The White Man's Looking Glass: Aboriginal-Colonial Gender Relations at Port Jackson
Date
1994
Authors
McGrath, Ann
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Allen and Unwin
Abstract
I had arrived in Sydney from Queensland via several years in Melbourne.
Living at North Bondi amidst the Bicentennial hoo-ha, I
found a subject that enabled me to contemplate my surrounds of
rock, sea and harbour from a new angle. I first started working on
Port Jackson materials as part of a new feminist history of Australia.
Journals kept by members of the First Fleet led me into the
intimate yet public thoughts of the earliest British intruders. They
wrote as sexual beings, commenting poetically and openly on the
attractions of the native women, at first hidden from their view. I
was excited by the titillating evidence of past desire, surprised that
past historians had turned a blind eye to it. It was easy to f ind the
evidence, but interpreting this evidence of genteel courtship and
aesthetic fantasies was another matter. Personally I was more
familiar with the rather direct sexual overtures of post-hippydom.
As a scholar I had studied the rough bravado of white stockmen in
the Northern Territory. I also knew something of the differing reactions
of Aboriginal women and men to white men's more recent
sexual advances. But the Port Jackson Aborigines left few voices:
it was all too long ago. This silence led me to concentrate more on
documented white perspectives. Fortunately, cultural history has
provided some fascinating studies of the sensibilities of eighteentcentury
gentlemen.
Description
Keywords
Australian History, Aboriginal history
Citation
McGrath, Ann. “The White Man's Looking Glass: Aboriginal-Colonial Gender Relations at Port Jackson”. In Pastiche: Reflections on Nineteenth-Century Australia, edited by Penny Russell and Richard White, 25-44. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, 1994.
Collections
Source
Type
Book chapter
Book Title
Pastiche: Reflections on Nineteenth-Century Australia
Entity type
Access Statement
Open Access