Born in the Cattle: Aborigines in cattle countryThe Aboriginal stockman in cowboy hat, brightly coloured shirt, jeans and riding boots, is a familiar sight in much of outback Australia. Yet, white Australia has largely excluded Aborigines - men and women - from its national legends. Born in the Cattle tells the story of Aboriginal involvement in the northern cattle industry. It shows how the Aboriginal people excelled at this 'no shame job', how they incorporated it into their world, how they used it to stay on their own land with their kin. Combining new skills with old, they shaped a unique Aboriginal cattle country - and thereby made a major contribution to the economy of Australia's north. Using oral evidence which enables Aboriginal perspectives to emerge in a way not previously possible, Born in the Cattle is a major work of social history, the first to describe the texture of everyday life and work in the outback north before World War II. The story begins with the battle for the waterholes, describes the skills the Aboriginal people brought to work with cattle, reveals for the first time the important role of Aboriginal women, and explores in a new way the complex pattern of relationships between white and black in the outback. 'To protect their country and its people, Aborigines had to teach station whites many things. Aborigines worked the stations; they managed the land in new ways, though following old principles. They have made the cattle industry their own; they are still the majority of those living on northern pastoral stations, and their dynamic culture leaves a distinctive mark on bush life...' |
From inside the book
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Page 17
... station workers . Police patrols rendered bush life especially dangerous , and helped engen- der an outlaw mentality . After hitting a fellow employee over the head with a shoeing rasp , Robin absconded from Montejinnie . But he never ...
... station workers . Police patrols rendered bush life especially dangerous , and helped engen- der an outlaw mentality . After hitting a fellow employee over the head with a shoeing rasp , Robin absconded from Montejinnie . But he never ...
Page 18
... station blacks , who both glorified and feared him . Con- stable Turner said ... head with a nulla nulla , then seized his revolver and returned to his camp ... station Aborigines of the Victoria River and agricultural workers on ...
... station blacks , who both glorified and feared him . Con- stable Turner said ... head with a nulla nulla , then seized his revolver and returned to his camp ... station Aborigines of the Victoria River and agricultural workers on ...
Page 24
... station centres , Aborigines usually worked on stations very near if not on their traditional land . On Victoria ... head station , Moolooloo and Gordon Creek . ' This pattern has been demon- strated in land claims research : the ...
... station centres , Aborigines usually worked on stations very near if not on their traditional land . On Victoria ... head station , Moolooloo and Gordon Creek . ' This pattern has been demon- strated in land claims research : the ...
Page 25
... head per square mile.3 Although pastoralism was the main industry , in 1920 there were only 612 000 head of cattle ... station boundaries and trespassing complaints from neighbours were common . Cattle stations were barely distinguishable ...
... head per square mile.3 Although pastoralism was the main industry , in 1920 there were only 612 000 head of cattle ... station boundaries and trespassing complaints from neighbours were common . Cattle stations were barely distinguishable ...
Page 27
... station camp The head station or ' centre camp ' was the focus of human settle- ment , and became increasingly so as more ' myalls ' left their re- mote camps . The numbers of outstations or outcamps varied according to the station ...
... station camp The head station or ' centre camp ' was the focus of human settle- ment , and became increasingly so as more ' myalls ' left their re- mote camps . The numbers of outstations or outcamps varied according to the station ...
Contents
| 1 | |
| 24 | |
3 Stockcamp and House | 49 |
Picture section | 52 |
4 Black Velvet | 68 |
Picture section | 84 |
5 Tame Blacks? Paternalism and Control | 95 |
Picture section | 116 |
6 Workin Longa Tucker | 122 |
7 No Shame Job | 145 |
Oral History and Writing about Aborigines | 176 |
Endnotes | 179 |
Select Bibliography | 193 |
Index | 195 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abori Aboriginal employees Aboriginal society Aboriginal women animals areas Arnhem Land Australian became black women Blan Bleakley Report Bonrook Borroloola boss boys bush tucker Canberra cattle industry cattle station cattle-spearing ceremonies Chief Protector clothing colonial Cook Creek CRS A1 culture Daly River Darwin diary dreaming drovers Durack European female flour frontier ginal gines girls half-caste Harney head station Herbert homestead horses hunting Jack Sullivan July Koolpinyah Kununurra labour Land Claim Laurie lived male manager's missus Mudbura murder mustering native never Ningbing Northern Standard Northern Territory NTPLA part-Aboriginal pastoral pastoralists police Queensland relationships ritual sexual Shaw social sometimes spear Stanner station Aborigines station camp station managers stockcamp stockmen stockwork stories Sullivan supplies Sydney tion traditional travelling tribal tucker Vesteys Victoria River Downs violence wages Wagiman walkabout Warlpiri waterholes Wave Hill white women woman workers Xavier Herbert yard young