John Maynard

Contested space – the Australian Aboriginal sporting arena

In this global twenty-first century world Aboriginal men and women are among some of the highest paid sportsmen and women in Australia. This dramatic shift in acceptance overcame decades of exclusion not just from the sporting arena but wider Australian society in general. This article examines the complexities of the Australian Aboriginal sporting experience including long entrenched racist barriers that denied Aboriginal participation on the sporting field.

Vision, voice and influence: The rise of the Australian aboriginal progressive association

This article will challenge and dispel many of the myths and misconceptions associated with the onset of organised Aboriginal political protest. The paper examines the rise in the 1920s of the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association, highlighting international influences that impacted on the directives of this early Aboriginal political organisation. By identifying and describing such influences, the article necessitates are‐evaluation of Australian Aboriginal political history.

Sex, race and power: Aboriginal men and white women in Australian history

Nearly every recent history of Aboriginal peoples in Australia makes some reference to relationships between Aboriginal women and white men, but virtually none mentions the inverse relationships between Aboriginal men and white women. The present paper examines these historically obscure and erased interracial relationships. These relationships represent a myriad of experiences, any study of sex and love across racial boundaries being a revelation of devotion, fear, triumph and pain, as well as of broader cultural and gender issues, legal and political struggles. A collaborative methodology and approach recognises the significance of race and gender perspectives in researching and writing interracial history.

Football barriers – Aboriginal under‐representation and disconnection from the ‘world game’

Indigenous Australians have had some great successes in Australian football and rugby. However, this success has not been mirrored in the ‘world game’, soccer. This study examines the reasons for such under‐representation in Australia. The barriers to access to soccer were a combination of racist government policy which restricted the movement of Aboriginal people, and thus their opportunities to engage with a game that was not located near the isolated reserves in which they were held. The most successful Aboriginal players were fortunate that their circumstances placed them in close proximity to locales that were soccer strongholds. Moreover, the multicultural environment of post‐Second World War Australian soccer provided these players a haven from the prejudice and racism of wider Australian society. The fact that soccer itself faced obstacles of acceptance in mainstream Australian sporting culture also impeded an Aboriginal presence. However, in recent years, several players have broken through to play in the national league and gain national representative honours.

Transnational understandings of Australian Aboriginal sporting migration: sporting walkabout

This article will examine the impact of Aboriginal sporting participation and movement around the globe. The experiences, influences and inspiration that Aboriginal sporting men and women absorbed while travelling internationally have played a prominent role in changing the perceptions and understanding of Aboriginal people to the wider populace. The later stages of the nineteenth and early twentieth century were a period in which Aboriginal people were erroneously categorized as a dying race, belonging to the Stone Age and uneducable. However the influence of sport and travel ensured that Aboriginal cricketers, footballers, athletes, boxers and horsemen and -women played a part in challenging these erroneous perceptions. As a consequence sporting success played a vital role in inspiring other Aboriginal people to challenge the stigma and stereotypes that they were expected to endure and carry. The sporting arena was not just a venue for sporting participation but, I will argue, was responsible for generating and exposing Aboriginal people to a range of far-reaching influences, not least political ideology.

Circles in the Sand: An Indigenous Framework of Historical Practice

This paper seeks to identify and explore the differences of Indigenous approaches to historical practice. Why is history so important to Indigenous Australia? History is of crucial importance across the full spectrum of Indigenous understanding and knowledge. History belongs to all cultures and they have differing means of recording and recalling it. In essence, the paper explores the undercurrents of Australian history and the absence for so long of an Aboriginal place in that history, and the process over the past 40 years in correcting that imbalance. During the 1960s and 1970s the Aboriginal place in Australian history for so long erased, overlooked or ignored was suddenly a topic worthy of wider attention and importance. But despite all that has been published since, we have not realistically even touched the surface of what is buried within both the archives and oral memory. And quite clearly what has been recovered remains largely embedded within a white viewpoint of the past.

Land, children and politics: Native Americans and Australian Aborigines 1900–1930

In this publication to honour Professor Ann Curthoys this article considers the comparative aspects of Native American and Australian Aboriginal political activism in the time period 1900–1930. Central to the study is the importance of revealing the missing chapters of Indigenous political history in both the countries during these important and largely overlooked decades. The approach undertaken is restorative history and privileges the tools of historical narrative (story). The current study places the significance and impact of Indigenous campaigners at the forefront of an awakening awareness of the shared political and racial challenges confronting Indigenous people in the USA and Australia. There were many similar issues confronting both the Indigenous groups. These included the pressures applied on Indigenous land and its resources and the removal of Indigenous children from their families. The article highlights the tactics and voices of Indigenous opposition in fighting courageously for their rights and people.

Missing voices: Aboriginal experiences in the Great War

Abstract Aboriginal involvement in World War I is at once complex and full of contradictions. During the Great War, many Aboriginal people and communities were keen to enlist and supportive of the war effort while others spoke out against conscription and the war. It is important to trace Aboriginal voices both during and after the war to comprehend what Aboriginal people had to say about the conflict. This article seeks to provide answers to some of these tantalising issues, and snapshots of the Aboriginal WWI experience. These complex stories will fill gaps in the mythic Australian First World War narrative.

Remembering Aboriginal Heroes

John Ramsland has had a long, fruitful and much respected relationship with local Aboriginal people and communities of the Hunter Valley and North Coast. Recently his close working relationship with Aboriginal people, particularly through higher education, was recognised by the local Aboriginal community in Newcastle with the awarding of an Awabakal Lifetime Achievement Award. This recognition gives some insight into the way Ramsland has conducted his work and relationship with Aboriginal people. His previous studies, Custodians of the Soil: A History of Aboriginal-European Relationships in the Manning Valley of New South Wales (2001) and The Rainbow Beach Man: The Life and Times of Les Ridgeway Worimi Elder (2009), are perfect examples of the author specifically undertaking research and publication at the request of Aboriginal people and communities. This new book will become a much sought-after text both as a study aid but more importantly as a genuinely good read. Ramsland in this latest book is joined by fellow University of Newcastle scholar Christopher Mooney in tackling short biographical studies of some important Aboriginal twentieth-century achievers. Ramsland and Mooney tell a good yarn and it is the narrative here that holds the reader. Many of the individuals cited in this volume had to overcome racism, prejudice and oppressive policies and widespread misconceptions of Aboriginal people to forge their path through life. Today Aboriginal sporting heroes, musicians, athletes and movie stars like Adam Goodes, Jonathon Thurston, Greg Inglis, Cathy Freeman, Jessica Mauboy and Deborah Mailman are fêted by wider white Australia and held on high as great Australians. Times have certainly changed, but nevertheless Aboriginal and Islander success still means being held up as the whitewashed Australian success: Despite a history of racism in sport, Aboriginal people now feature as highly respected celebrities in the mainstream sports of boxing, athletics, Australian football and rugby league. There is one might say, less to feel guilty about for liberal whites when they gaze on Aboriginal success stories in these professional sports. (Colin Tatz and Daryl Adair, ‘Darkness and a Little Light: “Race” and Sport in Australia’, Australian Aboriginal Studies 2, 2009: 6)

THE LEGACY OF JACK JOHNSON ON ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIA

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this study is to reveal a missing chapter of Australian Aboriginal history. Jack Johnson is known as the first black Heavyweight Champion of the world but little is known of his inspiration to many oppressed groups around the globe including Aboriginal Australia. Johnson was flamboyant, outspoken and deeply proud of his heritage. Design/methodology/approach – This chapter is undertaken as restorative history and examines the interconnected international networks of cultural exchange operational in the early decades of the twentieth century. It privileges the tools of historical narrative (story) as a major method, and is based largely on historical newspapers sources’. Press coverage can provide fascinating insight into historical characters and can deliver their voice and thoughts at the time, and newspapers remain important in forming public opinion. Findings – Jack Johnson would become one of many influences from the international Black Diaspora upon Aboriginal Australia across the twentieth century. Originality/value – John Maynard’s work on Jack Johnson (Maynard, J. (2003). Vision, Voice and Influence – The rise of the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association. Australian Historical Studies, 121(April), 91–105, 2005, 2007) and more recently Theresa Runstedtler’s study (2012) has uncovered transnational links of Jack Johnson to many oppressed groups globally including Aboriginal Australia. This current study places Johnson’s impact upon Aboriginal Australia at the forefront of a shift and awakening awareness of Aboriginal Australians of their global political and racial challenges.