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 5
... tribes ' as seems appropriate . Social organisation is flexible , depending on region- al ecology and cultural principles . Men , and women to a lesser extent , have choices in group membership , social identity and residence ...
... tribes ' as seems appropriate . Social organisation is flexible , depending on region- al ecology and cultural principles . Men , and women to a lesser extent , have choices in group membership , social identity and residence ...
Page 7
... tribes are hopelessly irreconcilable ' . In 1890 Aborigines were attempting to communicate through their law - men . A tribal elder told a station manager : ' Boss , whitefellow stop here too long with him bullocky . Now time ...
... tribes are hopelessly irreconcilable ' . In 1890 Aborigines were attempting to communicate through their law - men . A tribal elder told a station manager : ' Boss , whitefellow stop here too long with him bullocky . Now time ...
Page 9
... tribe : in the 1880s the Alowie Pastoral Company stocked a lease on the Frew and Elkedra Rivers . Abori- ginal inspector Beckett wrote in 1915 that the Alauri occupied their country ' in a state of primitive savagery ' , driving ...
... tribe : in the 1880s the Alowie Pastoral Company stocked a lease on the Frew and Elkedra Rivers . Abori- ginal inspector Beckett wrote in 1915 that the Alauri occupied their country ' in a state of primitive savagery ' , driving ...
Page 16
... tribal area are the property of the local tribe . ' They had no ' intelligent conception of the white man's law and position in the land ' . He proposed that areas inhabited by noma- dic groups should be supervised by patrol officers to ...
... tribal area are the property of the local tribe . ' They had no ' intelligent conception of the white man's law and position in the land ' . He proposed that areas inhabited by noma- dic groups should be supervised by patrol officers to ...
Page 18
... tribes . In 1932 , station Aborigines of the Victoria River and agricultural workers on the Daly had kept him posted with news of pursuing trackers . The ' Red Band ' took shelter in their ' inland strongholds of sandstone bluff , and ...
... tribes . In 1932 , station Aborigines of the Victoria River and agricultural workers on the Daly had kept him posted with news of pursuing trackers . The ' Red Band ' took shelter in their ' inland strongholds of sandstone bluff , and ...
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