BACKGROUND
READING FOR THE MAGIC GUN.
Robyn Kellock
Floyd
Questions posed by Jo Henwood AFTS Ring Maiden
How
significant is this story as an early example of an Australian fairy tale?
From the 1850s Australian
fairy tales appeared in newspapers and a small selection of dedicated fairy
tale books were published. Children’s authors in Australia began to adapt the
fairies of traditional European oral, and literary tales. The quest to compile
national collections in Europe and England was seen as important with the
Grimms and Harland collections being two examples. With no oral tradition the
descendants of white settlers borrowed plots and magical beings, commandeered
the Australian environment, most notably ‘the bush’, and sometimes the Bunyip,
and created fairy tales that attempted to imbue an Australian essence. The
intent of these authors to give Australian children their own Australian
fairyland was clear. List of some of these books written before 1904 can be
found in an earlier blog post and as can be noted the list is small https://robynelainefloyd.blogspot.com/2011/05/once-upon-time-mate_01.html
It is important
to note that the intended reader of early Australian children’s literature was
the white child (Collins-Gearing, 2006, p. 62).
Who
was Sister Agnes? How does Sister Agnes represent William Barak in The Magic
Gun?
To answer this it is
worth considering Sister Agnes’ history as well as the presentation of
Indigenous peoples within the context of the time the book was written.
Digitised articles in the
NLA TROVE give us clues about her life and work, and the contemporary reaction
to her stories.
·
From Fitzroy City Press (Vic. : 1881 - 1920),
Friday 17 March 1911, page 2
AN AUSTRALIAN AUTHORESS
There will be widespread interest in a child's book, which
is to appear in a few weeks, by an Australian authoress. This is The Sister
Agnes, which is the name under which the book is written, as Sister Agnes when
ordained for her mission career parted with her surname forever. Sister Agnes
is the Superintendent of the Diocesan Mission to the Streets and Lanes of
Melbourne, and also Superintendent of St. Mark's Mothers' Union, Fitzroy. It is
a marvel how lady so continuously employed could find time to write even a
line, but the book to be issued, "Fairy Tales told in the Bush," is
announced as an ideal gift book for children, and is to be well illustrated. It
is to be published in London, and will be on sale here in a few weeks. It will
not be a surprise to the many in this State and much further afield, who know
the self-sacrificing life-work of the authoress to learn that the proceeds of
the sale, are for the benefit of the great, and good work in which Sister Agnes
is engaged, the Diocesan Mission to the Streets and Lanes of Melbourne which is
more than metropolitan in its influence.
·
From
Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 - 1918; 1925), Thursday
21 December 1911, page 35
FAIRY TALES
TOLD IN THE BUSH
Up to the
present time Australia has not been particularly prodigal in the production of
literary genius, and our few really gifted songbirds have been few and far
between. The little volume that has just come upon the scene, entitled
"Fairy Tales Told in the Bush" by Sister Agnes, is remarkable if only
for its spontaneity and freshness. Hitherto native attempts at fairy tales have
not only lacked character, backbone and point in the narrative and telling, but
have, in themselves, been, forced and for the most part sickly, weak, dilutions
of Grimm with jackasses and bunyips the middle distance to give local colour.
Sister Agnes is original, and, without being too aggressively
"local," produces an atmosphere of Australia that can best be likened
to the first fragrant whiff of the gums that greets a wanderer on his return
"home"….
·
From Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 -
1929), Saturday 19 October 1912, page 7
BUSH FAIRY
TALE
In buying
"Fairy Tales Told in the Bush"' you help a poor boy who is winning
through the University course: you recognise the genius for practical kindness
shown by the Sister Agnes; and you obtain a book which will give perfect
pleasure to every member of your Home-adult as well as young. One of the
stories was told to the Sister by old King Barak, the last of the Yarra tribe,
a few days before he died. “The Origin of the Yarra Yarra.” The text charmed
the author in the sixties, when Melbourne was a place of bush and swamp and
will charm everyone who reads. The little ones at home will unanimously vote
that a hotter half-crown's worth of pictures and once-upon-a-time is not bad.
How successfully does this story
express Australian culture? How much is this story of its time?
These comments are taken from my thesis chapter Imagery of Indigenous Australians (https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/57009).
The quest to
develop a national identity in Australian literature from the tenet of mateship
and the bush was noticeable in the nationalist literature of the 1890s
(Schaeffer, 1988). Grimshaw and Evans (1996) pointed out, that coupled with the
need to define Australian culture and invent a “national mythology” (p. 28),
the dominant colonial discourse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries also
presented a distorted picture of Indigenous Australians. Australian nationalism
and the search for an authentic Australian identity by writers allowed and
encouraged protagonistic/ antagonistic story lines that created a damaging and
destructive comparison, between European settlers and Aboriginal peoples, based
on lack of cultural understanding. (Floyd, 2015, p. 151)
Indigenous peoples as characters in fairy tales
Before
Federation in 1901,Victoria introduced the Aborigines Act, 1869 with the aim of controlling the
lives of Aboriginal peoples.[1]
It is difficult to decide whether the images of Indigenous people in children’s
literature should be considered reflective of author-self or an echo of the
political ideologies of each era. If these images are an indication of
political attitudes, portrayals of Indigenous culture and traditions in early
Australian fairy tales may mirror the patriarchal and authoritative nature of
the political environment. Although writers may construct their works from a
social-political context they may also seek to shape it…. (Floyd, 2015, p. 157)
You may like to compare other early fairy tale authors
who chose to incorporate references to Indigenous traditions and culture and
created plots in which Indigenous peoples were befriended, conquered or
accommodated (Collins-Gearing, 2006, p. 65). Examples of these include stories
in Australian fairy tales (Westbury, 1897), Mr. Bunyip
(Lockeyear, 1899) and Fairy tales from the land of the wattle (Ernst,
1904).
The
Magic Gun
Negative images
of Barak, the ngurungaeta, are reinforced in language that describes him in a
“drunken sleep,” and as “greedy and illiterate” in The Magic Gun (Agnes, 1911,
p. 21). In the following passage the prose and descriptive phrases imply
Aboriginal peoples are a lower order of human beings.
Old King Barak,
the last King of the Yarra tribe, sat outside his hut at Coranderrk, surrounded
by white people. “You all too greedy,” he grumbled, “you come to see black man,
black man make native fire, black man throw boomerang, black man throw spear;
white man give him black brother pennies. White man greedy, no give black man
baccy only pennies”. A few of the white people gave the dirty old chief silver
coins, then they went off to another hut to buy native baskets, and to see the
funny black babies. One small boy stayed behind. “I am not greedy, Barak; see,
I have brought you a shilling”. (Sister Agnes, 1911, p. 21)
Barak is
referred to by the European term of Kingship, rather than his correct and
culturally appropriate title of ngurungaeta. He is an object of interest, seen
as a product of his alleged primitive ancestry, unhappy and disgruntled that
his traditional skills have become mere “circus tricks” to be paraded for an
intrigued white race. He is made part of
this charade, however, as he is depicted as a cunning man, seeking only money
or tobacco. The traditional weaving skills of Aboriginal peoples are given a
distinct novelty factor, an item to purchase tourist-like by white people
visiting the settlement at Coranderrk. The descriptive words used have strong
emotional implications and involve strong negative reactions beyond their
literal meaning. The Aboriginal babies are described as “funny” while Barak is
“dirty and old”, emotive words that belittle and reinforce the notion of
Aboriginal peoples as primitive and inferior and shout at the reader “not like
us”.
Does Sister
Agnes portray Barak accurately?
Read his biography
References
Collins-Gearing,
B. (2006). Re-reading representations of Indigenality in Australian children's
literature: A history. The Australian Journal Of Indigenous Education, 35,
pp. 61–67.
Ernst,
O. D. A. (1904). Fairy tales from the land of the wattle. (pp. 81–87). Melbourne, Australia: McCarron, Bird & Co.
Grimshaw,
P., & Evans, J. (1996). Colonial woman on intercultural frontiers. Australian Historical Studies. 27, pp. 79–95, 106.
Lockeyear,
J. R. (1891). "Mr. Bunyip", or, Mary Somerville's ramble: an Australian
story for children. Melbourne, Australia: Spectator Publishing Co.
[1] A Board for the Protection of Aborigines was given the powers to
regulate residence, employment, marriage, social life and other aspects of
daily life.
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