Eliza Hamilton Dunlop's 'the aboriginal mother': romanticism, anti slavery and imperial feminism in the nineteenth century

This paper positions the work of colonial poet Eliza Hamilton Dunlop amongst international Romantic poetry of the period, and argues that Dunlop’s poetry reflects a transposition of Romantic women’s poetry to Australia. Dunlop’s poetry, such as ‘The Aboriginal Mother’, demonstrates the relationship of Romantic women’s poetry to early feminism and Social Reform. As with the work of Felicia Hemans, Dunlop was interested in the role of women, and the ‘domestic’ as they related to broader national and political concerns. Dunlop seems to have been consciously applying the tropes, such as that of the mother, of anti slavery poetry found within American, British, and international poetic traditions to the Australian aboriginal context. Themes of indigenous motherhood, and also of Sati or widow burning in India, and human rights had been favored by early women’s rights campaigners in Britain from the 1820s, focusing on abolition of slavery through the identification of white women with the Negro mother. Dunlop’s comparative sympathy for the situation of aboriginals in Australia has been given critical attention as the aspect which makes her work valuable. However, in this essay I hope to outline how Dunlop’s poetry fits in to the international context of the engagement of Romantic women poets with Western Imperialist models and colonial Others.

The development of manufacturing in greater Geelong in the nineteenth century

Contrary to received opinion, Greater Geelong was among the most diversified manufacturing centres in Victoria, relative to Melbourne, Greater Ballarat and Greater Bendigo between 1854 to 1900. This was based on a manufacturing specialisation and export orientation established between 1841 and 1861.

Family networks and the Australian pastoral industry: a case study of the Port Phillip District and Victoria during the nineteenth century

This article highlights the important function of family and kinship networks in the pastoral industry of the Port Phillip District and Victoria, Australia, during the nineteenth century. Using the core case study of the extended Cameron family--or the Cameron “clan” from the Scottish Highlands--in the Western District of Victoria, it demonstrates how family networks assisted in the accumulation and consolidation of large pastoral properties and enterprises, and thus aided the agricultural entrepreneurialism of migrants who saw greater commercial opportunities throughout the Empire than at home.

Missionaries, music and method - dissemination of tonic sol-fa in Asia-Pacific countries during the nineteenth century

The Tonic Sol-fa method of teaching choral singing and its system of music notation was developed in England by John Curwen and propagated throughout the British Isles as a means of both enhancing Christian worship and achieving social reform. Tonic Sol-fa may be identified as an entirely foreign musical practice introduced to indigenous people in many British colonies and in other overseas countries during the nineteenth century as an instrument of Christian evangelism as well as of European cultural imposition. Nevertheless, indigenous communities were introduced to other aspects of European musical culture including a choral repertoire consisting of four-part hymnody and masterworks by Handel, Bach, Mozart, etc which sometimes resulted in the emergence of a school of indigenous composers writing in Tonic Sol-fa notation and using the tonal harmonic style. The result has been that in several countries-such as South Africa and Fiji for example-Tonic Sol-fa has been so fully assimilated into the ethnic culture that it has been "indigenized" and may now be said to represent a significant exogenous aspect of the musical culture in these countries.

Tonic Sol-fa was most commonly introduced to countries in the Asia-Pacific Region -as in Africa - by Christian missionaries who sought to exploit the attraction of hymns, particularly when sung in four-part harmony, as a means of evangelizing indigenous people who frequently regarded this aspect of missionary activity as a form of "magic". In particular, the Tonic Sol-fa method and notation gained a significant foothold in what were referred to as the South Sea Islands--especially in Fiji where today, the Fijian Hymn Book (1985 edition) is notated exclusively in Tonic Sol-fa. The vast majority of the Fijians are literate in Tonic Sol-fa notation and congregational singing in four parts is the norm in Fijian churches.

This paper will draw on data from nineteenth century journal sources, particularly The Tonic Sol-fa Reporter (1853-1888) and The Musical Herald (1889-1920), and will document the introduction and dissemination of Tonic Sol-fa in several Asia-Pacific countries where, unlike Australia and New Zealand, the indigenous population has maintained its own cultural and demographic predominance. Countries to be considered will include India, China (including Hong Kong), and Pacific Island nations. There will also be a consideration of the contemporary usage and applications of Tonic Sol-fa in the region, with specific reference to Fiji. It will be argued that countries where Tonic Sol-fa notation has become the norm should resist any external pressure to transfer to the standard staff notation merely for the sake of conformity. In the case of Fiji, almost universal music literacy has been achieved through Tonic Sol-fa and this should be recognized as an enviable social and cultural asset.

To stand by the women of the Orient : Australian women and China in the twentieth century

This paper will examine the history of Australian women living and working in China in the twentieth century. To do this I will compare the Australian experience with research on American, British and New Zealander women. The paper includes a study of two categories of Australian women in China: the expert observers, and the secular reformers. Using current theorising of post-colonialism, I will identify the specific contribution and dimensions of Australian women's experience in China.

Extensive, economical and elegant : the habitus of gentility in early nineteenth century Sydney

This paper challenges the modern expectation that mahogany furniture and silver cutlery were self-evident indicators of gentry status in colonial Sydney through close analysis of a bundle of middle class household inventories of the 1840s. They are considered as evidence of habitus--the structuring interaction of mentality with the material world--in order to demonstrate the active principle of consumption in the claim or assertion of bourgeois standing, which was particularly lively in the colony. A range of competences can he seen in the practice of gentility, which suggests that the possession of rosewood rather than mahogany, or imitation silver rather than sterling, was a variation shaped not merely by wealth but by cultural capital. This exposes strands of contingency, competition and compromise in middle class expression.

Australian women artists and domesticity in the twentieth century

The professionalism of women artists around the turn of the century coincided with the growing expectation that female members of the family should do the housework formerly done by domestic servants. The Women's Art Register was the research base for the compilation of a twentieth century history of Australian women artists and their attitude towards domesticity and housework. The authors work as located within this artistic tradition is also discussed.

How easy can the barley brie : drinking culture and accounting failure at the end of the nineteenth century in Britain

Purpose – This paper seeks to extend the development of the historical accounting research agenda further into the area of popular culture. The work examines the discourses that surrounded the drinking of alcohol in nineteenth century Britain and explores how an accounting failure disrupted the tension between the two established competing discourses, leading to a significant impact on UK drinking culture at the end of the nineteenth century.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs both primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources are used to develop the main themes of the discourses deployed by the temperance societies and the whisky companies. Primary sources derived from the contemporary press are employed, as necessary, in support.

Findings – The paper demonstrates that accounting, although it may not be central to a discourse or other social structure, can still have a profound impact upon cultural practices. The potential for research into culture and accounting should not therefore be dismissed if no immediate or concrete relationship between culture and accounting can be determined. Further support is provided for studies that seek to expand the accounting research agenda into new territories.

Originality/value – The study of popular culture is relatively novel in accounting research. This paper seeks to add to this research by exploring an area of cultural activity that has hitherto been neglected by researchers, i.e. by exploring how an accounting incident impacted upon the historical consumption of Scotch whisky in the UK.

Down under and in between : Australian security perspectives in the 'Asian Century'

This chapter will provide an overview of Australian perspectives on the US alliance in light of ongoing and emerging challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. After a brief discussion of the motivations behind the signing of the ANZUS treaty, the first part of the chapter examines the historical context of the alliance, with a particular focus on the longstanding and ongoing tussle in Australia between independence in foreign policy making vis-à-vis broader structural constraints. While this debate has been a constant feature of the political scene in Australia, it has come into particular focus since the US withdrawal from Vietnam, which marked a turning point in Australian perspectives with regard to its own role in Asia. The collision of ideas surrounding Australian identity and Australian national interest has been reflected in policy approaches as successive governments have sought to strike a balance between the two exigencies and thus, most optimally ensure Australia’s strategic future. The chapter concludes by examining current perspectives through the lens of an ongoing debate taking place in Australian academic circles about what the rise of China means for Australia and its commitment to the US alliance, and considers options for caucus-style cooperation with fellow US allies beyond the hub-and-spokes model.

TESOL professional standards in the "Asian century": dilemmas facing Australian TESOL teacher education

Australian teacher education programmes that prepare teachers of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) are confronting the nexus of two facets of globalization: transformations in the Asian region, captured in the notion of the "Asian century", and shifting conceptions of professionalism in TESOL in non-compulsory education. In booming Asian economies, English language learning is integral to the demand for high-quality education. This has produced increases in TESOL Teacher Education Programme (TTEP) enrolments of both domestic Australian students and international students from Asia. Growth in demand for TTEPs has necessitated that they cater to student diversity, and the intended contexts of practice. This demand has coincided with a concurrent movement towards professional standards for TESOL that, we argue, confronts complexities around quality, accountability, and professional identity and achieving conceptual and contextual coherence. Drawing on discourses of managerialism and performativity, this paper explores tensions between increased student demands for TTEPs, professional standards discourses which are part of the global policy discourses on teacher quality, and the achievement of programmatic conceptual and contextual coherence from the perspective of Australian TTEPs.