Disparate Voices? Framlingham as a site of resistance

[Extract] Patrick Wolfe, in his engaging article ‘Nation and MissegeNation: Discursive Continuity in the Post-Mabo Era,’ has detailed the ways in which the settlercolonial logic of the elimination of Aborigines has operated within Australian society. Wolfe documents how this logic of elimination has been operating from the invasion of this continent to the supposedly enlightened legislation and legal decisions being made today. In this article I use Wolfe’s theoretical analysis as the basis to explore and try to illuminate the ways in which this settler-colonial goal was both supported and undermined in a particular historical and geographical context by a variety of actors. The specific site under investigation is the Framlingham Mission, which is located near Warrnambool in southwest Victoria. And it is though the written records from the Board for the Protection of Aborigines (BPA) between 1922 and 1934 that the voices of many actors remain with us today. These records provide an insight into people’s thoughts and beliefs regarding incidents at Framlingham that were being discussed and debated at the time.2 I am interested in what the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal voices contained in these records have to say and how they work to undermine or support the colonial logic of elimination. Before looking at specific examples of this, I will briefly outline both the ideological and local context of the Framlingham Mission to position this analysis within broader historical framework.