Memory, Place and Aboriginal-Settler History: Understanding Australian's Consciousness of the Colonial Past

Description

The written histories, built memorials and spoken narratives of settler descendants often reveal an absence of Aboriginal people in Australian settlers' historical consciousness and a lack of empathy for those whose lands were taken over. This absence reflects an intellectual and emotional disconnect from Aboriginal people's experiences and from recent national debates about reconciling contested pasts. The aim of 'Memory, Place and Settler‒Aboriginal History' is to understand the evolution and endurance of this disconnect. Drawing on archival research, interviews and fieldwork, Skye Krichauff fuses the methodologies and theories of historical enquiry, anthropology and memory studies to investigate the multifaceted processes through which current generations of rural settler descendants come to know the colonial era. Primarily focussing on analysing and comparing the historical consciousness of a specific group of settler descendants - namely those who have grown up on land in the mid-north of South Australia that was occupied by their forebears in the nineteenth century - this book is additionally informed by interviews and fieldwork conducted with Aboriginal descendants. In addition, as a fifth-generation settler descendant herself, Krichauff utilises her insider status to provide personal insights and reflections with her analysis. Within spoken narratives and during site visits, settler descendants demonstrate that their consciousness of the colonial past has been formed by growing up in places surrounded by people and objects that provide continuous reminders and physical evidence of the lives of previous generations. This book argues that the primary and most powerful way through which this group knows the colonial past is through lived experience. A recognition that (and how) previous generations' experiences transfer through the generations is crucial to any investigation into the past known and understood through lived experience. As such, this monograph investigates and contextualises the timing, speed and intensity with which rural districts were occupied, Aboriginal people were dispossessed, and the extent and nature of previous generations' relations with Aboriginal people. Included in this monograph is an analysis of public histories (local written histories and plaques, monuments and information boards) which demonstrates a settler-colonial historical epistemology that frames the way mid-northern settler descendants make sense of the past. Memories of personal lived experiences are remembered, understood and articulated - are composed and constructed - using the public language and the meanings available in the wider culture in which individuals live. Krichauff provides concrete examples which demonstrate how, amongst many settler descendants, the memories, family stories and lived experiences of Aboriginal presence and positive settler‒Aboriginal interaction (stories which fall outside the dominant epistemology) are ignored or neglected. While knowledge about the past learned through external sources (books, films, documentaries) can, to varying degrees, shape and inform settler descendants' consiousness of the colonial era, Krichauff argues that it is the degree of connection with experience that is crucial to understanding the extent to which external knowledge is absorbed and remembered. By connecting Aboriginal people (past and present) with people and places known through everyday life, settler descendants are more likely to intellectually and emotionally connect their own histories with those of the victims of colonialism. This book concludes by demonstrating how it is possible to unsettle settler descendants' consciousness of the colonial past in ways that enable a tentative connection with Aboriginal people and their experiences. Cover Front Matter Half-title Series information Title page Copyright information Table of contents List of figures Preface Acknowledgments Chapter Int-7 Introduction The Disconnect Returning to Hallett and Cappeedee Different Ways of Knowing and Relating to the Past Studying a Consciousness of the Past Memory The primacy of lived experience A settler-colonial historical epistemology ‘Composure’ and the ‘cultural circuit’ Positioning Chapter 1 Historical Inheritance: Tracing The Past Learning from the Historical Records Myth History of land occupation Cross-cultural relations during the early pastoral period Decline in the Aboriginal population The Value of Precise Terms Settlers, pastoralists or freeholders Defining the frontier The Concrete Workings of Memory Understanding one’s forebear as ‘the original owner’ Rollo Dare Ruins and paddock names Knowledge of Early Pastoralists ‘Legitimate’ owners Generational decrease in knowledge/memory about the pastoral era Concrete Workings of Memory Generational Transference of Intangible Traces of the Past Variations in the quality of linear time The shape of the past etched onto individual psyches and attitudes Chapter 2 Dwelling in Place: Absorbing The Past Distinguishing between Conscious and Unconscious Absorption of Knowledge about the Past Primal Landscapes Implicit Knowledge: ‘They Were Just There’ Knowledge Gained through Being in Place and Observation Country/Place Attachment to Place Homesteads Material Objects and a Lack of Sense of Individual Ownership Cultural Intelligibility Aboriginal Presence The Recognition of Chinese Gardens Chapter 3 The Social Community: Networks of Memory and Attachment to Place Different Types of Community Communities of Geographical Proximity Family and Friends Transgenerational and Transregional Communities of Shared Experiences/Memory Dwelling in Place: The Occupation and Lifestyle of Farming Emotions versus Rationality Chapter 4 The Cultural Circuit: Making Sense of Lived History George Cameron’s Descendants Billy Dare’s Descendants George Cameron’s Descendants’ Stories Billy Dare’s Descendants’ Narratives Knowledge of Forebears Extends beyond Forebears’ Arrival in the District Rollo and Geoff Dare’s References to Aboriginal People Stories of ‘The Blacks’ Camp’ Colin’s father’s stories Stereotypical Understandings of Aboriginality Stereotypical Understandings Inhibit the Recognition of Aboriginal Diversity Robert Milne’s Stories Inability to conceptualise mutual friendship Historical Contingency Conclusions Drawn from George Cameron’s Descendants’ Stories Unutilised Memories Unsettling the Disconnect Chapter 5 ‘Memory’ to ‘History’: From Verbal Transmission to Text Oral to Text The Appearance of George Cameron’s Descendants’ Stories in Sizer’s Written Histories The Influence or Authority of Written Histories versus Oral Histories The authority of information learned through external means The influence of the past learned through history The Relationship between Different Ways of Knowing the Past What Is Remembered from Written Histories Chapter 6 Settler Belonging, Victimhood and Trauma A Continuing Fear of Illegitimacy Rural Settler Descendants’ Strong Senses of Belonging Conceptual Framework for Belonging Standing in ‘Correct Relation’ ‘Self-Chosen White Victims’ or a Sense of Good Fortune? The Pioneer Mythology and the Settler as Victim Struggle with the Land The inapplicability of homogenising theories The sources drawn on Historical experiences of the natural environment Recognising the Lived Experiences of Nineteenth-Century Colonists Trauma Chapter 7 Unsettling The Disconnect Marlene Richards, Charlie Spratt, Nyunirra Bourka and Maryann Not Standing in ‘Correct Relation’ Standing in ‘Correct Relation’ End Matter Appendix 1: Interviewees Additional People Who Showed Me Around Their Properties and/or Homesteads But Were Not Formally Recorded Appendix 2: Towns/Settlements Whose Public Spaces Were Surveyed Appendix 3: List of Mid-Northern Written Histories Surveyed Notes Introduction 1 Historical Inheritance: Tracing the Past 2 Dwelling in Place: Absorbing the Past 3 The Social Community: Networks of Memory and Attachment to Place 4 The Cultural Circuit: Making Sense of Lived History 5 ‘Memory’ to ‘History’: From Verbal Transmission to Text 6 Settler Belonging, Victimhood and Trauma 7 Unsettling the Disconnect Bibliography Unpublished Works State Records of South Australia Newspapers Films Index