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| ====== Indigenous workers ====== | |
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| {{:ml_undated.jpg?400|}} This photo of a group of Aboriginal men (stockmen?) in the Murray-Prior papers (ML PXB661) has no attached information. It is a reminder of the huge gaps in our knowledge about the past, not the least from the Aboriginal viewpoint. The photo, faded and damaged as it is, gives context to TLM-P's criticism of depictions of 'Australians' and other indigenous groups at the [[wp>The_Crystal_Palace|Crystal Palace]] in England in 1882. He thought they were presented as 'miserable looking specimens' and 'very unlike those [Aboriginal people] I have seen'.((TLM-P, Diary, 29 June 1882, ML.)) When TLM-P dictated his memories of his early years in Queensland for Rosa, he included some translations and notes regarding indigenous language; some memories of Aboriginal employees; and the comments that, in his experience, Aboriginal Australians with exposure to white culture made good companions. It is unlikely, however, that he rose above his culture's assumption that they needed to adapt to British culture with little if any reciprocity.((Andrew Darbyshire, A Fair Slice of St Lucia. Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, St Lucia History Group research paper no. 8, p.98 citing Rosa Praed papers, Box 3, 8370, packet 3/1/1/.))\\ | |
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| The ledger books that have survived from TLM-P's various properties indicate the lack of power and oppression experienced by Indigenous workers. Typically, they are not named and any payments are very low. In Maroon's ledger for 1867-68, for example, an entry under Tom de M. M-P, simply notes that he paid a 'Blackboy' five shillings.(MLMSS 3117/box 9).\\ | |
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| For more on TLM-P's Aboriginal employees, see Angela Woollacott, //Settler Society in the Australian Colonies: Self-Government and Imperial Culture//, pp.172-73. ((https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Settler_Society_in_the_Australian_Coloni/5y6kBgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Settler+Society+in+the+Australian+Colonies:+Self-Government+and+Imperial+Culture&printsec=frontcover))\\ | |
| For more on TLM-P's Aboriginal employees, see Angela Woollacott, //Settler Society in the Australian Colonies: Self-Government and Imperial Culture//, pp.172-73. ((https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Settler_Society_in_the_Australian_Coloni/5y6kBgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Settler+Society+in+the+Australian+Colonies:+Self-Government+and+Imperial+Culture&printsec=frontcover))\\ | |
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