On His Majesty's Service

Jacqueline D'Arcy

Description

George Augustus Robinson's voice, both in the past and in the contemporary world, is an important one. He has been used and sometimes abused by historians and others in debates about colonisation and Aboriginality. This partial biography (Robinson's first forty years), through its thorough and forensic approach, presents a new Robinson - not the 'Black Robinson' of Rae-Ellis, James Bonwick, John West and James Erskine Calder, nor the 'White Robinson' of Mark Twain - but a 'Grey Robinson', a grey robin with a red breast. Robinson was an ordinary man with a heart which burnt for the evangelical cause. Myths that have grown up about Robinson's class, character and the trajectory of his public life are dispelled and a new, more subtle gradated way of considering his life and writings is offered. Robinson's life is used here as a lens; a way of better understanding the networks that underpinned the British world during the nineteenth century. Moreover, this biography provides an opportunity to examine how those networks operated within a colonial paradigm.This biography uncovers Robinson's sophisticated development and management of a global network and interlocking directorate which ultimately led to his appointment as Storekeeper at Brun Island - the humble beginning of his Friendly Missions and career in protectionism. This network also upheld Robinson as an expert on the Tasmanian Aborigines in his later life.What is revealed is that the course of Robinson's life was sustained by networks that operated equally well both at the centre and periphery of empire: from Hobart to the metropolis. In this way he was both a child of metropolis and a man of the empire.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique
• Diaries
• Tasmania
• Hobart
• Tasmanie

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 05 juillet 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781838599300
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Copyright © 2019 Jacqueline D’Arcy

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

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ISBN 9781838599300

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To Jasmyn, with love.
Contents
Comments on the Text
Foreword

the collection, 1866-1966
england, 1791-1823
new horizons, 1821-1823
The Triton , 1823–1824
early hobart, 1824-1826
city mission, 1827-1829
the aboriginal situation, 1824-1828
the calling, march 1829
bruné island, 1829-1830
the hobart aboriginal asylum, 1829-1830
departure, 1829-1830

Afterword
Reference List
Notes
Comments on the Text
Throughout the text all direct quotes have been transcribed exactly as they appeared in their original context. As there are multiple ‘errors’ of spelling and grammar in the quotes, I decided it was too disruptive to the flow of the language to insert ‘ sic .’ after every error. This has been done to preserve the authenticity of the original author’s voice, which is too often lost when modern rules are imposed on old language.
Aboriginal names are in small capitals following the precedent set by Plomley in Friendly Mission and Weep in Silence . The spellings of the names are taken from Robinson’s first mention of them.
Foreword
I read Mr Bonwick’s book, The Last of the Tasmanians , and to me it is the only accurate book about the history of the Aboriginal people. I and everyone I knew was told what happened at the Settlement of Flinders Island. We were told that the Aborigines were put into a big grave. Probably only half of them were put there; the others were not there at all. They were sold. It doesn’t matter what George Augustus Robinson puts on paper, or what they find of Robinson’s. How do they know that it is the truth? 1

George Augustus Robinson’s career with the Aborigines of South East Australia officially began in March 1829 and concluded on 31 December 1849. In contrast, this close biographical study of Robinson’s formative years, which contributes much to the historical record, begins in 1791 and ends in 1830. This close examination clearly demonstrates that the Robinson portrayed by previous historians and commentators was a mere two-dimensional caricature, cut out, tailored, to suit their purposes. Here, this cartoon character is fleshed out, formed into a three-dimensional man who lived in a world with a global expanse.
Robinson can now be viewed as a man of some education, widely read and interested in current issues. His Triton journal is an excellent example of this and is examined here in greater detail than by previous commentators. What is also now clearly evident is that Robinson understood how to successfully function within several contemporary networks both in the Metropol and on the colonial periphery. These networks, explored and mapped in this biography in a way – and to a level of detail – that has not been done before, were the key to his success both at home and abroad. This, however, was not a discovery of exceptionalism, but of normality.
Robinson’s place in history, therefore (both in his own time and in ours) remains significant but not exceptional and in this biography Robinson is exposed to be an “un-person”. 2 This term does not de-value his place, rather shifts it, leading the audience’s eye from a small scene captured by a viewfinder, to the breadth of the vista from the top of St Paul’s Cathedral, looking down on the thronging masses of the imperial machine. This view recognises that Robinson was not exceptional in his thinking. He – like thousands of other missionaries and anthropologists and others without a formal title to their position – believed that the Aborigines were not animals but men, and he (had he not stepped up and said ‘pick me’) could easily have been replaced with another ‘Robinson’ cast from an almost identical mould.
Although Robinson’s interest to the world remains not in the small details of his formative years, but in the records that he left behind on the Aborigines in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, it must be understood that these records were produced by a man whose formative years played a significant part in shaping who he was, how he viewed the world, and, therefore, how he wrote about it. The importance of this biography for other historians and readers of Robinson’s texts is in its more accurate portrayal of the man, his worldview and the context of his writings.
This biography also highlights the value of returning to the original manuscripts rather than relying purely on the edited versions of Robinson’s journals. For future writers, this is a must. As the digital age progresses it would be wonderful to see all of Robinson’s original writings transcribed without alteration to be freely available online. This would be a mammoth task, but surely one worth pursuing considering his importance to both the Aboriginal and wider community.
As hinted at in this biography, Robinson’s texts are a significant source for Aboriginal communities pursuing Native Title claims and negotiated Indigenous Land Use Agreements in the States mentioned above. His journals provide evidence of territorial boundaries, genealogies, customs, laws and connection to country. In some cases, Robinson’s references are the only ones that survive. His journals are also of value to communities such as the Palawa (Tasmanian Aborigines) who have used them to reconstruct their histories and to better understand their own culture.
In Tasmania, Robinson is a particularly contentious fellow, whose role in assisting the government to remove the Aborigines to Flinders’ Island is seen as an act of betrayal. This was not the case as further research will explore. It is hoped, therefore, that this biography will encourage more scholarship into both Robinson’s life and the time in which he lived and will allow for a more nuanced, detailed view that more accurately represents the complicated ‘truth’ of the past. For too long the guilt of the fathers has rested on the shoulders of a select few. It is now time to share the collective blame for sins past and move into the future with a better understanding of past people and events in their proper historical context – a context that, to our modern sensibilities, is like a foreign country. 3
Chapter One
the collection, 1866-1966
TO THE MEMORY OF
GEORGE AUGUSTUS ROBINSON
CHIEF PROTECTOR OF THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA
PACIFICATOR OF THE TASMANIAN ABORIGINES
WHO DIED OCT 18TH 1866 AGED 78 YEARS
***
‘HE FELL ASLEEP IN JESUS
THAT WHERE I AM THERE YE MAY BE ALSO’ 4
On 15 November 1934, the Mitchell Librarian, Sydney, Australia, wrote to a Mr Robinson in Bath, England. Having just read George Porter’s new book, Wanderings in Tasmania , 5 he was on a mission to find the journals of George Augustus Robinson, “the conciliator”, 6 which Porter had recently discovered in Bath. The Mitchell Library, described in the letter as “the British Museum of the Southern Hemisphere”, 7 was then actively expanding its collection of papers by and about the early explorers and administrators of Australia. Having recently acquired “the Banks papers, the Macquarie journals” and other treasures including Tasman’s original 1644 map, the Library was keen to add to its assets the “valuable records” of George Augustus Robinson. 8 As Porter had so eloquently expressed in his Wanderings :

no history of Tasmania would be complete without an account of the aborigines, and no account of the aborigines would be complete without the name of George Augustus Robinson. 9

The trail of Robinson’s records is as twisted and perplexing as the story of the man’s life. Both paths contain large holes where there should be footbridges, and conflicting duplications where there should be unambiguous signposts. The Mitchell Library’s records of their acquisition of Robinson’s papers consist of five out-bound letters dated 1934 and 1935, one of which is the letter mentioned above. 10 The paucity of the provenance of Robinson’s collection reflects an impetus born in the 1970s to cull the Library’s records. There was no record made of what was destroyed. The existing letters are only those of the Librarian’s initial enquiries. Frustratingly, these letters leave the reader with nothing but a riddle.
The Librarian received return correspondence (no longer surviving) from a Mr Sidney Robinson and also the Dean of Bath Abbey, both giving the name of George Augustus Robinson’s surviving son (whom Porter had visited) as one Mr Arthur Perry Robinson. 11 Curiously, when Sidney Robinson (no relation) paid Arthur Perry a visit, the man had “no knowledge of G. A. Robinson” but promised to pass on the Librarian’s letter “to his father who lives at Croydon” who may have had “a brother George, whom he fancies did a little travelling.” 12 Despite this, the Librarian was convinced that this Arthur Perry was the sa