- Title
- 'A troublesome gin like Annie': masculinity, race and intimate violence in federation-era North Queensland
- Creator
- Haskins, Victoria
- Relation
- law&history Vol. 4, Issue 2, p. 125-150
- Relation
- https://anzlhs.org/journal/journal-contents-pages/
- Publisher
- Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society (ANZLHS)
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- In 1912, an unusual case came before the Mossman court in far north Queensland, when a white canefarmer was charged with ‘harbouring’ a young Aboriginal domestic worker. As it transpired, the woman, Annie Murphy, had taken refuge in his household in an attempt to escape from a violent interracial relationship. The case provides an extraordinary insight into the complex realities of interracial sex and labour relations in northern Australia from the late colonial period into the early decades of the twentieth century. The records, which include Annie’s own words and testimony, give us a rare voice of an Aboriginal woman of that time, as she struggled to negotiate the dangerous and turbulent world of intimate relationships on the frontier. In the end, Annie was packed off to the Yarrabah mission; just one of a number of women deemed to be ‘troublesome’ and forcibly removed in this period, whose stories we will never hear. Yet, today, Annie’s story shows the role of the law in shaping — and controlling — intimate relations on the frontier.
- Subject
- interracial relationships; Aboriginals; Australia; colonial; law; prosecution
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1384708
- Identifier
- uon:32121
- Identifier
- ISSN:2207-4325
- Language
- eng
- Reviewed
- Hits: 4302
- Visitors: 4265
- Downloads: 0
Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format |
---|