The Pearl Frontier: Indonesian Labor and Indigenous Encounters in Australia's Northern Trading Network
Julia Martínez and Adrian Vickers
Abstract
Based on careful archival research and intimate life stories, the Pearl Frontier offers a subaltern imagining of Australian historical connections with Indonesia through labor migration. This study of maritime mobility demonstrates how, in the colonial quest for valuable pearl-shell, Australians came to rely on the labor of Indonesian islanders, drawing them into their northern pearling empire. From the 1860s onwards the pearl-shell industry developed alongside British colonial conquests along Australia’s northern coast and established trading networks with the Netherlands East Indies. Inspire ... More
Based on careful archival research and intimate life stories, the Pearl Frontier offers a subaltern imagining of Australian historical connections with Indonesia through labor migration. This study of maritime mobility demonstrates how, in the colonial quest for valuable pearl-shell, Australians came to rely on the labor of Indonesian islanders, drawing them into their northern pearling empire. From the 1860s onwards the pearl-shell industry developed alongside British colonial conquests along Australia’s northern coast and established trading networks with the Netherlands East Indies. Inspired by tales of pirates and priceless pearls, the pearl frontier witnessed the maritime equivalent of a gold rush; with traders, entrepreneurs and willing workers coming from across the globe. But like so many other frontier zones it became notorious for its exploitation of Indigenous Australian and Indonesian labor. This prompted the imposition of a strict regime of indentured labor migration that was to last well beyond World War II, only giving way to international criticism in the era of decolonization. For many Indonesian workers, marriage to white or Indigenous Australian women meant that north Australia became their new home. It took until the 1960s, however, for those men to overcome the White Australia policy and claim Australian citizenship.
Keywords:
labor migration,
indentured labor,
Australian history,
Indonesian history,
pearl-shell industry,
Indigenous Australians,
World War II,
White Australia,
marriage,
citizenship
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780824840020 |
Published to Hawaii Scholarship Online: November 2016 |
DOI:10.21313/hawaii/9780824840020.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Julia Martínez, author
University of Wollongong
Adrian Vickers, author
University of Sydney
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