On the Sacred Clay of Botany Bay: Landings, National Memorialization, and Multiple Sovereignties - NEW DIVERSITIES
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On the Sacred Clay of Botany Bay:
Landings, National Memorialization, and Multiple Sovereignties
by Ann McGrath (Australian National University)
Abstract
To mark the federation of the Australian colonies in January 1901, a re-enactment of the
landing of British navigator Captain James Cook was performed at Botany Bay, New South
Wales. This involved not only the arrival of Cook’s ‘discovery’ party ashore, but also a
violent conflict with the local Gweagal/Dharawal people. The Landing Play brought together
costumed professional actors and a troupe of Aboriginal performers from many parts of
Australia. As indelible as the Cook landing story may seem as a foundational narrative replete
with British flag raising performances, Australia’s national story has never been entirely
unified, homogenous or settled. Spectacularly adorned in animal skins and bird feathers,
the Indigenous troupe used sacred white clay to paint their faces and bodies in distinctive
designs, signifying the deep history narratives of their respective Indigenous nations. Both
the European and Indigenous Australian actors re-enacted histories associated with their
respective ancestral heroes on lands they deemed sacred. These contested performances of
sovereignty, of ‘landings’ and of history, were mutually witnessed and in conversation with
each other. Yet, while contemporary politicians and elites were reifying Captain Cook’s legacy,
much of the general audience ignored expectations, invading the VIP tent and cheering not the
pompous Captain Cook oratory, but the Aboriginal actors who charged and attacked Cook’s
party. A Maori Native Affairs Minister from New Zealand and three Maori chiefs watched
the 1901 spectacle. In contrast to the Indigenous recognition enjoyed in neighboring New
Zealand, the Australian government today continues to resist a constitutionally recognised
Indigenous advisory body, let alone to discuss discrete parliamentary representation or a
Treaty. Yet then, as now, multiple parallel sovereignties and their sacred histories continue
to be enacted and re-enacted across the Australian continent..
Keywords: memorialization, landing, re-enactment, Indigenous sovereignty, Botany Bay,
Australia, Captain Cook, sacred places, nationalism, violent conflict, Colonialism
On the first of January 1901, after a peaceful but mental nation’ united by common feeling (Hirst
drawn out debate and negotiation process, the 2000). By 1901, that liminal national identity
six Australian colonies federated into a nation. was in full flight. New historical imaginings, set
Queen Victoria signed the papers that autho- in particular sites in the landscape, promised to
rised the Constitution of the new Common- bridge conflicting local, national and imperial
wealth of Australia. Representatives from across agendas and identities. Ancestral heroes had
the continent and the world came together to been selected, and their actions positioned upon
witness festivities to mark the beginning of the symbolic grounds of entitlement.
new nation. Suitable foundation narratives had Along the white sandy beaches and the clayey
to be invented and enacted. After all, a scattered hinterlands of Botany Bay, on the seventh of
population had to be transformed into a ‘senti- January in 1901, the new nation’s first histori-
New Diversities Vol. 19, No. 2, 2017
ISSN ISSN-Print 2199-8108 ▪ ISSN-Internet 2199-8116New Diversities 19 (2), 2017 Ann McGrath
cal re-enactment was about to take place. It ing group ashore in a small dinghy, the Cook
was The Landing of Lieutenant James Cook, R.N. actor cut an impressively noble figure. He wore
at Botany Bay, 1770 (Gapps 2000:112). Despite a gold-braided uniform with a blue cutaway
concerted efforts to inscribe a unifying, homoge- coat, white knee breeches, silken hose and a
nous plotline, those attending the events partici- gold-laced three-cornered hat. Actors playing
pated in competing visions of the national past the British scientist Joseph Banks and the Swed-
and future. On a continent that shared multiple, ish naturalist and Linnaean acolyte Dr Daniel
complex and contested sovereignties,1 Botany Solander wore more muted costumes, though
Bay had long been a meeting place of contingent Banks’ aristocratic status was indicated by finer
histories (Nugent 2005). cloth and golden ornamentation. A band of men
This article explores how diverse performers in marine uniforms paced up and down, carry-
and audiences engaged in an interpretation of ing antique muskets. According to the Sydney
the ‘discovery moment’ in surprising ways. In the Morning Herald, the cast of sailors lolled around
theatre of plein air, unpredictable things hap- looking like they were out of a scene from the
pened. The formal Landing script is examined in Pirates of Penzance (SMH 8 Jan: 5). An actor
the light of nationalist agendas, then we will con- from a local Comedy company played Tupia, the
sider what actually took place on the day between voyage’s navigator, artist and mapmaker from
various participants – including politicians, digni- Raiatea, Society Islands (Thomas: 2010). His was
taries, diverse actors and audience members. Of an intermediary role: to attempt communication
particular interest is how the Indigenous Austra- with and to offer European trade goods to the
lian troupe played a key role, creating a multi- Aboriginal group.
layered performance of nation. Their presence The already-landed group comprised twenty-
alone, with muscular physiques and Australian five Aboriginal men who had travelled from
ornamentations on display, undermined any sin- Queensland, the state adjoining the northern
gular rendition of a British ‘great man’ narrative. border of New South Wales and extending in
Beyond binary questions of whether the Aborigi- the far tropical north to the Torres Straits. At
nal performers were captives or agents (Poignant first hidden from the crowd by thick bushes, the
2004; Taylor 2003), I consider the affective nature Aboriginal troupe applied clay and ochres to their
of their performances (Edmonds 2016) and what torsos, arms and faces. Then, armed with fifteen-
they brought with them. Tangible and intangible, foot-long barbed spears, nullah nullahs, boomer-
what was that repertoire? In what ways did the angs and woomerahs, they suddenly appeared,
live performances of the Landing Play and its charging down the hill, yelling loudly and hold-
audiences disrupt a singular patriotic reading of ing their spears high, ready to throw. Spectacular
Australia’s national sovereignty and history? in fine possum skins, the feathers and wings of
parrots, cassowary, emu, galahs, black and white
Landings cockatoos, they wore neckpieces of kangaroo
The outdoor re-enactment of the Captain Cook teeth and nautilus shells. Beneath their human
landing scene was to be the highlight of the hair waistbands were ‘Siberian trunks’ for mod-
nation’s inaugural celebrations. Two sets of esty (Meston to Under Secy, Queensland, 15 Jan
actors were required for the performance – a 1901).
landing and a landed group. Leading the land- The Australasian wryly captioned its photo:
‘Queensland Aboriginals in Full War Paint: Cap-
1 Aboriginal Australia comprised hundreds of distinc-
tain Cook’s Reception Committee’. As one news-
tive landed and linguistically distinct groups that they
understood as governing entities, polities or nations. paper reported, the Aboriginal men looked ‘mar-
For a discussion of why the term ‘nation’ is helpful see velously picturesque and warlike, and would be
McGrath 2015; for useful discussions of Indigenous ugly customers to meet in a hand-to-hand fight’
sovereignty, see Moreton-Robinson 2007.
86On the Sacred Clay of Botany Bay New Diversities 19 (2), 2017
(TSM 12 Jan 1901: 80). With athletic, powerful viewed as a place of reconciliation between black
physiques, some were over 6 foot 4 inches tall. and white Australia (McGrath 1991; 2015b).
Their white clay and red ochre body paint, their Australian politicians reacted to the State-
agility, litheness and dramatic talents greatly ment from the Heart as if it was a radical plan.
impressed the audiences (Australasian 12 Jan Yet, amongst most British colonies, including the
1901:26, The Mercury 10 Jan 1901:2). The plot- United States, New Zealand and Canada, treaties
line of the ‘landing’ play was of mutual threat, had been negotiated. Australia was different; it
attempted conciliation, then a violent exchange was not conquered, but ‘settled’ – later argued to
of fire and spears. After an Aboriginal man is be on the legal basis of terra nullius –unoccupied
wounded his group retreats. It is a stand-off. or wasteland. As reflected in the 2017 Statement,
Unlike William Penn’s much-mythologized story Aboriginal Australians saw their sovereignty, or
of the foundational settlement in North America, authority over land, as a sacred entitlement.
no treaty signing is involved. They did not concur with European assumptions
that it had been annulled by colonization. Their
Constituting a Nation proposed treaty would be a Makaratta, a Yolgnu
In mid 2017, the National Constitutional Con- (eastern Arnhem Land) word for a process of
vention of Aboriginal representatives at Uluru reaching agreement after a conflict.
in Central Australia delivered a ‘Statement from Although Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Aus-
the Heart’. It demanded a treaty, a representa- tralians alike proudly boast that Aborigines are
tive body to advise government, and a truthful the world’s oldest continuing culture, historians
telling of Australia’s national history. It explained have paid little attention to the deep human
that their sovereignty was based upon spiritual history of the continent. As if still caught up in
ancestral ties with lands, in a continuum of ances- the 1901 Landing Play, academic histories often
tral time and trans-generational connection. The begin in 1770 with the ‘discovery’ or in 1788 the
Statement proclaimed: “This link is the basis of ‘first settlement’.
the ownership of the soil, or better, of sover- Under the federal Constitution of 1901,
eignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, Aborigines were excluded from the Australian
and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown. Census, so they were not counted amongst the
How could it be otherwise? That peoples pos- people who would enjoy the benefits of the new
sessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred Commonwealth. The states, not the federal gov-
link disappears from world history in merely the ernment, retained authority over lands and over
last two hundred years?” (National Constitu- Aboriginal people. The colonies had introduced
tional Convention: 2017). In the geographic heart diverse legislation to ostensibly ‘protect’ Aborigi-
of the continent, Uluru is imbued with layers of nal people, which often meant tight surveil-
sacredness for both white and Aboriginal Austra- lance, bureaucratic control and forced migration
lia. Since the mid twentieth century, it has come to ‘Aboriginal reserves’, which remained Crown
to symbolize the wider Australian nation and its Lands. Only after the nation-wide Referendum
red centre. Previously known as Ayers Rock, the of 1967 did the Australian constitution com-
federal government handed ownership back to prehensively acknowledge Aboriginal people as
the Anangu people in 1985. Indigenous Austra- citizens. In the 1970s, land rights legislation was
lians celebrate it as a pan-Aboriginal meeting introduced and in 1992 the High Court’s Mabo
place of potent Indigenous ancestral song-lines judgment declared terra nullius a fiction, paving
and Tjukurrpa or ‘law.’2 Increasingly, it is also the way for greater Indigenous recognition and
native title rights. Today, Aboriginal people still
2 For a discussion of ‘song-line’ and ‘dreaming’ con- suffer discriminatory legislation and income con-
ceptualizations, see Jones 2017: 21-30. trols. The trauma of their history runs deep, with
87New Diversities 19 (2), 2017 Ann McGrath
shocking ill health and incarceration rates (ABS In turn, their main actors became the ‘founding
2016; McGrath 1995). fathers’ of nation. Re-enactments revisited and
To the New Zealand’s 1901 delegation that memorialized certain moments of people arriv-
was amongst the audience watching the landing ing in a certain place as appropriate ‘beginning’
re-enactment, the 2017 Statement that called points and sites for the new nations. The parcels
for a treaty and parliamentary representation of land where ‘firsting’ and/or pioneering events
would not have seemed radical at all. Represen- reportedly happened became associated with a
tatives of the British Crown had signed the Treaty special kind of historically endowed sacredness.
of Waitangi in 1840. Although New Zealand had This land gained exceptional status on the basis
decided against joining the Commonwealth of of past events that took place there.
Australia, they attended the Sydney celebrations As Ojibwa historian Jeani O’Brien demon-
in force. Their contingent included the Premier strated for the local histories of New England and
Mr Seddon, other Parliamentarians and three the United States, if settler-pioneers are to claim
influential Maori chiefs, Ratana Ngahina, Nireaha ‘firsting’, an existing people must qualify for ‘last-
Tamaki, Tamahau Mahupuku. In the preliminar- ing’ (O’Brien 2010). Commandeering the 1770
ies prior to the Landing re-enactment, James Cook Landing as the rupture or turning point that
Carroll, Maori leader and first Minister for Native marked the commencement date of national
Affairs, made a formal speech. At an associated history meant that the ‘multiple and enduring’
event aboard a large boat on the harbour, the times of Indigenous Australia were contained
contingent did the Haka, the impressive dance (Schlunke 2013: 231-2; 2015). Underwritten by a
of war (TSM 12 Jan 1901:80; The Australian Star, New World narrative that relied upon the actions
7 Jan 1901:3; Paterson 2013: 23). of European navigators, the Cook Landing story
The Maori delegation was interested in mak- promised to displace the long duree of the conti-
ing comparisons. Minister Carroll observed that nent’s Aboriginal past.
Aboriginal people spoke English much better Over most of the twentieth century, repeat
than they did, so were well ahead in that way. performances, anniversary events, plaques,
In order to assess the men’s character, strength naming, history paintings, school texts, official
and weaponry, the Maori Chiefs approached histories and many other forms of interpreta-
the Aboriginal performers as closely as possible. tion and memorialization ensured that patriotic
Mahupuku stated: “I judged that they seemed to accounts of national days became ingrained in
be a hardy set of men, but as to their faces I was the collective psyche of white Australians (Healy
unable to see them, as they were all covered 1997). After 1770, Captain Cook’s journals soon
with some kind of paint, so I was unable to judge” became popular and remarked upon in both
(cited in Paterson 2013: 23). Europe and in Australia. By the mid nineteenth
century, Cook imagery was featuring in Austra-
Firstings lian public events. John Gilfillan’s 1859 paint-
Settler-colonizer nations used stories of the ‘first’ ing ‘Captain Cook taking Possession of NSW in
landings by white men to mould homogenizing Botany Bay, 1770’3 was printed in the Illustrated
narratives of racial and gendered conformity. Sydney News in 1865 and several leading artists
These eventually became the key tropes and drew upon this image to create transparencies
motifs of settler-colonizer nationalism. Picture for public buildings and scenic backdrops (Calla-
the Mayflower landing at Plymouth and William way 2000:48). With the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit
Penn’s negotiation of a Treaty with Indians in
Philadelphia. In Australia, it was Captain James 3 The painting was given other similar names, such
Cook’s landing at Botany Bay and Captain Phil- as Possession of Botany Bay, Possession of the conti-
lip and the First Fleet’s landing at Port Jackson. nent and so forth.
88On the Sacred Clay of Botany Bay New Diversities 19 (2), 2017
in 1868, the Lands Department featured a trans- Captain Cook Creates an Archive
parency of Britannia crowning Captain Cook with Both Cook and Phillip were self-consciously ‘mak-
a laurel wreath (Callaway: 2000: 46). In 1879, a ing history’ and crafting an archive to support it.
statue of Cook was erected in Sydney’s Hyde Park In Cook’s meticulously kept journals, he recorded
(Gapps, 2000: 106). The following decade, news- calendar dates, technical data and measure-
papers issued special prints commemorating the ments. He measured latitude and longitude and
moment of Cook’s landing. counted and recorded time in ways not previ-
For many Indigenous students, these ‘discov- ously known in this southern hemisphere land.
ery dates’ were a betrayal; history was telling He calculated the directions and speeds of winds
them lies. To believe those school lessons was and tides, and keenly mapped the coastlines; he
to distrust their loved ones and their epic stories observed ‘natural history’ – the storied science
of enduring connection. How else to explain the of the natural world. He knew that every word
ancient Sydney rock engravings of giant stingrays, inscribed would be soon published and rapidly
sharks, emus, star diagrams and the epic stories circulated amongst British elites.
of heroic ancestors like Baiame, who arrived During Cook’s days at Botany Bay between
from the sky, and was widely known across the late April to May 1770, he also recorded sum-
lands now known as New South Wales? Indig- maries of his encounters and skirmishes with
enous people had lived around the Botany Bay the ‘natives’ and their ‘dartts’, which he had
region for at least twelve thousand years; they initially thought were poisoned. When it came
were there when its ancient riverways cut off to the sightings of geographical features, Cook
Kurnell, before the Bay took on the dimensions used metaphors from the world he knew, paying
that Cook was to draw on his maps (OEH 2013). the required homage to the authorities, to his
By 1901, however, two Captains of the Royal patrons and their aristocratic networks (Carter
Navy – Captain Cook and Captain Arthur Phillip, 1987). Describing unfamiliar people was more
the first governor of the convict colony, shared difficult. Harder still was working out how to
a conflated origin story. The two became so interact with them; he had no science for this.
fused in the Australian psyche that they were When it came to asserting the sovereignty of
frequently mixed up or seen as one. Both men the British Crown, in contrast Cook had a well-
were mythologized and memorialized as ances- honed repertoire to follow. For settler colonizer
tral heroes who ‘gave birth to the nation’ (Grim- states, key dates would later serve to reinforce
shaw et al 1994; Lake 2000; Gapps 2000:108-10). ideas of sovereignty, Australian citizenship and
Cook’s ‘discovery’ of Botany Bay and Phillip’s belonging. After leaving Botany Bay, Cook soon
‘first fleet’ and ‘first settlement’ at Sydney Cove realized he had omitted something important.
eighteen years later had another thing in com- So he added in his journal: ‘During our stay in
mon: landings on the south-eastern shores of the this Harbour I caused the English Colours to be
Australian continent, where the lands beyond display’d a shore every day and an inscription
had generated great wealth. The names of their to be cut out upon ^one of the trees near the
ships also vied for hallowed status, with numer- watering place seting forth the Ships name, date
ous replicas later built. In the 1901 re-enactment, &Ca –’ (Cook, 6 May 1770). In other words, in
an amateurishly painted ‘Endeavour’ sign on an 1770, Cook’s crew carved the tree trunks at Bot-
old sailing boat had to suffice. Although his stay any Bay with notations of the day, the month, the
was short, the Cook landing was favoured over century and the ship that visited there from late
Phillip’s, as its story less burdened with convict April to early May. By flying the English flag and
associations. Although a change was in the air, inscribing ‘historical’ details on the trees of Bot-
the convicts had not yet become fully romanti- any Bay, Captain Cook was asserting British sov-
cized ancestors. ereignty over this southern land. By transporting
89New Diversities 19 (2), 2017 Ann McGrath
his journal record back to England, he publicized Banks’ Journal, he concurred: they: “threw into
each performative moment and useful observa- the house to them some beads, ribbands, cloths
tion; Cook’s last entry expressed his compelling &c. as presents and went away”. He added: “We
interest in the Bay’s tides. however thought it no improper measure to
Through the sightings of the Endeavour crew, take away with us all the lances which we could
places were bestowed new names. In order to find about the houses, amounting in number to
overlay British sovereignty, determining a fit- forty or fifty” (Cook 28-9 April 1770; Banks 1 May
ting English name was important. Upon depart- 1770). Considering the labour involved in crafting
ing on the 6th May, Cook had decided on Sting these essential hunting implements, this consti-
ray Harbour, inspired by the fish caught in their tuted a significant loss to their makers.
large seines. He also considered the bland name Despite the violent clash upon landing, Cook
of ‘Harbour Bay’, though with the skirmishes, it remained keen to investigate the resources of
was no harbour of peace. Inspired by Banks and the lands beyond the beach in safety. On their
Solander’s exciting sightings and collection of Pacific travels to different islands, Cook had
many ‘new’ plants and animals – such as cocka- encountered people connected by common lin-
toos, lorikeets, pelicans, waterbirds and a strange guistic threads and cultural traditions. Depositing
furred animal – Cook had proposed ‘Botanist Pacific and European trade goods in Aboriginal
Bay’. Almost a week after the Endeavour sailed camps – this time ‘Cloth, Looking glasses, Combs,
out, Cook finally decided upon its name. It would Beeds, Nails’ – they made a second effort to start
be ‘Bottany Bay’ or ‘Botany Bay’ (Cook; various a negotiation or exchange process. However,
entries, April-May 1770). Cook retrospectively their material ‘conciliations’, which included
amended his earlier journal entries accordingly. random thefts, failed. The decision of Cook’s
Perhaps the name had become a matter of group party to help themselves, removing equipment
discussion and hot debate amongst himself and without permission, does not marry well with a
the botanists. Naming was a process Cook took conciliation process. Whether in the name of sci-
seriously. Crucial to his navigational maps, nam- ence or self-defence, Banks rationalized this with
ing was an art that would leave a lasting legacy. the half-hearted excuse of taking ‘no improper
Cook chose something suitably melodic that lent measure’. They soon found that most of the
itself to English rhyming (Nugent 2005), includ- wooden and resin ‘lances’ collected were fish-
ing, as it turned out, to many damning convict ing and hunting equipment rather than weap-
laments in the century to follow.4 onry. On another occasion, the Endeavour crew
As tangible proof of their travels, Cook’s party helped themselves to large numbers of fish and
also collected Aboriginal-made objects to be to a cooked meal of oysters and mussels from a
exported back to England. After the Gweagal/ hastily vacated hearth site (Banks; Cook, 29 April
Dharawal men fled his musket fire, they grabbed 1770). Particularly surprising to them was that
spears from their encampment. As Cook put it: ‘neither us nor Tupia could understand one word
‘We found here a few Small hutts made of the they said.’ And, as Cook had lamented on the on
bark of trees in one of which were four or five 30th April: ‘All they seem’d to want was for us to
small children with whome we left some strings be gone’ (Cook: 29-30 April, 1 May).
of beeds &Ca a quantity of darts lay about the
hutts these we took away with us’. In Joseph Cook’s Landing Spot Becomes Sacred
Leading up to Federation, Cook would be a tres-
4 In December 1901 a controversy over the name passer no more. With Cook and Banks’ journals
broke out, with historian James Bonwick arguing that to hand, in 1864, Thomas Holt of the Australian
Captain Cook had not named the area Botany Bay, but
rather it was his editor/annotator Hawkesworth (See Patriotic Association had organised annual excur-
The Advertiser 9 Dec 1901: 7). sions to Botany Bay and in 1871 he instigated the
90On the Sacred Clay of Botany Bay New Diversities 19 (2), 2017
erection of a stone monument at the landing site In 1901, the government printer published
(Gapps 2000: 199). By 1899, Cook’s landing place a booklet for the Botany Bay commemorations
was to be carefully regulated. An agreed site was entitled: ‘The Landing of Lieutenant James Cook,
declared a public reserve named Captain Cook’s R.N. at Botany Bay’. It featured the Landing Play
Landing Place. At pains to justify the appropria- script, along with political speeches and histori-
tion of private land for this national purpose, cal notes. The booklet opened with a quote from
Joseph Carruthers, the New South Wales Minis- acclaimed Australian poet Henry Kendall:
ter for Lands, noted that local colonizers would
“Here, in the hour that shines and sounds afar,
no longer ‘be trespassers when they visit this Flamed first old England’s banner like a star;
sacred ground [author’s italics]’ (Yarrington et.al. Here, in a time august with prayer and praise,
1901:7). Was born the nation of these splendid days.”
At once, Botany Bay became a special category
of land and of history. Cook himself was about Unabashedly, this poem propounded a sacred
to undergo an apotheosis. The New South Wales claim to sovereignty based upon the arrival
Minister for Works, E.W. Sullivan urged that the of the British flag and British feet – or at least
‘classic soil’ on which Cook trod should be walked footwear – at this site. The booklet included
with the same reverence as ‘the halls of West- the speech by the Lieutenant Governor of New
minster Abbey’ (SM 8 Jan 1901:5). His compari- South Wales (NSW) which declared that Captain
son was not with any ordinary Christian church. Cook had “set foot upon the spot we now stand
This was the venue for English coronations, the on”, hoisted the English flag and “took posses-
burial place of past Kings and Queens through sion of the land for the Crown of England” (Yar-
the ages and the weddings intended to continue rington et.al.1901: 9). The Minister for Lands
the royal line. Westminster Abbey was nothing summed up the key themes: ‘In Praise of Captain
less than a key site for performing English sover- Cook’, ‘Sacred Ground’ and ‘Breaking the Flag’
eignty – associated with church and state – not (Yarrington et.al.1901: 5-7,13-15). In poems,
only with the Church of England but also with speeches, paintings and imaginative recreations,
the Crown and Sovereign. Cook’s landing site, this repertoire was to be repeated and this site
too, was to do the spiritual and historical work was to be claimed many, many times.
of sovereignty.
A collusion involving state government Minis- A Nation Born of History
ters responsible for Lands and Public Works, and In the Landing play script, Cook’s monologue
intellectuals, scientists, the clergy, authors, art- ordains Australia as a rich and prosperous land,
ists and poets promoted the cult of Cook. Elite the equal of North America. In “voyages of old”,
scholarly societies became actively engaged in Columbus “crossed the mighty main/To find an
his memorialization. The Philosophical Society, unknown World” (Yarrington et.al. 1901: 22).
a local group promoting the study of science in The playwright was clergyman and poet, W.H.H.
Australia, with links to the local Royal and Lin- Yarrington. Born at Norwich, England in 1839,
naean societies (Chisholm 1976), erected a com- he studied arts and law at University of Sydney,
memorative plaque at Botany Bay. Two visiting where he won a prize for a poem entitled: ‘Cook,
English Dukes planted a tree there to commemo- Meditating on Australia’s Future’.5 In the Land-
rate Cook’s landing. Visiting Earls and overseas
dignitaries were brought in to authorize and 5 Yarrington went on to write many other poems
bless the national memory work of nation. By lauding white male pioneers, including ‘Crossing
1901, a towering cenotaph, fenced off for secu- the Mountains’, ’The Antarctic Heroes’, ‘La Perouse
Botany Bay’, ‘Matthew Flinders’, plus sonnets and a
rity and looking rather like the grave monument religious poem that merged ideas of Aristotle’s ‘Ideal
of a noteworthy, loomed nearby. Perfection’ with Christ, God and ideas of ‘moral beau-
91New Diversities 19 (2), 2017 Ann McGrath
ing booklet published nearly three decades later, an “old union flag” was to be flown, as in 1770,
Yarrington’s Cook continues his future forecast- Ireland had not yet joined the union (SMH 7
ing: Jan: 8). However, in regard to the “formal act of
taking possession”, a “certain amount of poetic
“By Nations yet unborn this splendid hour,
With its events historic, yea, this spot license” was taken because it “occurred some
Which now we tread, shall e’er remembered be:- weeks after leaving Botany Bay” (Yarrington
Cherished as sacred in the annals bright et.al. 1901; 21,16). Actually it was some months;
Of that New World which we this day have found”. Cook left Botany Bay in early May and did not
make the proclamation until late August. The
Included in the Landing brochure, Australia’s aptly named Possession Island was where, on
‘Commonwealth Hymn’ was dedicated to the behalf of King George III and the Empire, Cook
‘Great Father of the Universe’ who had ordained declared possession of the east coast of Austra-
“this Island Continent our own” (29). Cook’s lia. Although the island was part of the Torres
monologue also refers to Providence, a concept Straits in far north Queensland, even this state’s
associated with the will of a Christian God and Brisbane Courier uncritically referred to the Bot-
firmly entrenched in American memory. any Bay flag- hoisting re-enactment as the “for-
That other, more established New World mal taking possession of the new land” (BC 8 Jan
offered useful borrowings of grandeur and 1901:4).
sacred entitlement. One politician described fed- Like Cook, Yarrington was well aware of the
eration as “the greatest event, with the excep- correct sequence by which the British had to
tion of the American declaration of Indepen- take possession. For sovereignty to be recog-
dence, in human history” (ATCJ 19 Jan 1901: 13). nized in the ‘international law’ of the European
Unlike Americus, Captain Cook did not have a naval powers, it had to be physically performed,
continent named after him, – so lamented the audibly declared and witnessed. Yarrington’s
NSW Minister for Lands, but he would fix this by Landing Play was imbued with legal and con-
gazetting the land as a special category: “As the tractual meanings. Not only did it denote Cook’s
Plymouth Rock is the most sacred ground to the triumphal arrival after a long ocean journey, it
Americans, so may this historic place, rich in its also signalled a ‘momentous’ instance in law –
traditions, be the one place in our island conti- the ‘authorized’ taking over land with colonizing
nent more consecrated than another to the great potential by a European power. Sovereignty had
man who here first set foot upon our shores, and been carefully dated and marked across many
in his foresight secured for the empire, our coun- mediums and then repeatedly performed for
try and our people, a territory unsurpassed in posterity. Raising the flag signalled the gaining
the whole universe!” (Yarrington et.al.1901:13). of considerable assets. Each flag raising and each
Sacred land, historic, the great man, first steps, speech was another reminder of the centrality
territory, empire, foresight, traditions – it was to of this act in the nation’s foundation narrative.
be a seamless identity narrative. To some audiences, founding narratives read as
As Yarrington admitted, however, his Landing clichéd exemplars of grand narrative traditions,
play took some liberty with the facts. On the one while others hold them dearly. Cook’s consider-
hand “[T]he whole representation would be as able achievements should not be overlooked, for
near as possible a true picture of the hoisting of he was an exemplary navigator on the high seas.
the British flag on Australian soil over 100 years However, in recognizing and respecting Indige-
ago.” Expressing a desire for historical accuracy, nous peoples, he is not necessarily a good model
of successful practice.
ty’. (Yarrington, 1919; https://www.austlit.edu.au/ Popular Landing tropes have ‘whitewashed’
austlit/page/A35993 (accessed 17 Aug 17) history in multiple ways, often effectively. They
92On the Sacred Clay of Botany Bay New Diversities 19 (2), 2017
downplay violence, and by associating whiteness from native fires and the clash between two
with the future, with modernity, racial supe- different peoples and their weaponry. Bladen
riority and civilization, they repeatedly justify describes how when Cook fired at the legs of an
the displacement of Indigenous landowners. In Aboriginal man, the Indigenous people’s spears
proclaiming Cook’s Landing Place, Lieutenant and shields did not win out against his muskets.
Governor Darley’s speech urged: “that the Aus- At federation, Australian history did not exist
tralian people may prove themselves to be wor- as a distinctive field, but was subsumed under
thy descendants of that race of which Captain the history of the British Empire. The authors of
Cook was so notable an example” (Yarrington the Landing pamphlet played founding roles in
et.al.,1901:11). Against such white pride, indi- the study of a distinctive national history. Bladen,
geneity was not awarded an inheritance; it was an archivist and librarian, was keen to preserve
associated with the past, with barbarism and an archive of international quality for the new
race inferiority. nation. In 1901, he helped found the Australian
Following Cook’s journals, the Landing Play Historical Society (later the Royal Australian His-
script had included Aboriginal women and chil- torical Society), and in 1903 Yarrington became
dren, with one woman in the key role of ‘espying’ its President. This patriotic organisation, still
the Endeavour (SMH 7 Jan 1901:7). Their omis- going strong today, was founded to promote the
sion from the later re-enactment was left unre- noble memory of the founding fathers and other
marked. Although no white woman was present white male pioneers.
at the historic landing, in the Play, one female In this light, it is not surprising that Yarrington’s
actor, Miss Lilian Bethel of the Hawtrey Comedy Landing Play cast Aboriginal people as belong-
Company, appears.6 She “assumed the character ing not to ‘history’ but to an out of time state of
of Australia, a nymph” (Yarrington, et.al. 1901). “ignorance and sin”. Via the monologue of Cap-
The allegory of a curvaceous, semi-robed woman tain Cook, the “poor, dusky savages”, who in their
to embody the nation had become a convention “native dwellings lowly stand”, were destined to
in North America and elsewhere, commonly used die out:
through the eighteenth and nineteenth century.
“As shadows flee before the dawn of day,
Greek goddesses and their mythologies were So the dark tribes of Earth I terror flee
borrowed to stand for the values of western civi- Before the white man’s ever onward tread.”
lization. As allegory for Australia, the Nymph was
known as ‘Hope’, foretelling the future colony’s The noble Cook is humane enough, however, to
material wealth and prosperity.7 acknowledge those who “bravely” defended
The Landing play booklet was buttressed with “their land” “Gainst our invading steps” (Yar-
a historical section written by the librarian and rington et.al.1901: 26-7). Reflecting the ‘doomed
researcher F.M. Bladen. Humbly entitled ‘Notes race’ thinking of the day, Aboriginal people then
on the Discovery of Botany Bay’, its main con- exit the historical stage forever.
tent follows the fateful and anxious encounter
between the British men and an unfamiliar local A United Nations, 1901
people. Broken up into chronological sub-sec- The twenty-five Aboriginal men who travelled
tions, the longer chunk, 28th April, 1770 describes to Sydney by train from Queensland included
the human encounters: observations of smoke experienced performers (BC 1 Jan 1901:6; 3 Jan
1901:2). Some had previously worked with the
6 The talented ‘Miss’ Lilian Bethel left Sydney in organiser Archibald Meston, an entertainment
1904 to pursue a professional career in London (SMH entrepreneur who had staged a Wild Australia
11 Feb 1904:7).
7 The author is preparing a longer piece on the show along the lines of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.
Nymph Hope. The troupe was representative of many Aborigi-
93New Diversities 19 (2), 2017 Ann McGrath
nal nations from south-east Queensland to the launched White Australia preferred to keep
Gulf of Carpentaria. The 1901 Landing Play per- evidence of ‘illicit love’ across the colonizing
formers included men from Woodford in the boundaries as a national secret (McGrath 2015a).
Sunshine Coast hinterland, Caboolture north Nonetheless, local Aboriginal people attended
of Brisbane, and Fraser Island. Most resided on and participated in the celebrations (Nugent
government gazetted Aboriginal reserves on 2015: 210-2; Argus 8 Jan 1901). Like the rest of
the adjoining lands of the Gubbi Gubbi, Toor- the audience, they witnessed exciting mock bat-
bul, Undambi, Dalla, the Butchilla and other tles, spectacular twirling and flaming boomerang
peoples. Aboriginal people from tribal nations throwing and other skilful displays.
from all over Queensland were beginning to be Not all distant Indigenous nations were as
concentrated on the lands of others. The group remote from each other as might be presumed.
also included two men from South Australia – Meston’s Wild Australia troupe had performed in
one from Sturt’s Desert and one from the cen- Sydney previously (McKay and Memmott 2016:
tral region, and another from near Coolgardie in 190). In the deep past, Indigenous marriage
Western Australia (SMH 10 Jan 1901:5).8 routes or song-lines extended from southern
While no representative body for Aboriginal New South Wales coastal peoples all the way up
people or discrete parliamentary representation to the southern Queensland coast. Many Indig-
was allowed in the new national Constitution, enous nations had met up across vast distances
the visiting troupe comprised a kind of united at Bunya festivals, corroborees (dance festivals)
nations. The irony was noticed by at least one and other large gatherings (See Connors 2015:ix,
Sydney journalist: ‘In fact one might almost say 60, 210). Trade goods, ritual objects, images,
that Mr. Meston has brought together a federal songs and news were exchanged over thousands
representation of the blacks of the Australian of kilometres. Choreographed dances conveyed
continent’ (my italics; SMH: 10 January: 5). newcomer stories such as that of Captain Cook’s
Although Aboriginal residents had a continu- stops along Queensland’s northern coastline –
ing and growing presence at La Perouse and at those places now known as 1770, Cooktown
around Botany Bay, they were not invited to join and Possession Island. Under restrictive colonial
the performance. Once sought for ‘eye-witness’ regimes, however, large gatherings were becom-
accounts (Nugent 2006), by now they were insuf- ing increasingly difficult to hold in the old ways.
ficiently ‘authentic’ – not ‘real blacks’ or ‘black Colonizer and native police violence and forcible
blacks’ (TSM 19 Jan 1901:143). Sydney Aborigi- removal onto reserves had pushed Queensland
nal people spoke English well and were lighter Aboriginal people onto ‘sovereign lands’ belong-
skinned. Although they had long intermixed and ing to other Indigenous nations (McGrath 2015a).
intermarried amongst the newcomers, the newly In order to survive these developments, Aborigi-
nal leaders had had to expand and expedite strat-
8 Their places of origin also included Warrego River, egies for communication and negotiation with
Fraser Island, Mount Esk, Booner (Boonah), Wilson Indigenous nations from afar.
River, Bulloo River, Paroo River, Murama Dundoo,
Stradbroke Island, Logan River, Burnett River, Georgina Although not a complete Australia-wide rep-
River and Cooktown. The names of participants in the resentation, the modern Aboriginal troupe could
woomerah spear throwing exhibitions were also giv- be valuable emissaries for their own countries
en – Tingeroo (warrego River) Narallie (Fraser Island),
and nations. Their male and female elders would
Joon Joon Binda (Mount Esk), Coogee Biah (boomer),
Breeleeyama (Georgina River) and Purburree (Dun- have played key roles in deciding who would go
doo) (See SMH 10 Jan 1901 p 5). Photographer Kerry and who would not. Unfortunately writers con-
took “firelight photographs of the aborigines in war- tinue to label the troupe as ‘Meston’s Aborigi-
like groups” (McKay 1998, 244). Members from fur-
ther afield reflected Indigenous mobility occasioned nals’. Certainly, Meston was the producer of their
by work in the pastoral and maritime industries. shows, but with Indigenous expertise at its core,
94On the Sacred Clay of Botany Bay New Diversities 19 (2), 2017
the Aboriginal performers were co-directors and were treated everywhere with all possible hospi-
choreographers. tality’ (SMH 10 Jan 1901: 5; Meston to Undersec-
The male-only Aboriginal cast of 1901 meant retary, Queensland, 15 Jan 1901).
that they were perceived as warriors – painted up, The politicians’ speeches at the Captain Cook
battle-ready, hostile, threatening, and thereby site had emphasised a land ‘unstained by blood’
highlighting the bravery and kindliness of white and ‘enjoyed in absolute peace’ (Yarrington et.al.,
men. Given, however, that Aboriginal women 1901: 10-12). And although the Landing Play fea-
and children were in the script of the Landing play, tured conciliation as well as conflict, there was
why were none included in the visiting troupe? In no hedging around the fact that these ‘well-
the late nineteenth century, frontier violence in behaved’ Aboriginal representatives were to
the form of massacres and sexual exploitation by enact an emblematic story of violent confronta-
colonizers was so rife in Queensland that human- tion. Charging with long spears, the Aboriginal
itarian calls for change could no longer be ignored. troupe delivered a far more exciting performance
The 1897 Aboriginal Protection and Restriction for the audience than the Cook party actors, who,
of the Sale of Opium Act consequently aimed although professional actors, relied upon tedious
to segregate Aboriginal people from Asians and speeches inaudible to most of the crowd (BC 12
Europeans. Reserves were designed to prevent Jan 1901: 7). Unless they stopped heckling the
the mixed sexual and familial relations taking landing crew actors, one of the main organisers
place on the ‘marital middle grounds’ of the threatened to halt the show. Several newspapers
Queensland frontier (McGrath: 2015a). Meston, were critical, describing the performance as a
who had contributed to the drafting of the 1897 ‘historical farce’ with a real-life ‘farcical conclu-
Act, was now in the senior government position sion’ (TSM, 19 Jan 1901: 152; BC 12 Jan 1901:7).
of Protector of Aborigines for the southern half Sarcastically noting that NSW Premier Sir Wil-
of Queensland. Given his policies for ‘protection’ liam Lyne was ‘not a Shakespeare’, the Australian
of Aboriginal women against the predations of Town and Country Journal criticized the “ridicu-
white men, it would have been difficult for him lous dramatic re-enactment of Cook’s landing at
to justify their travel. Botany Bay”. Worse, the play took place in the
We might expect that contemporary humani- “open glare of day, under the eyes of 5000 laugh-
tarians would view the all-male 1901 troupe ing sight seers” (ATCJ 19 Jan 1901:13). The dra-
as conscripts – unhappy victims of Meston’s matization of Cook’s arrival was referred to as
authoritarian personality and an oppressive col- ‘the joke’ and the politician’s speeches and toasts
onizer regime.9 But the overall response of the to the Queen were ridiculed.
general Sydney public was akin to what would be In contrast, the acting ability of the Aboriginal
expected for an intercolonial delegation. Accord- men was repeatedly praised. In the scene when
ing to the local papers, Queenslanders, too, were Cook’s shot hit an Aboriginal actor, he report-
proud of how well their state’s men were going edly rolled around in a frighteningly convincing
over in Sydney; they looked forward to their performance of shock and agony (Argus 8 Janu-
show impressing the Imperial troops when the ary 1901:5). According to an article in Hobart’s
group returned to Brisbane (BC Dec 4 1900:6). Of The Mercury newspaper, the Aborigines took
their statesmen, Meston reported to authorities “an intelligent interest in their part of the show.”
that: ‘The Aboriginals performed their duties to When they charged down the hill screeching, it
the satisfaction of the public and the press… and was so convincing that the crowds fled, upset-
ting a photographer and “even the police disap-
9 A team of researchers including Michael Aird, Paul peared temporarily” (10 Jan 1901:2). When the
Memmott and Maria Nugent started a new project on troupe unexpectedly took to the stage after their
the Wild Australia show and their findings will offer
deeper insights into the troupe. performance for an encore, they disrupted the
95New Diversities 19 (2), 2017 Ann McGrath
formal itinerary, making a mockery of its pomp or bracelets’ (Banks Journal 28 April 1770). For
and ceremony. Again they stole the limelight the Landing Play, numerous other configurations
from Captain Cook. A theatre academic summed were also used, so labelling their body designs as
it up: “The crowd cheered the mock battle charge ‘warpaint’ greatly oversimplified matters. Observ-
of the Aborigine, who understood perfectly the ers noted that their painted motifs were “as vari-
theatrical nature of the re-enactment and at the ous as the tribes represented” (The Australasian
conclusion disconcerted many by joining the 1901; TSM, 19 Jan 1901:152). When preparing
other actors lined up behind Captain Cook to for dance performances, Aboriginal people gen-
receive their share of the applause” (Fothering- erally applied richly storied designs that signified
ham 2000: 136). Audiences noted the all-male personal and group identities associated with
troupe’s muscular physiques, height, athleticism specific plants, animals and geographical fea-
and ability, and their high degree of professional- tures. Precious symbols represented epic ances-
ism. Indeed, the Aboriginal troupe stole the show. tral journey stories of creation and connection
known as Dreaming stories or song-lines, which
Sacred Clay? linked and transmitted stories between different
A Sydney Mail journalist offered a ‘backstage’ Indigenous nations across great tracts of land.
view of their preparations, describing: “a more The Queensland troupe also wore more perma-
interesting scene was taking place on the top nent badges of status.10 Cicatrices – large raised
of a small hill, and hidden from the public gaze scars across torsos and upper arms – served as
by a clump of small bushes…They were bus- proof that men had been initiated through their
ily engaged in putting the finishing touches to ‘law’. Having passed through secret ceremonies,
the war paint on their bodies. This was done by elders conferred them with senior authority over
means of red and white ochres” (TSM, 19 Jan land and the sacred. As graduates in advanced
1901:152). Although many of troupe’s props Indigenous knowledge, they carried significant
were imported from Queensland, there is no stories, songs and dances, and had important
mention of any ochres in their long list of sup- obligations. Just because the men were perform-
plies (QSA COL/144-5 1900-1). As clay pits of ing for largely white audiences did not mean that
these hues were located around Botany Bay, it is they stopped thinking according to learnt belief
probable that they were applying accessible local and value systems.
clays, which would also lend historical precision. In January 1901, the charging, dancing feet of
Captain Cook had remarked upon the many uses the Queensland visitors connected with the sand
of the ‘white pigment’ or clay that the people and clay of Botany Bay someone else’s ‘country’
used to adorn their bodies in the locality. Sought or nation. As an embodied practice in a particular
and traded across the wider region, the Gweagal place, these shows took on multilayered cultural
people valued certain clays in pits at Kurnell and and historical meanings beyond simple entertain-
the vicinity as holding special ritual significance. ment. We do not know how much communica-
(Cook, 6 May 1770; Nugent 2009; Schlunke 2015). tion took place between local Botany Bay Aborig-
As part of the re-enactment, several of the inal residents and the visiting Queenslanders.
1901 dancers wore ochre designs with an uncanny If the troupe had not sought their permission
semblance to antique British soldiers’ uniforms. to dance there, the Gweagal/Dharawal people
These emulated Joseph Banks’s 1770 eyewit- could have thought the dancers were attempt-
ness account: ‘their bodies [were] painted with ing to extend a sacred hold over their lands. As
broad strokes drawn over their breasts and backs the Aboriginal troupe was enacting a potentially
resembling much a soldiers cross belts, and their
legs and thighs also with such like broad strokes 10For example, Aborigines wrestling, NSW 7 January
drawn round them which imitated broad garters 1901; Accession No H20338/6 image no a13436 SLV.
96On the Sacred Clay of Botany Bay New Diversities 19 (2), 2017
dangerous performance on the land of strang- – the women in large netted hats and long white
ers, to protect all concerned, the visitors had to dresses gathered tight at the waist, the men in
follow the right protocols. In Indigenous belief dark suits, white shirts and cream boater hats
systems, the magic of distant Aboriginal strang- (TSM 19 Jan 1901:152). Wine, champagne and
ers could be threatening; distant places of origin a large luncheon feast were provided in a com-
and lengthy travels could enhance their powers. fortable timber and canvas pavilion luxuriantly
Consequently, local people could sicken or die decked out with white tablecloths, fine china
or the country could be poisoned. We are left and leafy table decorations.
with many questions unanswered by the state Waiting in the hot summer sun for the show
archives and the contemporary newspapers. to begin, the general public were becoming fed
However, Indigenous dance inherently involved up. To entertain themselves, they let off rockets,
storytelling, re-enactment and association with fire balloons and other fireworks and sent pecu-
specific landscapes. We therefore cannot exclude liar inflated objects into the sky. Then, suddenly,
the possibility that the dances they developed a mob stormed the roped-off VIP area, surging
and performed represented a storied exchange through to get the best viewing spots, while oth-
– ones especially designed to address the spirits ers grabbed meats and fine foods. One man who
and the nation upon whose lands they danced. ran off with leftovers was seen gnawing at a mas-
Inevitably, the 1901 visitors were creating new sive turkey carcass. Others asked the waiters to
connections with Gweagal/Dharawal country, serve them beverages and at least one may have
and to an extent, sharing the power of their own succeeded. For when the actor playing Captain
deep history stories in conversation with those Cook finally arrived, one spectator offered him a
of white Australia. This is certainly what took whiskey and soda (TCJ, 19 Jan 1901:13; BC 12 Jan
place at La Perouse, Botany Bay during the 1988 1901:7).
Bicentennial of Phillip’s Landing, with Aboriginal Although the politician’s speeches promoted
people from around Australia dancing out sacred the Lieutenant James Cook saga as a rags-to-
sequences on Gweagal land. riches story that evoked a New World land of
opportunity (Yarrington et.al 1901: 9-10), the
Divided Nation staging of the Landing performance reflected
The 1901 public displays of nation at Botany Bay social and political hierarchies, including defer-
provided an opportunity to enact multiple sov- ence to British aristocrats. Cynical about syr-
ereignties. British sovereignty benefited all of upy prose and all the pomp and ceremony, the
white Australia, but the Landing Play reinforced crowd’s disorderly behaviour expressed an egali-
the knowledge that it was unequally shared. The tarian, anti-authoritarian impulse. Their confi-
largely white audiences consisted of at least 1000 dence in disobeying rules, despite a strong police
invitees and over 4000 other women, men and presence, revealed that they enjoyed a strong
children. The general audience did not behave sense of liberty.
according to plan. The Landing spot was diffi- For one thing, they were no longer convicts. By
cult to keep clear for the Cook actor’s arrival, as 1900, colonists were struggling to shake off the
“policemen, politicians, pressmen, and photog- stigma of the convict past, with some demanding
raphers were mixed up with the aboriginal war- to change the name of Botany Bay, notoriously
riors of Australia” (Mercury 10 Jan: 2). During the popularized in convict ditties. Lyne, the Premier
day, the invited guests – parliamentarians, the of New South Wales retorted that few convicts
visiting intercolonial representatives, aristocrats were serious criminals, many having only shot a
and other VIPs – were to have access to the best rabbit or pheasant (ST, 19 Aug 1900:7). But the
seats to view the Landing performance. These evolving convict romance obscured the colo-
dignitaries were well covered in formal day wear nizing violence against Aboriginal people com-
97New Diversities 19 (2), 2017 Ann McGrath
mitted by colonizers across all classes (Griffiths descent, Scottish, Welsh, Europeans, Chinese
1987). Lyne himself had sheep farms in the and south east Asians.
frontier conflict zones of far north Queensland Colonizers and politicians had divided views on
and the Riverina district of New South Wales who would receive the fair share of the nation’s
(Cunneen 1986). In his birthplace, Tasmania, spoils. Nor had they been united on the politics
the Aboriginal population was decimated. For of Federation. The Australian Republican move-
Aboriginal people in 1901, these frontier legacies, ment was strong in the 1880s, being disrupted
alongside continuing police surveillance, forced in part by the timing of the Boer War and the
caution, including ‘good behaviour’ and speaking propaganda about loyalty to the English ‘moth-
‘proper English’ rather than their own languages erland’. Australian feminists, the suffragettes and
at public events.11 women’s advocates splintered over Federation.
It must have been gratifying for the Aborigi- Some, like leading feminist Rose Scott, thought it
nal performers when the largely non-Aboriginal would entrench male political power in an even
crowd excitedly applauded their mock-attack on more centralized arena. Other feminists lobbied
Cook’s party. The audience looked on apprecia- for Federation as a way of introducing the wom-
tively at the Aboriginal people, admiring their en’s vote beyond the two colonies that already
technical accomplishments, including preci- enjoyed it (Lake 2000).
sion spear throwing (SMH 9,10 Jan 1901:7, 5; The status of all women as citizens and
BC 10 Jan 1901:5). Perhaps they were simply their relationship to sovereignty was confus-
acknowledging their excellent showmanship and ing. Queen Victoria still sat on the throne, yet
agility rather than necessarily siding with the colonial women were virtually invisible in the
underdogs. Nonetheless, the play had not been performances of sovereignty. Englishmen did
designed to encourage cheering and barracking brave deeds and Aboriginal men resisted, and
for the Aboriginal side. The crowd’s response the one woman in the Landing performance was
contained hints of popular protest – at once the actress who played the Nymph called Hope.
directed against English heroes, snobbish aristo- While white women were struggling to obtain
cratic elites, and the politicians promoting their full citizenship, the only woman was cast in the
own glory. role of an allegorical character standing on a rock.
Colonial audiences were diverse – in origin, The nymph may have given men hope and some
class, gender, religion and more. Many of their kind of thrill, but for Australian women, Aborigi-
traditions hailed from England, with its legacies nal and non-Aboriginal, the nymph of nation
of Anglo-Saxons, Romans and its evolving notions offered an impossible role model and a hopeless
of ‘civilization’, with ideas of high culture often symbolics. Feminists, still trying to find an equi-
drawn from the ancient legends of Greece and table place for women in the new nation, must
Rome. Others, like many of the Irish, with their have despaired. What could possibly be done
Celtic and Catholic traditions, were sceptical of with this fantastical woman, alluringly inviting
everything English and Anglican. They boasted seamen to shore?
a history of rebellion, resenting aristocratic pre-
tentions. There were multiple other ethnicities Multiple Histories
present, including people of mixed Aboriginal We have seen that the main show at Botany Bay
haltingly attempted to launch a noble past. Aus-
11On the anniversary of Phillip’s Landing in 1938, tralian national mythologies drew upon historical
because local people refused, a group of Aboriginal and sacred journey stories that started in a dis-
people from a NSW reserve was forced to re-enact tant Europe. Oft repeated with differing scripts
the landing scene. Aboriginal leaders staged a Day of
Mourning in Australia Hall, Sydney, demanding citi- and casts in the years following, Landing Plays
zenship rights and parliamentary representation. attempted to promote a homogenous image of a
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