1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910132293103321

Autore

Dawson Barbara (Barbara Chambers)

Titolo

In the eye of the beholder : what six nineteenth-century women tell us about Indigenous authority and identity / / Barbara Dawson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Canberra, Australia : , : Australian National University Press, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

1-925021-96-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xxv, 195 pages) : illustrations; digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Open Access e-Books

Knowledge Unlatched

Disciplina

305.40994

Soggetti

Women pioneers - Australia - Attitudes - History - 19th century

Aboriginal Australians - Public opinion

Public opinion - Australia

Aboriginal Australians, Treatment of - Australia - History - 19th century

Australia Race relations History 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- 1. Sowing the Seeds for Nineteenth-century and Early Twentieth-century Women's Writing -- 2. Early Perceptions of Aborigines - Eliza Fraser's Legacy: 'Through a Glass Darkly' -- 3. Literary Excesses - Eliza Davies: Imagination and Fabrication -- 4. Queensland Frontier Adventure - Emily Cowl: Excitement and Humour -- 5. An Early, Short-term Settler - Katherine Kirkland: Valuable Insights Through the Silences -- 6. Mary McConnel: Christianising the Aborigines? --

7. Australian-born Settler - Rose Scott Cowen: Acknowledging Indigenous Humanity and Integrity -- Conclusion -- Appendix A: The Works of the Women Writers -- Appendix B: The Works of Other Australian Women Writers Referred to in this Book.

Sommario/riassunto

This book offers a fresh perspective in the debate on settler perceptions of Indigenous Australians. It draws together a suite of little known colonial women (apart from Eliza Fraser) and investigates their writings for what they reveal about their attitudes to, views on and



beliefs about Aboriginal people, as presented in their published works. The way that reader expectations and publishers requirements slanted their representations forms part of this analysis. All six women write of their first-hand experiences on Australian frontiers of settlement. The division into adventurers (Eliza Fraser, Eliza Davies and Emily Cowl) and longer-term settlers (Katherine Kirkland, Mary McConnel and Rose Scott Cowen) allows interrogation into the differing representations between those with a transitory knowledge of Indigenous people and those who had a close and more permanent relationship with Indigenous women, even encompassing individual friendship. More pertinently, the book strives to reveal the aspects, largely overlooked in colonial narratives, of Indigenous agency, authority and individuality.