Papel y status

It is not surprising with these efforts of Robinson’s that the regular editions of The Flinders Island Chronicle, the English language hand written journal, resumed in earnest in September 1837, apparently a year after the one-off first edition.125 There seems some confusion concerning the date of the first edition.126 A single first edition in September 1836 with no subsequent editions for just over a year seems improbable. However, Robinson left Wybalenna on 15th September 1836 for Hobart Town127 before returning to Wybalenna, via Launceston and George Town, on 6th December 1836.128 This temporary absence does not fully explain a

123 _{Plomley, 1987, p. 467.}

124 _{ML Robinson Papers, A7044 CY548, pp. 387 – 90.}

125 _{ML Robinson Papers, A7074 CY825, p. 1 – 17, Plomley, 1987, Appendix 4:C, pp. 1009 – 13.}

There are six surviving copies of an edition which outlines the ‘objects of this journal’. Three are signed by both Walter Arthur and Thomas Bruny, and three by only Thomas. Five bear

Robinson’s signature and the date ‘10th September 1836’ on the reverse side of the page, and one does not have any verification. These appear to be a ‘prospectus’ similar to the school committee establishing its objects, naming its officers and giving itself a name. All editions of the Chronicle

found in the Robinson Papers are in Appendix E.

126 _{ML Robinson Papers, A7074 CY825, pp. 13 – 16.} 127 _{Plomley, 1987, p. 381.}

year’s hiatus in the production of the journal but it does suggest some restraint is required before amending original documents.129

Robinson’s emphasis on the English language Chronicle130 intended to be published each Saturday,131 _{appears to be an attempt to assert control over, or at} least counter, the growing expressions of Saturday evening Christian addresses in Aboriginal first languages and the evolving pidgin. It was perhaps also an attempt to exert authority over a Catechist who more and more spoke in the pidgin rather than English when preaching in Sunday services through mid to late 1837. The first edition reads in part like a ‘Robinson-Settlement-origin-story’:

we date our history of events from the Month of October 1835 when our beloved father made his appearance among us dispelling the darkness and cheering us with a dawn of hope freedom and happiness.132

Robinson’s control is clear: ‘Proof sheets are to be Submitted to the commandant for correction before publishing’.133 The Chronicle was to bear Robinson’s, rather than Clark’s authority, at least initially.

It is difficult to see the prospectus and first edition of the Chronicle as anything more than Robinson’s English-only faith being ventriloquised through the two youths in order to improve his reputation among colonists. One of the copyists, Thomas Bruny, an orphan, was still at the Hobart Orphan School in October 1835, when, through the Chronicle, he wrote that it was the time from which ‘we date our history’. The ‘beloved father’, Robinson, visited the Orphan

129 _{The first reference in Robinson’s journal is on 30}th _{September 1837 which Plomley incorrectly}

identifies as ‘the first of a series…’, Plomley, 1987, p. 713.

130 _{ML Robinson Papers, A7074 CY825, pp. 1 – 11.} 131 _{Ibid., p. 1.}

132 _{Ibid., pp. 13 – 16.} 133 _{Ibid., pp. 13 – 16.}

School at that time,134 but left Thomas behind with much less than ‘a dawn of hope freedom and happiness’. Thomas remained at the Orphan School for at least nine months after this ‘beginning’ of ‘our history’. Robinson’s visit led to

Walter’s move to Flinders Island, and return to his father, mother and sister, and probably a greater degree of happiness. Walter is unlikely to have known

Robinson at all prior to this, having entered the School while Robinson was only briefly in Hobart between his ventures in the north-west and Macquarie Harbour at the end of 1832.135 Walter’s ‘beloved father’ is unlikely to have been Robinson, but more likely to be someone from within his own Ben Lomond clan, perhaps even his own still living father.

Furthermore few Aboriginal people, other than Walter and Thomas

themselves and the other Aboriginal ‘teachers’, were able to read much English at that time. Therefore the primary audience for the written text, like Wilkinson’s Bible translation, was unlikely to have been the ‘captive audience’ of Aboriginal people,136 but rather colonists, many of whom were not at Wybalenna at all, such as the Governor, church leaders, or content colonial pastoralists who had donated subscriptions to thank Robinson for ridding the island of its first people.137

The grandiose claims of the prospectus and first edition echo those expressed at the commencement of the Sunday and weekday evening schools in February 1836. And like the schools, subsequent editions of the Chronicle suggest

134 _{Plomley, 1987, pp. 295, 620, 621.} 135 _{Ibid., pp. 680, 704.}

136 _{Rose, M., (ed.), 1996, For the Record: 160 years of Aboriginal Print Journalism. St Leonards;}

Allen and Unwin, pp. 1 – 19.

137 _{Eg., Colonial Times, 7}th _{October 1834, p. 3. Hobart Town Courier, 28}th _{November 1834, p. 2;}

20th March 1835, p. 2. See also, Van Toorn, 2006, pp. 111 – 12. Soon after Robinson left Wybalenna on 15th September 1836, the Hobart Town Courier, printed a glowing endorsement of Robinson’s activities, including the Chronicle. ‘Mr. Robinson has been the means of establishing a weekly newspaper among them. It is entirely written by the Aborigines, and is published under the name of 'The Aboriginal Flinders Island Chronicle,' on half a sheet of foolscap every Saturday, price 2d each, and the profits arising from the work are equally divided among the editors’. Hobart Town Courier, 23rd _{September 1836, pp. 2, 3.}

Aboriginal people used the experience to develop skills they valued and they incorporated them into existing clan relationships and cultural practices.

Aboriginal people adapted the school experience into opportunities for Saturday evening first languages addresses by clan leaders offering ‘mutual instruction’, in an apparent continuation of their existing, but changing, roles. Likewise Divine Service was adapted in the ‘bush’ to become ‘Sunday corroboree’ celebrated alongside dances. The Chronicle never became an Aboriginal language journal. The desired ‘emulation’ in writing did not occur. Instead Aboriginal people continued to communicate with each other primarily in oral forms and adapted colonial Christian practices into their own relationships, with their interpretations.

The practice of writing did, however, influence personal and clan

relationships to a degree. While the readers of the Chronicle’s English text were almost entirely colonists, the ‘readers’ (i.e., interpreters) of the context at

Wybalenna were much wider and included Aboriginal people. Thomas and Walter themselves appear to be aware that their involvement in the Chronicle affected their relationships with each other and with other Aboriginal people. It was not so much the particular words they used but the power they garnered through the performance of writing. They appear to have used threats of naming women in the paper to persuade several to clean themselves and their houses. Several women ‘said they [Walter and Thomas] might KARNY speak but not write’.138 Within the Chronicle whose audience was primarily not Aboriginal, Thomas mentions unnamed men taking books into the bush and going hunting139 and native women carrying grass.140 Thomas names himself and Walter ‘assisting Mr Clark in the

138 _{Plomley, 1987, p. 489.}

139 _{28/9/1837, Flinders Island Chronicle, ML Robinson Papers, A7074 CY825, p. 17.} 140 _{28/9/1837, Flinders Island Chronicle, ML Robinson Papers, A7074 CY825, p. 20.}

church on Sundays’.141 Walter names Thomas, ‘when we are in school I always see Mr Thomas Brune laughing and playing away in the middle of school’. He writes of ‘Flora and Louisa’ going to off shore islands to hunt and for skins, and of ‘Natives’ making their own garden… own fruit … own fences’.142 _Thomas names ‘the Aboriginal male Noemy has got the love of God shed abroad in his heart…’.143 Each of these written examples were of people ‘emulating’ colonial work and are likely to have engendered appreciation among their colonial readers. The beginning of 1838 marked the start of another tumultuous year among the officers at Wybalenna. Robinson’s frustrations with Clark seem to have played a role in Governor Franklin’s appointment of a Chaplain, Rev Thomas Dove, however Clark continued to have a teaching role due to Dove’s apparent lack of interest in teaching Aboriginal people, particularly children.144 The annual catechetical examinations were conducted between 9th – 22nd February, and certified by the newly arrived Chaplain. In his report Dove credited the

improvement to Clark, Dickenson and the three Robinson boys and, noticeably, no Aboriginal teachers. He recommended that the method of instruction

continue.145 Robinson likewise placed credit with the teachers and saw it as ‘conclusive evidence of the success of his plan and role as Commandant.146 A contrasting view is alluded to when, after a fortnight of catechetical examinations some of the Aboriginal people were asked if they liked the examination. They

141 _{2/10/1837, Flinders Island Chronicle, ML Robinson Papers, A7074 CY825, p. 22.} 142 _{2/10/1837, Ibid., p. 23.}

143 _{6/10/1837, Ibid., p. 25.} 144 _{Plomley, 1987, p. 535.} 145 _{Ibid., p. 725.}

replied that they did not like the ‘damnation’. Robinson interpreted this as a ‘mispronunciation’ 147 but perhaps it was not.

Conflict emerged again between officers.148 Robinson sought a report from Clark regarding the Aboriginal people, something that should have been Dove’s responsibility. It was not until July, after several months of complaints and conflict,149 that Dove finally commenced teaching at the school.150 He reported there were several Aboriginal clans continuing to speak their first languages. His reference to the ‘sealer’s jargon’ may actually be the evolving pidgin of the Aboriginal people, but he reports a preference for using English.151

Among the officers, Robinson and Dove regarded colonists speaking

pidgin, or ‘bad English’ as a degradation of themselves.152 Clark desired to speak to the Aboriginal people primarily in pidgin but was discouraged from doing so.153 Aboriginal speakers spoke in first language to their own clan, pidgin to a mixed Aboriginal audience, and in English to colonists. This multilingual practice is indicative of a growing sophistication in interpreting Christian faith and

conversing about it in multiple languages, worldviews and formats simultaneously.

147 _{Plomley, 1987, p. 535.}

148 _{Robinson was in conflict not just with Clark but also Dove: ‘The gross effrontery of this}

insignificant personage exceeds all I have ever met with, and this a parson. To dare to dictate to me what I should do in command of the settlement! As well might I dictate to him the subject and method of his sermon!’ cited in Plomley, 1987, p. 573.See also, Miller, R. S., 1985, Thomas Dove and the Tasmanian Aborigines. Melbourne; Spectrum, p. 27.

149 _{Plomley, 1987, p. 563.} 150 _{Ibid., p. 571.}

151 _{Plomley, 1987, p. 744. Also, Miller, 1985, pp. 39, 42 – 44.} 152 _{Plomley, 1987, p. 568.}