School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemBulimaen and hard work indenture, identity and complexity in colonial North Queensland( 2000)The following thesis is about the Western Pacific Islanders who came to Queensland as part of the indentured labour trade which operated formally between 1868 and 1904. Approximately 63,000 Islanders from New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, and other islands of the Western Pacific were brought to Queensland during this time to produce sugar for a tropical industry that was considered fatal to European labourers. Although Islanders never constituted much more than four percent of the colony's population they were the subject of much discussion, and extensive statistical and physical surveillance. However, this mass of information, which came from official colonial channels, as well as the many travellers, recruiters, administrators, and planters who wrote about Pacific Islanders and their supposedly innate and racial characteristics now constitutes the majority of information available to historians attempting to reconstruct the life Islanders led in the nineteenth century. This has had distorting implications for the more authoritative histories that have been produced on the strength of these sources, particularly during the second half of the twentieth century. Hence, while this study attempts to recover some of the aspects of Islanders' everyday lives in the sugar districts in the nineteenth century, I have argued that this can only be done after the colonial context of Queensland has been scrutinised, and the sources re-situated within the historical and social context within which they were produced. This thesis therefore begins with an analysis of colonial discourse and representation. The purpose of this is not just that of identifying the ways in which Islanders were racially and ethnically constructed by colonial imaginings. While it is important that colonial knowledges of colonised peoples are thoroughly scrutinised, racial discourses have been, and are increasingly being, analysed and critiqued. The purpose of discourse analysis in this study is to shed more light on the ways in which such representation enabled and necessitated some of the most violent of colonial ideologies and practices. In doing so, the first half of this study elaborates on the mechanisms of colonial control in Queensland during the nineteenth century, and the theme of violence, or rather the mores and moralities that governed it, is used to navigate through such a complex and not easily summarised area of inquiry. There are many reasons, on which I elaborate, to explain why violence has been a central theme of this study. But perhaps the most immediate is the way in which the force and coercion that were so present in the colonial world, were projected onto "Natives" on colonial frontiers, in colonial settlements, and at any point where control over them intensified. Recognising this is a methodological necessity in recovering their autonomous histories from racialised and distorting colonial records. For although there are limits to the value of these sources, they nevertheless record detailed snapshots of the individual stories and experiences of Islanders' contact with, survival of, negotiation with, and adjustment to colonialism in nineteenth-century Queensland.
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ItemHistorical context, patronage and decoration of the Melbourne Livy( 2000)The end of the fourteenth century saw the production in Paris of translations of the Latin classics in large, de luxe format, such as the Melbourne Livy manuscript. This study examines the historical development of French vernacular literature prior to these productions. It is argued that the demand for vernacular translations was not a sudden phenomenon but resulted from a tradition that had begun three hundred years earlier, a tradition that was aided by the political, social and cultural climate existing in France at that time. Possible reasons why Jean le Bon chose Pierre Bersuire for the task of translating Livy's History of Rome are investigated. It is concluded that Bersuire was ideally suited for the task because he had access to the most complete Livy texts available at the time, he was a renowned academic and humanist and was a respected, senior member of the Church. Examining the linguistics of the translation is outside the scope of this study but the success of the translation is measured by other factors: the dissemination of the text, the lavishness of its copies, the use of the manuscripts and the impact of the translation on other translations. The Melbourne Livy is argued to have belonged to the Burgundian Court and was possibly a New Year's Day gift to Philippe le Hardi from Dino Rapondi in 1400. Because of the lack of documentary evidence, the argument is based on stylistic comparisons between the Melbourne Livy and three other manuscripts, which are the only extant manuscripts that were produced by the Rapondi brothers for Philippe le Hardi. The comparison concentrates mainly on border decorations, but miniatures are also compared. The similarities in the decorative elements identified by these comparisons support the contention that the four manuscripts were all produced in the one workshop so may have been intended for the one patron - Philippe le Hardi. The illustrative programme is then studied from the point of view of influences that impacted upon it as well as its possible aims. Apart from relating the Melbourne Livy programme to previous Livy manuscripts and the wider genre of historical narrative, the political, social and didactic influences are also gauged. It is concluded that the Melbourne Livy adequately served the social and political aims of its patron. Finally, in an attempt to answer the question raised by previous scholars regarding the number of artists involved in the programme, a detailed study of the miniatures is undertaken. It is my belief that three, or possibly four artists were involved. My findings confirm the attribution by Millard Meiss that the miniatures of the 'first artist' relate to the Cite des Dames Master; and that the 'second artist' is most likely the Polycratique Master as suggested by Francois Avril. The remaining artist or artists were strongly influenced by this latter Master. Because of the highly collaborative nature of manuscript illumination, however, no decisive conclusions are drawn.
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ItemBrushing against the grain: excavating for aboriginal-European interaction on the colonial frontier in Western Victoria, Australia( 2000)This thesis demonstrates the possibility and value of a postcolonial archaeology of the contact period in Australia. To date, the major obstacle confronting Australian contact archaeology has been the inability to systematically locate contact sites. In order to overcome this difficultly, a model for contact period site location is developed for the pastoral frontier of western Victoria. Outstations (shepherd’s huts) are presented as a crucial resource for archaeologists seeking windows into the early contact period. These humble structures were the locus of a wide variety of Aboriginal-European interactions, ranging from violence to friendship, and functioned as a tangible incarnation of the frontier. Excavation of one of these structures (Campbell’s Outstation) is described with results confirming the presence of Aboriginal people around this structure during contact times. These results are compared with the excavations at two other frontier sites – a fringe camp (Carr’s Plain Mound) and a refuge site (Kinghorn 12 Stone Hut Site). Residue analysis of glass artefacts from all three sites furnishes details of indigenous technological and subsistence practices previously inaccessible to archaeological research. These analyses also provide the methodological breakthrough to authenticate the Aboriginality of these sites. The results of these analyses indicate the need for a reorientation in the ways archaeologists in Australia have approached the Aboriginal manufacture and utilisation of glass artefacts. Contact archaeologists must face the fact that many Aboriginal glass artefacts are no more than non-retouched shards. As such, it is argued that a whole range of sites previously unconsidered may well be Aboriginal sites of the contact period. The analysis of these three sites demonstrates the unique ability of archaeology to penetrate beyond the epistemological limit of the historical record and access aspects of the colonised’s life that are rarely if ever preserved. In particular, archaeological research forcefully highlights the need to consider ‘everyday resistance’ in our rewriting of the Australian past. Archaeology, it is suggested, can play a crucial role in the postcolonial endeavour to retrieve the effaced voice of the subaltern.
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ItemThe role of Australia's cultural council 1945-1995( 2000)This thesis examines the concept of a cultural council as it was expressed in Australian public debate over the fifty years between 1945 and 1995. It aims to draw out the discrepancy between the concept of such a council- its potential contribution and relation to Australian political, social and cultural development - and the form in which the council has been institutionalised as the Australia Council. The thesis was written in a context of increasing government interest in cultural policy, and increasingly pro-active policies. This resulted in a recognised need for more research into the relationship between cultural activities and public policy, which has become an issue of interest within the disciplines of cultural studies, economics, history and political science. The Australia Council has been one focus of such interest. Research has concentrated on its administration, its funding priorities and, more recently, the extent to which it has reflected government cultural policy objectives. Yet such research has tended to neglect the extent to which the function of the Council has reflected and interpreted broader social and political concerns. Throughout the period examined in this thesis, understandings of a cultural council's appropriate responsibilities have included a wide range of social, cultural and political concerns experienced as a consequence of post-war development. The council has provided an important, but often overlooked, axis around which public recognition of and debate about such concerns has occurred. Its function has thus been 'cultural' not just in the sense of providing funds for artists and arts organisations, but in providing a focus for public debate. There are two key implications of these findings. Firstly, behind the institution of the Australia Council lies a more complex history than previous policy studies might suggest, a history that reveals a unique aspect of common social concerns and ideals over the post-war period and that might make a significant contribution to broader studies of Australian history. Secondly, the contribution of the council to public debate - rather than to cultural development in the more narrow sense of arts development - might usefully be considered in future political or administrative assessments of the cultural council's worth.