................................................................... xi
1.
Introduction – an ordinary tale ................................................................................................ 1
2.
All roads lead to home ............................................................................................................ 9
3.
Grandmother Dreaming ........................................................................................................ 25
4.
The nature of ‘things’............................................................................................................ 51
5.
Pear shaped ........................................................................................................................... 77
6.
Travel and travail .................................................................................................................. 93
7.
Something old, something new ........................................................................................... 113
8.
Performing Aboriginal history ............................................................................................ 125
9.
Farms and fences................................................................................................................. 139
10. Soft landing on hard history................................................................................................ 157
11. Bega Park ............................................................................................................................ 177
12. Tracking across the divide .................................................................................................. 203
13. Missing objects, absent people ........................................................................................... 223
14. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 239
15. Appendix 1 .......................................................................................................................... 251
16. Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 259
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