Hannah Bell’s long-term relationship with the Ngarinyin people of Western Australia considers the roles of both men and women within this traditional community. Pre-contact indigenous society was generally based on collaborative relationships between genders.[4] Women’s and men’s roles were both highly valued and seen as necessary for the functioning of the total society. Indigenous society was divided along gender lines; however, unlike Western Society, women’s roles were seen as critical to the functioning of the whole.[5] Women, in particular, were responsible for reproduction rites, the daily hunting and gathering of food (especially small animals, fish and shellfish, berries and fruit) and the nurturing of the young. They had the major role in teaching the young of the community about the spiritual significance of the landscape, the dreaming stories and much of the ethical basis of the community.[6] Older women were usually instrumental in choosing their future sons-in-laws, based on kinship requirements. In the complex kinship system used by the Ngarluma and Nyangumarta people, women were considered the stronger sex and thus determined the cycle of marriage relationships.[7]
In aboriginal society, women had equal access to tribal lands with the important responsibilities in caring for country and ensuring future generations were made aware of their responsibilities.[8] Although Aboriginal society was generally patriarchal, in many areas, women were valued as the nurturers of the community. In her book, Daughters of the Dreaming, Diane Bell suggests that the role of women in maintaining ‘the wellbeing of the land, good health for all and emotional management in the interests of social harmony’ are indicators of the collaborative relationship of pre-contact indigenous society.[9]
Contact with non-indigenous people led to adaptation and change in the indigenous community. The early European settlement was overwhelmingly male, with male sealers, male convicts and male officers outnumbering women, including convict women, officer’s wives and indigenous women. The culture of the new European arrivals was one of strong belief in male superiority overlaid with a feeling of righteousness in regards to their colonial ambitions. Patty O’Brien argues that European descriptions and perceptions of Aboriginal women were based on how they saw the role of women in their own societies. [10] She reminds the reader of ‘The power of an Englishman, the coloniser observing conquered women; the power of those who have the means and ability to articulate their opinions and experiences, making themselves visible participants in the process of history, whilst relegating the observed to anonymity and objectification.’[11] Many of the early records of the Englishmen’s encounters with Aboriginal women make comment on their nakedness and refer to the noble savage image. Keith Willey reports that Collins ‘found the women not unattractive. …and though entire strangers to the comforts and conveniences of clothing, yet they sought with a native modesty to conceal by attitude what the want of covering would otherwise have revealed.’[12] Captain Phillip, applying European values, makes a point of ordering his officers not to consort with the indigenous women. In this way, he aims to ensure a peaceful relationship with the indigenous men. However, this does not account for the agency of indigenous women in managing their own sexuality.
The role of indigenous women as a commodity is also evidenced in the offering of indigenous women as a hospitality gift to the newcomers. Confusion may have been apparent when the Europeans didn’t initially accept and even more so when they didn’t reciprocate with their own women.[13] Some evidence presented by Lyndall Ryan notes that Indigenous women also gained power in their communities through their relationships with sealers. Although sometimes, being exchanged by their men for flour and sugar, women were able to gain dogs, English language and status through these relationships.[14] One woman, Walyer, having being abducted and sold to sealers, eventually became an important leader when she re-joined her original tribe. [15] This use of women as a commodity by Indigenous men (and non-indigenous men) also reinforced a perception that Aboriginal women were subject to brutality at the hands of their men. Watkin Tench, a British Marine Officer with the First Fleet, records his examination of an indigenous woman. He states, ‘I was seized with a strong propensity to learn whether… [she was] sufficiently powerful to secure her from the brutal violence with which the women were treated.’[16] He continues to outline that while the indigenous man enjoys his ‘beloved indolence’, the indigenous women is seen as a workhorse, fishing, nurturing the young and when “wanton with plenty’, he abducts and rapes his desired woman.[17] Viewing women as victims of a brutal society supports the conquerors view of themselves as bringing civilisation to the savages. [18] This view was developed with little understanding of either traditional society or the traditional role of women in providing for their families.
In a period, where the role of indigenous men was being diminished because of colonisation, women were able to retain many of their traditional roles within the domestic and family spheres within these changed circumstances. However, with the growing pastoralisation of many of the Aboriginal traditional land, these roles would also be challenged. O’Brien argues that, in order to take control of these traditional lands pastoralists, in the guise of bringing Christianity to the new colony, argued that Aborigines were ‘devoid of all humanity and …must not be able to stand in the way of a superior type.’ [19] In particular, indigenous women were now seen by some as degraded, child-killers and prostitutes whose appearance, smell and customs indicated they were sub-human.
Nineteenth century missionaries felt they required to be tutored in the feminine skills of cleanliness, domestic duties and godliness plus the values of modesty and chastity.[20] Indigenous women, unlike the men, were seen as redeemable. The Missionary, Dandeson Coates wrote in 1838 that, ‘under the divine blessing, there is no doubt they would become faithful wives, tender mothers and useful member of society.’[21] Notwithstanding their usefulness in their own society had been decimated by their removal of from their traditional lands and into the missions scattered around the country.
Indigenous women traditionally had strong and critical roles in their communities. European settlement changed their role, initially placing them on a pedestal as the noble savage and then slowly diminishing their role to that of whore and sub-human. Finally, towards the middle of the nineteenth century, they became the focus of missionaries efforts to feminise them in the European image of ideal womanhood.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, “Chapter 2: Aspects of Traditional Aboriginal Australia”, (2002) .
Bell, D., “Gathered from Kaytej Women.” in Australians. A Historical Library, Volume 1, Australians to 1788: Sydney, 1987
Bell, H.R., Men's Business Women's Business: The Spiritual Role of Gender in the World's Oldest Civilisation. Rochester: Vermont: Inner Traditions International, 1998.
Darnton, R. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. New York: Vintage Books, 1984.
Hiatt, L. R., Arguments about Aborigines: Australia and the Evolution of Social Anthropology, Chapter 4: The Woman Question. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996
McGrath, A., “The White Man's Looking Glass: Aboriginal-Colonial Gender Relations at Port Jackson.” Australian Historical Studies 24 (1990): 189-206.
O’Brien, P. “The Gaze of the Ghosts: Images of Aboriginal Women in New South Wales and Port Phillip (1800-1850) in Maps, Dreams, History: Race and Representation in Australia edited by Jan Kociumbas, Sydney: Dept of History, University of Sydney, 1961 , 313-400
Ryan, L. "Aboriginal Women and Agency in the Process of Conquest: A review of some recent work", Australian Feminist Studies, 2, 1986
Tench, W. A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay. London: 1789, reprinted Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1961
Tosh, John and Lang, Sean, The Pursuit of History, Harlow: Pearson Longman, 4th edition, 2006
Willey, K. "When the Sky Fell Down: The Destruction of the Tribes of the Sydney Region 1788-1850s, Sydney: Collins, 1979
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[1] R. Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. (New York: Vintage Books, 1984), p.3.
[2] John Tosh with Sean Lang, The Pursuit of History, (Pearson Longman, 4th edition, 2006), P. 319
[3] Diane Bell, “Gathered from Kaytej Women,” in Australians. A Historical Library, Volume 1, Australians to 1788, (Sydney:, 1987), p. 241
[4] Hannah Bell, Men’s Business Women’s Business: The Spiritual Role of Gender in the World’s Oldest Civilisation. (Inner Traditions International, 1998) p. 44
[5] Ann McGrath, “The White Man’s looking Glass: Aboriginal-Colonial Gender Relations at Port Jackson,” Australian Historical Studies, 24 (1990): p.189
[6] Diane Bell, “Gathered from Kaytej Women,” p. 240
[7] Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, “Chapter 2: Aspects of Traditional Aboriginal Australia”, (2002) . P. 2.12
[8] L. R. Hiatt, Arguments about Aborigines: Australia and the Evolution of Social Anthropology, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996), p. 66
[9] Diane Bell, quoted in Hiatt, Arguments about Aborigines, p. 73
[10] Patty O’Brien, “The Gaze of the Ghosts: Images of Aboriginal Women in New South Wales and Port Phillip (1800-1850)” in Maps, Dreams, History: Race and Representation in Australia edited by Jan Kociumbas, (Sydney: Dept of History, University of Sydney, 1961)
[11] Ibid, p. 314
[12] Keith Willey, When the Sky Fell Down: The Destruction of the Tribes of the Sydney Region 1788-1850s, (Sydney: Collins, 1979), p.81
[13] Ann McGrath, “The White Man’s looking Glass: Aboriginal-Colonial Gender Relations at Port Jackson,” p.193
[14] Lyndall Ryan, Aboriginal Women and Agency in the Process of Conquest: A review of some recent work, Australian Feminist Studies, 2, 1986, p. 37
[15] Ibid, p.37
[16] Watkin Tench, A narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay. (London: 1789, reprinted Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1961) p. 246
[17] Ibid, p.261
[18] Patty O’Brien, “The Gaze of the Ghosts: Images of Aboriginal Women in New South Wales and Port Phillip (1800-1850)” p.354
[19] Ibid, p. 358
[20] Ibid, p. 364
[21] Ibid, p. 368
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