Writing Never Arrives Naked: Early Aboriginal Cultures of Writing in Australia

282 Pages·2006·6.03 MB·English

by  Penny van Toorn

Writing Never Arrives Naked

Writing Never Arrives Naked
Early Aboriginal cultures of writing in Australia
Penny van Toorn
First published in 2006
by Aboriginal Studies Press
© Penny van Toorn 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright
Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter
or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater,
to be photocopied by any educational institution for
its education purposes provided that the educational
institution (or body that administers it) has given a
remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited
(CAL) under the Act.
Aboriginal Studies Press
is the publishing arm of the
Australian Institute of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
GPO Box 553, Canberra, ACT 2601
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.aiatsis.gov.au/asp
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-In-Publication data:
Van Toorn, Penny, 1952– .
Writing never arrives naked : early Aboriginal
cultures of writing in Australia.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN–13: 978 0 85575 544 X.
ISBN–10: 0 85575 544 X.
ISBN 0 85575 693 2 (PDF ebook).
1. Aboriginal Australian literature. 2. Australian
literature — Aboriginal Australian authors. 3.
Written communication — Australia. I. Title.
A820.989915
Printed in Australia by Pirion Pty Ltd
This project has been assisted
by the Australian Government
through the Australia Council, its
arts funding and advisory body.
Contents
Illustrations vi
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction Sites of writing 1
1. Encountering the alphabet 8
2. Sky gods and stolen children 24
3. Bennelong’s letter 53
4. Borderlands of Aboriginal writing 71
5. Textual battlegrounds in Van Diemen’s Land 93
6. Literacy, land and power: the Coranderrk petitions 123
7. Hidden transcripts at Lake Condah Mission Station 152
8. Early writings by Aboriginal women 175
9. A book by any other name…? 206
Conclusion The past is not another country 224
Notes 231
Index 257
Illustrations
The Milbrodale Baiami. 50
Bennelong’s letter. 55
Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Australia.
Two Wiradjuri clubs. 77
Charlie Flannigan’s drawings. 81
Reproduced by permission of the Museum Board of South Australia
Batman treating with the Blacks. 85
Reproduced with permission of Rare Books, Fisher Library,
University of Sydney
James Dawson’s facsimile of the Geelong deed. 88
Reproduced with permission of Rare Books, Fisher Library,
University of Sydney
William Barak at Coranderrk. 128
From the La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria
Petition from William Barak. 136
From the collection of Public Records Office Victoria,
PROV, VPRS 3991, Unit 834, 75/12439
Petition from William Barak to the Hon. JM Grant. 145
From the collection of Public Records Office Victoria,
PROV, VPRS 1226/P, Unit 4, W2858 82x x1857
Petition from Thomas Dunolly, 1884. 148
From the collection of the National Archives of Australia,
NAA series B313/1, item no. 213, folio 30
vi
Illustrations
Letter from Maggie Mobourne to DN McLeod. 168
From the collection of the National Archives of Australia,
NAA series B337, item 507, 1900
Petition from Ernest Mobourne to Cabinet, 2 July 1907. 171–172
From the collection of Public Records Office Victoria,
PROV, VPRS 3992, Unit 1056, A5318
Petition from William Barak, scribed by Betsy Bamfield. 182
From the collection of the National Archives of Australia,
NAA series B313, item 213, folio 30
Postcards from Rebecca Maltilina to Dorothea Ruediger. 199
Photographs courtesy of the State Library of South Australia
vii
Acknowledgments
There is something very special about archival research, particularly when
it involves handwritten documents. Every manuscript carries bodily traces
of its author. We today touch the papers that they touched long ago. We
read the marks made by their moving hands. Sometimes, weirdly, even
photocopies evoke the bodily presence of the writer. The archival research
on which this study is based would not have been possible without the help
of staff at the Mitchell Library, the Fisher Library, the Australian Museum,
the Public Records Office of Victoria, the National Archives of Australia
(Victoria), the State Library of Victoria, Museum Victoria, the National
Library and the South Australian Museum.
Many people generously contributed to this project. I am especially
grateful to Victor Briggs at the Koorie Heritage Trust in Melbourne, and
to Joy Murphy Wandin, Jim Wandin, Judy Wilson, Zeta Thomson, Margaret
Briggs Wirrapunda and Irene Swindle at Coranderrk. My thanks go also
to Kerry Paton, Gayle Harradine, Lionel Harradine, Gary Murray, Jeanette
Crew, Doris Paton, Karen Jackson, Steve Ross, Dawn Lee and Elsie Greeno
— all of whom offered valuable assistance, information, encouragement
and advice.
For permission to publish a photograph of the Milbrodale Baiami, I thank
Robert Leicester, Graeme Ward, Barry McTaggart and Victor Perry. My
thanks go also to Niel Gunson and Eric Fuss for their assistance regarding
the Rebecca Maltilina postcards.
I am also grateful to present and past colleagues at the University of
Sydney, especially Wendy Brady, Dennis Foley, Ian Henderson, Geoff
Williams, Helen Hewson, Helen Groth, Noel Rowe, Brigid Rooney,
Bernadette Brennan, Judy Barbour, Simone Marshall, and all those who
offered their comments in the English Department research seminars. On
viii
Acknowledgments
the conference circuit, I have received valuable advice and encouragement
from Helen Tiffin, Helen Gilbert, Leigh Dale, Bill Ashcroft, Lyn McCredden,
Deborah Bird Rose, Roland Boer, Gillian Cowlishaw, Gillian Whitlock,
Kay Schaffer, Paul Eggert and Paul Taçon.
Research for this book was made possible by an Australian Research
Council Discovery Grant.
Earlier versions of some of the chapters have been published in Meanjin
vol. 55, no. 4 (1996); Continuum vol. 13, no. 3 (November 1999); UTS Review
vol 7, no. 1 (2001); Social Semiotics vol. 11, no. 2 (2001); Semeia 88 (2001);
Telling Stories, eds Bain Attwood and Fiona Magowan (Allen & Unwin,
2001); The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature, ed. Elizabeth
Webby (Cambridge University Press, 2000). I am grateful for permission
to republish.
Pauline McGuire, my editor, has been a wise and patient adviser through-
out the process of converting a series of articles and conference papers into
a book. Many thanks go also to Gabrielle Lhuede and Rhonda Black at
Aboriginal Studies Press. Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to Elizabeth
Webby, without whose support this project would not have been possible,
and to Ruby Langford Ginibi who makes me feel honoured by calling
me ‘tidda’.
ix