9 Bracelets, blankets and badges of distinction
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Amanda Nettelbeck
Abstract
The long period of Queen Victoria’s reign witnessed a range of transitions in conceptions of colonial diplomacy and imperial governance. Gifts exchanged between Aboriginal people and the sovereign or her representatives indicate a great deal about those transitions, as well as about Aboriginal people’s capacity to assert cultural autonomy even as they expressed loyalty to the Crown. This paper compares some of the different contexts in nineteenth-century Canada and Australia where Aboriginal people figured as recipients of the Queen’s gifts, particularly in commemorative moments that celebrated the ideals of Empire and British sovereignty. In considering how these gifts were received and how they circulated, it explores some of the different meanings these gifts might have held, and the potentially unsettled relationships they implied between Aboriginal people and the British Crown.
Abstract
The long period of Queen Victoria’s reign witnessed a range of transitions in conceptions of colonial diplomacy and imperial governance. Gifts exchanged between Aboriginal people and the sovereign or her representatives indicate a great deal about those transitions, as well as about Aboriginal people’s capacity to assert cultural autonomy even as they expressed loyalty to the Crown. This paper compares some of the different contexts in nineteenth-century Canada and Australia where Aboriginal people figured as recipients of the Queen’s gifts, particularly in commemorative moments that celebrated the ideals of Empire and British sovereignty. In considering how these gifts were received and how they circulated, it explores some of the different meanings these gifts might have held, and the potentially unsettled relationships they implied between Aboriginal people and the British Crown.
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
