‘There is no truth whatever as regards any Aboriginal being flogged by the Police’
-
Jonathan Richards
Abstract
Cattle-graziers, miners, missionaries and police brought immense changes to the lives of Aboriginal people in remote parts of North Queensland. Of these groups, police held the greatest power, often removing people to distant missions and reserves as ‘punishment’ for actions that allowed continued survival ‘on country’. In 1933, journalists wrote about removals in the Coen district, drawing the attention of senior police and public servants. When fire destroyed a police building at Coen soon afterwards all three police officers stationed there were quickly transferred. Archival files reveal the full story of this episode.
Abstract
Cattle-graziers, miners, missionaries and police brought immense changes to the lives of Aboriginal people in remote parts of North Queensland. Of these groups, police held the greatest power, often removing people to distant missions and reserves as ‘punishment’ for actions that allowed continued survival ‘on country’. In 1933, journalists wrote about removals in the Coen district, drawing the attention of senior police and public servants. When fire destroyed a police building at Coen soon afterwards all three police officers stationed there were quickly transferred. Archival files reveal the full story of this episode.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements vii
- General maps ix
- Land and language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country 1
- Appendix 27
-
Reconstructions
- Connecting Thaypanic 39
- Regions without borders 61
- The Flinders Islands and Cape Melville people in history 85
- Fission, fusion and syncretism 105
-
World views
- Groups, country and personhood on the upper Wenlock River, Cape York Peninsula 139
- Hyponymy and the structure of Kuuk Thaayorre kinship 159
- Possession in Kuku-Thaypan through a comparative lens 179
- Correlation of textual and spatial reference 199
-
Contacts and contrasts
- Botanists, Aborigines and native plants on the Queensland frontier 221
- ‘There is no truth whatever as regards any Aboriginal being flogged by the Police’ 241
- Multiple views of paradise 263
- Shared country, different stories 285
-
Transformations
- Born, signed and named 305
- The problem of ‘tribal names’ in eastern Australia 337
- Going forward holding back 361
- Same but different 383
- The story of Old Man Frank 409
-
Repatriations
- On the edges of their memories 435
- Making gambarr 455
- Index of places 481
- Index of languages, language families and groups 483
- General index 487
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements vii
- General maps ix
- Land and language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country 1
- Appendix 27
-
Reconstructions
- Connecting Thaypanic 39
- Regions without borders 61
- The Flinders Islands and Cape Melville people in history 85
- Fission, fusion and syncretism 105
-
World views
- Groups, country and personhood on the upper Wenlock River, Cape York Peninsula 139
- Hyponymy and the structure of Kuuk Thaayorre kinship 159
- Possession in Kuku-Thaypan through a comparative lens 179
- Correlation of textual and spatial reference 199
-
Contacts and contrasts
- Botanists, Aborigines and native plants on the Queensland frontier 221
- ‘There is no truth whatever as regards any Aboriginal being flogged by the Police’ 241
- Multiple views of paradise 263
- Shared country, different stories 285
-
Transformations
- Born, signed and named 305
- The problem of ‘tribal names’ in eastern Australia 337
- Going forward holding back 361
- Same but different 383
- The story of Old Man Frank 409
-
Repatriations
- On the edges of their memories 435
- Making gambarr 455
- Index of places 481
- Index of languages, language families and groups 483
- General index 487
