HTAA Conference Keynote – day 1
Usual caveat applies: my notes, from the History Teachers’ Association of Australia last year.
Peter Read, on “Murder, Ignorance and Reconciliation in the Nothern Territory”
1932: 4 Japanese fishers killed by Aborigines, on a reserve. What were the Japanese doing there, when only police, missionaries and protectorate people were meant to go there?! Near Groote Eylandt.
1933: two policemen sent to arrest the Aborigines who did this. One of them was killed. Large party of police planned for retribution (to arrest the Aborigines responsible); all whites were claimed to be in danger.
NB: there were already concerns at this stage down south and even in London about frontier police, laws and judges being unjust.
*There was a huge backlash at the idea of this police party from many different protest groups. As a result, the police party is not sent.
*Missios sent to find out who killed the Japanese and Dhakiyarr, who was said to have killed McColl (the policeman), and convince them to go to Darwin. They arrive in 1934.
1934: Dhakiyarr and others are arrested. Two Aborigines claimed
to have Dhakiyarr’s confession, although they are conflicted – one said McColl was killed because he attempted to rape D’s wife, the other doesn’t mention it. Journos self-censor ad refuse to mention this bit; judge not happy at impugning of police reputation.
There’s a 3-day trial. Ends in death sentence, within 28 days. This is extended; lots of protests at it. Appeal to High Court by Chief Protector (eventually), with 24 reasons.
*D was eventually set free by the High Court, because no jury could now be found that was not biased. Was meant to be returned to his country.
*The day after this, D was put into the half-caste compound in Fannie Bay, part of Darwin… and then he disappeared. Was presumed to have gone bush. There are rumours today that he was killed by police, but there is NO mention in the archives of this idea.
2002: A letter from D’s grandsons was sent to the Chief Minister of the NT, revealing their sorrow at not having had a funeral ceremony. They then did have a ceremony – a funeral and a cleansing of those involved, including McColl’s family.
*They told the story they knew: D and family went to their island; police group landed there and chained up the women (who were possibly out foraging), made them take them to the men. D saw this, and he speared McColl – the leader.
* Why was D so worried about the consequences of the killing of the Japanese fishers? Because 21 years before this, in D’s mother’s country, police had killed several Aborigines because of the mistaken belief that they had killed a geologist.
**You need to see the big picture, to see the little picture.
My take: I really enjoyed this lecture. Despite having grown up in Darwin, I have never heard about Dhakiyarr before. Illuminating.
New Books
Mmmm, Readings’ Bargain Books. Bought three books today: Isabella, She-Wolf of France, by Alison Weir (not academic, but bound to be an interesting read); The Speckled Monster, about immunising against smallpox; and a book about Walter Raleigh, by a dude called Raleigh Trevalyan, apparently because he is a distant relative. Should be a great deal of fun.
Hamlet at the printer
On this show, some pop-science thing, there was a throw-away comment about how 400 years ago, Shakespeare would have been sending the final draft of Hamlet to the printers.
ARGH!!
Marlowe
Am listening to the BBC4 programme on Christopher Marlowe at the moment. I had no idea that he was born in the same year as Shakespeare. Interesting discussion on how they influenced each other – apparently Shakespeare actually quotes Marlowe somewhere, which is very cool. And Marlowe is the one who first really exemplifies blank verse and long soliloquies, taken up by Shakespeare. Very cool. I always did love Faustus.
Melvyn Bragge
I’ve been listening to a lot of BBC Radio’s “In our time” today. It’s good, but Bragge really is quite arrogant and butts in a lot; I guess he needs to do this to some extent, to keep the speakers in order because it’s radio, but still – he wants to be an expert on everything and keep on proving himself to be the best. Boring.
The Vandals
Vandal, or wandali, originally means Wanderers… makes a lot of sense. I might have to go and find out more about these Eastern barbarians who moved west.
Terry Jones’ Barbarians #2
He just said ‘inevitable’! Ooh-er, tut tut, not meant to say that sort of thing in history….
I do like seeing the landscape of the place in question, in the doco: I think it’s one of the few reasons why docos can be better than books.
Terry Jones and Barbarians
I’m watching the Atilla episode on Google video, which is quie interesting having just read Man’s bio of the man. There are a few differences…. One thing I am really curious about, is whether Jones ever actually questions the word ‘barbarian’ itself, given it’s a farily perjorative word.
I do like Jones, but I think I agree with the people I’ve read on lots of blogs, saying it’s a bit generalised and slams the Romans more than they deserve to make the ‘barbarians’ the heroes. A bit Mike Moore-ish, actually, now I think about it….
Entertaining turns of phrase
From the BBC Radio 4 episode on Charlemagne: he had a ‘legitimacy deficit’ (and therefore used Christianity to prop his rule up).
Origins and Forms of Greek Tragedy
I finished Origins and Form of Early Greek Tragedy on the weekend. It was fun – I really enjoyed it. He’s quite convincing, about tragedy not actually starting from satyr plays and Dionysus, but rather developing through Solon’s ideas (that bit I’m not entirely convinced about, not least because I don’t actually know enough about the time or the man), and Athens’ experiences in the Persian Wars, etc. What I really need to know now is why people today don’t take any notice, apparently, of what the dude said – this was published in the 1960s, and yet to this day it’s said that tragedy started from the “goat-songs” of Dionysus. So did someone write a rebuttal? Or has it just been ignored? Very curious… I might have to ask some people.
Randomly Yours, Alex 