8 Sovereignty performances, sovereignty testings
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Penelope Edmonds
Abstract
This paper considers Queen Victoria’s ‘currency’ on south-eastern Australia colonial frontiers, and Kulin Aboriginal peoples’ engagements with the image and idea of the queen, particularly on coins. It explores the uncertain currency of an imposed sovereignty on new frontiers, and the limits and fantasies of colonial rule. Drawing together themes of embodied and cross-cultural performance, this paper argues that on these frontiers, where plural and precarious sovereignties competed, European sovereignty had to be performed, tested and taught to Aboriginal peoples and did not reside only within the realms of law, territory, and jurisdiction. But here recognition, and wilful misrecognition, of the queen could occur in surprisingly reciprocal and contradictory ways. Lastly, the paper considers the ‘Gold Woman’ series (2008) by Aboriginal artist Darren Siwes depicting an imagined Aboriginal Queen Mary. Siwes compels us to ask ‘who is this woman?’, testing taken for granted notions of sovereignty, ‘Gold Woman’ evokes a past and future indigenous sovereignty, the permanent presence of which perpetually worries the settler state.
Abstract
This paper considers Queen Victoria’s ‘currency’ on south-eastern Australia colonial frontiers, and Kulin Aboriginal peoples’ engagements with the image and idea of the queen, particularly on coins. It explores the uncertain currency of an imposed sovereignty on new frontiers, and the limits and fantasies of colonial rule. Drawing together themes of embodied and cross-cultural performance, this paper argues that on these frontiers, where plural and precarious sovereignties competed, European sovereignty had to be performed, tested and taught to Aboriginal peoples and did not reside only within the realms of law, territory, and jurisdiction. But here recognition, and wilful misrecognition, of the queen could occur in surprisingly reciprocal and contradictory ways. Lastly, the paper considers the ‘Gold Woman’ series (2008) by Aboriginal artist Darren Siwes depicting an imagined Aboriginal Queen Mary. Siwes compels us to ask ‘who is this woman?’, testing taken for granted notions of sovereignty, ‘Gold Woman’ evokes a past and future indigenous sovereignty, the permanent presence of which perpetually worries the settler state.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of maps and figures vii
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xii
- Maps xiii
- Introduction 1
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Part I Monarch, metaphor, memory
- 1 ‘We have seen the son of Heaven/We have seen the Son of Our Queen’ 25
- 2 ‘We rejoice to honour the Queen, for she is a good woman, who cares for the Māori race’ 54
- 3 ‘The faithful children of the Great Mother are starving’ 78
- 4 The politics of memory and the memory of politics 100
- 5 ‘My vast Empire & all its many peoples’ 125
- 6 Māori encounters with ‘Wikitoria’ in 1863 and Albert Victor Pomare, her Māori godchild 144
- 7 Southern African royalty and delegates visit Queen Victoria, 1882–95 166
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Part III Sovereign subjects?
- 8 Sovereignty performances, sovereignty testings 187
- 9 Bracelets, blankets and badges of distinction 210
- 10 Chiefly women 228
- Select bibliography 246
- Index 249
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of maps and figures vii
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xii
- Maps xiii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Monarch, metaphor, memory
- 1 ‘We have seen the son of Heaven/We have seen the Son of Our Queen’ 25
- 2 ‘We rejoice to honour the Queen, for she is a good woman, who cares for the Māori race’ 54
- 3 ‘The faithful children of the Great Mother are starving’ 78
- 4 The politics of memory and the memory of politics 100
- 5 ‘My vast Empire & all its many peoples’ 125
- 6 Māori encounters with ‘Wikitoria’ in 1863 and Albert Victor Pomare, her Māori godchild 144
- 7 Southern African royalty and delegates visit Queen Victoria, 1882–95 166
-
Part III Sovereign subjects?
- 8 Sovereignty performances, sovereignty testings 187
- 9 Bracelets, blankets and badges of distinction 210
- 10 Chiefly women 228
- Select bibliography 246
- Index 249
