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Colonial protection and the intimacies of Indigenous governance
Nettelbeck, Amanda
Nettelbeck, Amanda
Author
Abstract
Recent scholarship on colonial Protectors of Aborigines has examined the unclear line they walked between advocating for Indigenous rights and advancing the project of colonial state-building. Their task to bring Indigenous people within the fold of Christian civilisation and within the reach of settler law involved more than an attempt to implement colonial policy, however. It also brought Protectors into daily personal contact with Indigenous people in multiple settings. With reference to the overlooked colonial protectorate in South Australia, where the position of Protector of Aborigines was guaranteed as a condition of the colony’s foundation in 1836, this article draws out some of the ‘strategic intimacies’ that underpinned protection as an early mode of colonial governance. By examining more closely the varied ways in which Protectors and Indigenous people intersected in first-contact settings, it explores the fluid configurations of power in a colonial social order that was only just evolving.
Keywords
protection, colonialism, Indigenous history, cross-cultural relations, colonial intimacy
Date
2017
Type
Journal article
Journal
History Australia
Book
Volume
14
Issue
1
Page Range
32-47
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Arts and Humanities
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
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Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled