Ned Kelly Died for our Sins

Abstract

From time to time scholars have posed the question: why have Australian Aborigines not developed cargo cults with the same intensity and flamboyance as their Melanesian neighbours? This discussion evades the implications that Aborigines may have been negligent in their cultural production of responses to colonisation, and seeks to engage with some of the responses some Aboriginal people actually have made to colonisation. Focussing on stories of Ned Kelly, and contrasting them with stories of Captain Cook, the suggestion here is that Aboriginal people's search for a moral European communicates the challenging and provocative possibility that coloniser and colonised can share a moral history and thus can fashion a just society.

Dislocating the Frontier : Essaying the Mystique of the Outback

“…In a complex and arid biophysical environment that is highly variable in time and space 38 and greatly variable in its ability to support stock, pastoralists require a good knowledge of their land. For example, to control their herds, particularly prior to widespread fencing and establishment of sub-artesian bores, pastoralists needed considerable knowledge of the limited natural waters and of where cattle were likely to congregate.…”

“…Those born since the establishment of the Mission (Port Keats 1935) are as a result, almost without exception, ignorant of the totemic geography of the area. 38 In other words, for many Aborigines with traditional affiliations to the area, the sense of ancestral belonging to the river is tempered, even detached from everyday social reality through its remoteness from present-day settlements. In the decline of personal lived knowledge of the land and its traditional places, and the disappearance of the 'old people' who walked its paths and spoke its language, I would argue that the Fitzmaurice might also be seen as an emergent Aboriginal frontier.…”

“…What was required was 'effective' occupation, 'by a people who are applying their energies and industry to developing the resources of the country'. 38 Only when settled by sturdy, hardworking landholders would the north be made both productive and secure. With its promise to improve the quality and efficiency of rural life, science appeared ready and able to bulwark the nation's defensive frontiers.…”

Dislocating the Frontier: Essaying the Mystique of the Outback

“…37 She is opposed to foreign investment in Australia and has called for the immediate cessation of aid to foreign countries, stating that governments must 'apply the savings to generate employment here at home'. 38 The threat to the nation's integrity comes not only from international capitalism and immigration, but also from within. Hanson believes that Australian indigenous people are a 'privileged' class who receive far more benefits than white Australians.…”

“…37 ibid. 38 ibid. 39 From a press conference in Adelaide, 13 February 1998, printed in 'Abolishing ATSIC', Pauline Hanson's One Nation, July 1998, p. 5.…”