Martina Stojko Slavica Troskot, Assistant British Studies: Postcolonial Context University of Zadar December 2011

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Proem to Australia Felix by Henry Handel Richardson Seminar paper

Introduction- Colonialism, Australia, a mess Colonialism manifests itself in even the smallest segments of human life, from large cultural diversities to an individualists way of thinking and (re)acting. Consequently, postcolonial studies emerged as an attempt to understand or explain what really happened during that period of long change, long alteration which started with the first signs of exploration and eventually spread through trade and migration. What is important here is that postcolonialism was a way of writing a new history, history of the ones who yet didnt have a chance to speak for themselves and their people- not the history of the winners, but the history of the subjugated. Trying to understand how this side of history is written in what we now call

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postcolonial literature is one perspective to start from, whether we wish to see it in a cultural, material, or psychological and spiritual world. When it comes to causes and consequences in the postcolonial context, connections are blurry, the processes circular and irreversible; colonialism and its consequences opened quite a heterogeneous field of research. In the late 18th century Australia, it resulted with a variety of problems and situations to be taken into consideration, most certainly from different points of view. On the one hand a penal settlement, on the other Arcadia- some kind of a promised land were a whole new beginning is possible (Brittan, 2007). In either case, what used to be a primeval piece of intact nature had become a land treated as private property, as well as everything on that land, its local Aboriginal culture considered savage, not to say animal. With the arrival of settlers, and different kinds of industry and trade, came numerous changes not easy to adopt. In other words, what followed was one big breakdown in communication, a clash of two completely different cultures, one tradition against the other- a misunderstanding between the Aborigines and the English, between the written and the spoken, the new and the old, industry and nature. Clearly, the English won.

The revenge of the soil One of the issues raised in Henry Handel Richardsons Proem to Australia Felix is the one of land and property. To the Aborigines, land was sacred, integrally connected to the physical and spiritual life and not to be owned- they had no concept of property as it existed in Europe. This was one of the many causes for the Aboriginal resistance to British settlement which lasted almost as long as the settlement itself. And although it was not until 1992 that an Australian court formally rule that native title, or the legal right to land, was something which

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hasnt been dealt with by the British declaration of sovereignty, it brought them at least one moment of reality in which they were stronger, despite the weaponry and the wealth of the empire. (Brittan, 2007) But in Richardsons story1, there are no Aborigines. In her story it was the land WHO resisted. 19th century Australia, the golden era; land of prosperity and wealth waiting to be dug out from the earth. Many people in search of a new beginning, not to say of easy money, came to Australia, naive and with greed- ...what folly to depart with so little, when mother earth still teemed!. But what they eventually found there was quite the contrary- no easy money, no money at all, no simplicity of the pre-industrial life but toil and moil for survival. Nonetheless, many of these people, and they were quite a variety of peoples, never left that land- They became prisoners to the soil. It was no country for old men. Much of them died of health issues, others never got enough money to return to the old country. Their unappeasable, for the Aborigines incomprehensible, need to posses had cost them their lives and happiness. And this was the revenge of the soil taken on them, of the earth which has been there long before human race even existed, and which humans thought they could so easily conquer, own, and rule.

Psychological exile and identity Another issue which appears in this proem, and to which Richardson certainly gave more attention, is the sense of psychological exile felt by the newcomers- in this case by Long Jim, a worker on the Gravel Pits. In a fairly naturalistic way, she describes the hard conditions

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This refers to the proem, which can by and large be considered a story itself

of the 19th century colonial life and the wretched fates of those who came to Australia in search of gold. It has now been three years since Long Jim first set foot on Ballarat and each day he feels stronger and stronger sense of alienation due to the fact that their group has started to fall apart. Also, his homesickness for the old country is growing. What happens here is that the process of exile inevitably involves identity. Through retrospective, Long Jim thinks about his life in London, his job as a lamplighter, his wife. He is faced with the truth that he would never go back, and tortured by the fact that he was fool enough to have even left in the first place. The identity he had there is by now long gone and in his new home becomes only a recollection. Now, he is a nobody, incapable of thinking about his future or even of making friends. And so, there were many others who shared his destiny, who desperately yielded to alcohol rather than creating a new home.

Multiculturalism and morality One indispensable subject regarding Australia is definitely multiculturalism or, even better, cultural diversity, but also the moral structure of this new society. It was not only British men who came to Australia in search of a better life2, but a variety of people with different backgrounds- And among these last was a sprinkling of women, more than one with an infant sucking at her breast. Withdrawn into a group for themselves worked a body of Chinese... (Henry Handel Richardson, pg. 190). It is clear that gold-digging was a job offer not many could resist taking, regardless of the hard conditions and the fact that the days when it used to be a profitable work have passed. Australia during the colonial period was also a Stojko 5

Also, not all Britons who came to Australia were in search of a better life as it is seen from the next few lines

desirable destination for thieves, swagmen, deserting sailors, Lascars, Jews and Turks, and there was a constant fear of the bushrangers. Considering Australias first purpose, that is, it being a penal settlement, the emerging society was not something that could be seen as prosperous, much less stable or safe- many of the expirees, as Richardson calls them, had entered that society as successful businessmen so the moral order at the time just couldnt have set an example. However, this was in the 19th century, a time when morality was a global issue. What is more sad, is that in some countries today the situation is not far from this one.

Conclusion Although colonialism in Australia primarily brought hell for the Aborigines, Richardson shows that it was a ell for white men too. She describes the difficulties of migration from this second perspective, illustrating the processes of exile, both psychological and social. Her time in Europe obviously aroused her to sympathise with fates of those who naively migrated to the Victoria goldfields so, less clearly, she raised the issue of land and the unstoppable exploitation of nature, which was eventually the main cause of settlers misfortunes- pure capitalism in action. She wanted to show the terrible consequences of colonial havoc which encouraged the Australian wilderness to resist and Mother Nature to take her revenge. The mess caused by colonialism in Australia lasted till the 20th century and consequences of it are evident today. It is now a great multicultural society, still seen as a prosperous land for many. And although it developed in a way nobody expected3, it still developed only for white men. Because somewhere behind this wealth and power are the Aborigines, whose

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Meaning: succesfully

world the first colonialists entered and who are constantly being neglected despite the fact that it was their home and their home only; despite the fact that it was THEIR land.

Source Ashcroft, Bill, Griffiths, Gareth and Tiffin, Helen. Key Concepts in Post-colonial Studies. London: Routledge, 1998

Brittan, Alice. Australasia. The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies. Ed. John McLeod. New York: Routledge, 2007