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

Dawson, Barbara

In the eye of the beholder : what six nineteenth-century women tell us about indigenous authority and identity / Barbara Dawson. - 1 online resource - Open Access e-Books Knowledge Unlatched .

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Notice to indigenous readers -- Introduction -- 1. Sowing the seeds for nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century women's writing -- Part A. Adventurers -- 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 -- Part B. Settlers : changing the racial landscape -- 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.

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.


English.

9781925021967 1925021963 9781925021974 1925021971

10.26530/OAPEN_515954 doi

22573/ctt1355hp9 JSTOR


1800-1901


Women pioneers--Attitudes.--Australia
Intercultural communication--Australia--19th century.
Aboriginal Australians--Public opinion--History.
Aboriginal Australians, Treatment of--History--Australia--1851-1901.
Women pioneers--Attitudes--History--Australia--19th century.
Aboriginal Australians--Public opinion.
Public opinion--Australia.
Aboriginal Australians, Treatment of--History--Australia--19th century.
Pionnières--Attitudes--Histoire--Australie--19e siècle.
Australiens (Aborigènes)--Opinion publique.
Opinion publique--Australie.
Australiens (Aborigènes), Attitudes envers les--Histoire--Australie--19e siècle.
Pionnières--Attitudes.--Australie
Australiens (Aborigènes)--Opinion publique--Histoire.
Indigenous peoples.
SOCIAL SCIENCE--Women's Studies.
Aboriginal Australians--Public opinion.
Aboriginal Australians, Treatment of.
Intercultural communication.
Race relations.
Women pioneers--Attitudes.


Australia--Race relations--History--1851-1901.
Australia--Race relations--History--19th century.
Australie--Relations raciales--Histoire--19e siècle.
Australia.

history. aboriginal. colonialism. indigenous studies.


Electronic books.
History.

HQ1822

305.40994