Against the tide: alternative voices in colonial Australian writing

Racism was rife in colonial Australia. Nineteenth century newspapers, journals, pamphlets and books carried writing that reflected the intolerance of the settlers, too often by ignoring the indigenous peoples altogether, but also by overt racism. The latter took a number of forms, not least of which was 'maternalism', a movement that disempowered Aborigines in the process of promoting the 'mothering' of their children by white women. Yet, amid the imperialist clamour were a rare few voices who formed different relationships with indigenous people and whose writing presented a more empathetic and pluralistic view of their lives and culture, while revealing the cruelties they endured under colonial settlement. An analysis of the texts of three of these voices - Christina Smith, Mary Montgomerie Bennett and Eliza Hamilton Dunlop, who each cared deeply about the plight of the Aboriginal peoples and managed to avoid the worst of the maternalist movement - demonstrates the existence of an alternative 'ethical space' in colonial Australian writing.