2011 - Theses - Flinders University

White Lives in a Black Community: The lives of Jim Page and Rebecca Forbes in the Adnyamathanha communityTracy SpencerVolume Three Appendices:Creative Life WritingSection Three: Contact ZoneAboriginal man, the headlines next to Annie read ‘Happy to Marry a Black’, and so ensues anational debate about the rights and wrongs of ‘women living alone among the natives’.There is less reportage of what Annie actually meant, despite it being the likely crux of thewhole matter, and of critical import to Annie’s feminist and humanitarian friends:‘If I were compelled to marry, there are some black men in this wilderness from amongwhom I would rather make my choice of a husband, than among a few of the white menwho disgrace the cities in which they live, and who, occasionally penetrating the solitudesin which the aboriginal makes his home, degrade the children of nature so that evenNature blushes for them.’ 104In private, she writes to Mary Montgomery Bennet." What I said was that I do not know how any one [sic.] could marry a black. It is as muchas I can stand to put up with the smell of them, especially up here where there is very littlewater to wash with, and they rub their bodies with iguana fat." 105That a Federal Enquiry takes place is testament to humanitarian concern of the era: that itfinds ‘that in all cases the shootings were justified as self-defence and that settlers and policehad given no provocation’ is evidence of the depth of official racism of the time. 106Jim’s little band know nothing of this. Two white men and a white woman ‘wanderingfrom place to place’ strangely ‘had not seen a native during six weeks travelling, but thoughthe enemy roared, the Lord was with us, and He faileth never.’ 107 Finally they meet somedoggers, who take their mail, so that the December edition of the Messenger carries theirreports alongside information about the Federal Enquiry. 108 When they reach Andado Station,Iris telegraphs headquarters: ‘Arrived Safely; All well. God has blessed us. Best wishesall.’ 10960