Accounting for “moral betterment”

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the roles of accounting within state-based agencies which interpreted the ideal of protection for the Aboriginal population as principally about the removal of children from the Aboriginal communities to institutions of training and places of forced indenture under government-negotiated labour contracts. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the original archival records of the New South Wales Aborigines Protection and Welfare Boards (1883-1950) to highlight the link between pastoral notions of moral betterment and the use of accounting technologies to organise and implement the “apprenticeship” programmes. Findings The analysis reveals that accounting practices and information were integral to the ability of the state to intervene and organise this domain of action and, together with a legal framework, to make the forced removal of Aboriginal children possible. Social implications The mentalities and practices of assimilation analysed in the paper are not unique to the era of “protection”. The study provides a history of the present that evokes the antecedents to recent welfare policy changes, which encompass a political rationality directed at the normalisation of the economic and social behaviours of both indigenous and non-indigenous welfare recipients. Originality/value The paper provides an historical example of how the state enlisted accounting and legal technologies to construct a crisis of “neglect” and to intervene to protect and assimilate the Aboriginal children.

“On duty in pursuit of the natives”: accounting and truth-telling about Australia's frontier wars

“…Similarly, plantation records reveal the organisation of work practices and gang structures (Tyson et al ., 2004) and detail peoples' ethnicity, age and family relations (Fleischman and Tyson, 2004). Likewise, the payment records underpinning a state-sanctioned system of the forced indenture of Aboriginal children provide detailed accounts of each child's period of “apprenticeship”, including the nature of their work duties, expenditure on food, clothing and pastoral care, and even descriptions of willingness to assimilate in white society (Greer, 2017). These records also reveal the diverse network of agents involved in enacting this system, particularly those who received payments from government administrators (see also Neu, 2000a).…”

“…Fleischman and Tyson, 2004; Jensen et al ., 2021; Pinto and West, 2017), the descriptive text and monetary amounts of transactions listed in the colonial records reveal some details about the size and activities of this military campaign. Furthermore, as transactions depict payments from one party to another, they can reveal the network of relations and identities of actors involved in past events (Greer, 2017; Lippman and Wilson, 2007; Neu, 2000a). In this case, the two records reveal the identities of the soldiers and British civilians paid and rewarded for the campaign by the local authorities.…”

“…The objective of this paper is to explore the possibilities of using archival accounting records to support truth-telling about past atrocities, such as those that occurred during Australia's frontier wars. In doing so, it seeks to extend upon a growing stream of critical scholarship examining the “dark side” of accounting history, which has investigated the involvement of accounting in genocide (Funnell, 1998; Lippman and Wilson, 2007), slavery (Fleischman and Tyson, 2004; Jensen et al ., 2021; Pinto and West, 2017), famine (O'Regan, 2010) and the oppression of Indigenous peoples (Gibson, 2000; Greer, 2017; Hooper and Kearins, 2008; Neu, 2000a). This prior work has shown that far from being a benign, neutral record of economic activity, there are “sinister dimensions of accounting inscriptions” (Fleischman et al ., 2012, p. 10), which obscure the human cost of suffering and render marginalised people invisible.…”

Indigenous practices of accounting on the ground: a Bourdieusian perspective

“…A handful of studies have followed with different frames, different layers of analysis, and different contributions (Gallhofer et al, 2000;Gibson, 2000;Greer and Patel, 2000;Moerman and van der Laan 2011;Greer and McNicholas, 2017;Miley and Read, 2018;Guevara et al, 2020;Kaur and Qian, 2020). For the most part these studies rely on secondary materials, and tend to turn their lens of analysis on the structure of colonization.…”

Soldiers don't go mad: Shell shock and accounting intransigence in the British Army 1914-18

“…Contemporary and historical accounting examples of intransigence abound. They include limited regulatory and practical accounting responses to financial crises (Cooper, 2015;Sikka, 2009), the rights of First Nations (Greer & McNicholas, 2017;Miley & Read, 2018;Neu, 2000), environmental issues such as climate change (Andrew & Cortese, 2011;Larrinaga-Gonzalez & Bebbington, 2001), social issues such as the #metoo movement (Rebuck, Forthcoming) and workplace harassment (Hammond, 1997;Stanley & Baldwin, 2011). Extant research focuses on political intransigence (Randall, 1979) and intransigence in tertiary education, particularly business schools (Oviatt & Miller, 1988, 1989.…”