The lives of stories : Making histories of aboriginal-settler friendship

Abstract

This thesis explores the dynamics of popular, public, local and family history making around Aboriginal-settler friendship, adoption, mediation and alliance. Narrating the lives of four stories, it examines the ways in which they have grown and changed in the telling. The adventures of James Morrill's story as shipwreck survivor, Birri-gubba adoptee and 'first white resident' of North Queensland are charted, followed by an examination of the 'tragic' story of Eora diplomat and traveller Bennelong. The story of friendship between Wiradjuri warrior and peacemaker Windradyne and the Suttor family of 'Brucedale' is traced from its birth in the 1820s up to the shared management of Windradyne's grave in the present, and finally, the friendship between activists, poets and public intellectuals Kath Walker and Judith Wright is explored through the poetics of their public performance of sisterhood. All four stories live on through their relevance to storytellers as a social currency, rich in historical, literary and affective meanings. The thesis focuses on the act of telling, with each retelling considered as a historical event in its own right, as well as a 'use' of history. Across the past four decades each of these stories has been interwoven with the broader narratives of breaking the 'great Australian silence', Aboriginal survival and regeneration, reconciliation and the history wars. But at the same time, the interactions around these stories continue to take place within the more intimate spaces of local and family history. The points of cross-cultural connection that are embodied in stories of friendship represent a complex terrain for the sharing of history by Aboriginal people and those who identify as descendants of 'settlers'. The thesis navigates the moral and ethical landscape of postreconciliation scholarship and social thinking. It provides an appraisal of the sharing (and not-sharing) that takes place in the telling of these stories. The relationships between the evolving social valency of the stories and their formal qualities - story elements, symbols, appeals to genre and the like - are often unexpected.