'Black Velvet’: Aboriginal women and their relations with white men in the Northern Territory, 1910-40

McGrath, Ann2017-04-260006365574http://hdl.handle.net/1885/116182'Black Velvet' was the term used to describe Aboriginal women with whom white men had sexual intercourse. The expression originated as nineteenth-century English military slang, and it is also the name of an Irish drink consisting of a mixture of stout and champagne or cider. Henry Lawson used it in the Australian context in 'Ballad of rouseabout', published 1899. Territorian Bill Harney, writer and ex-Aboriginal welfare officer elucidated: 'The surface of the skin was smooth, a feature that gave us bushies the saying of 'Black Velvet'. Undoubtedly there are numerous bushmen's explanations for the etymology of this evocative expression.36 pagesapplication/pdf© Kay Daniels (ed.) 1984Australian HistoryAboriginal History'Black Velvet’: Aboriginal women and their relations with white men in the Northern Territory, 1910-401984