Gopher Proxy
gopherpedia.com:70 gopherpedia.com:70/0//Wild Australia Show
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
======================================================================
= Wild Australia Show =
======================================================================
Introduction
======================================================================
The Wild Australia Show was a troupe of Indigenous Australian
performers that toured Australia during 1892 and 1893. The group was
formed by the Scottish-born businessman Archibald Meston and his
business partner Brabazon Harry Purcell with the intention of
performing in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe on the way to Chicago
to perform at the World's Columbian Exposition. The troupe comprised
27 people--21 men, 5 women, and 1 child--from across northern
Queensland and the surrounding region.
The Indigenous performers were recruited by Purcell during 1891 and
1892. Their motivations for joining the tour are unknown; scholars
have suggested that some may have been kidnapped or coerced, while
others may have sought an escape from violent and oppressive
conditions on the Queensland frontier. Inspired by the ethnological
expositions popular in the colonial era, as well as by Wild West shows
like 'Buffalo Bill's Wild West', the troupe's performances included
dances, corroborees, demonstrations of spear and boomerang throwing,
and stagings of scenes inspired by the Australian frontier wars.
Meston and Purcell acted as narrators and provided commentary on
Aboriginal culture during each performance. The group performed in
Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. They were photographed during their
tour at the studios of the photographers Charles Kerry, John William
Lindt, and Henry King.
Facing financial pressures and contractual disputes, Meston abandoned
the troupe in Melbourne in 1893, leaving Purcell and the performers
stranded without the funds to return home. Purcell made attempts to
continue their planned world tour but was eventually forced to return
to Queensland. The performers returned to their lands and largely
faded from the historical record. The failed endeavour led to
criticism of Meston for his abandonment of the troupe, as well as
accusations of kidnapping and a fierce legal battle between the two
former business partners.
Background
======================================================================
In 1851, Archibald Meston was born in Scotland, and emigrated to the
Colony of New South Wales with his family as a child. He moved to
Queensland in 1874, where he managed a sugar plantation and became a
successful journalist. He became the editor of the 'Ipswich Observer'
in 1876 and published articles in 'The Queenslander'. Meston was
elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1878, but was forced
out of his seat in 1881 after declaring bankruptcy following a failed
coal mining venture. He moved to North Queensland, where he became the
editor of the 'Townsville Herald' and established a sugar plantation
near Cairns. After the collapse of his sugar business, he made a
series of speculative property investments; these ventures ended in
failure, resulting in accusations of fraud from those who had lost
money in a failed settlement scheme near the Russell River.
Meston, who had once openly espoused virulently racist views,
developed an interest in Aboriginal culture and joined the Aborigines'
Protection Society of Queensland in 1890. He began to employ more
admiring rhetoric towards Indigenous Australians, describing their
treatment by colonists as "a reproach to our common humanity", while
also supporting assimilationist policies that aimed to eradicate
Indigenous cultures. He began to present himself as an ethnologist and
an expert on Aboriginal peoples. He often praised the athleticism of
Aboriginal Australians and spoke of his admiration for their prowess
as warriors. He presented the first of what he termed "illustrated
lectures" on Aboriginal Australians at the Theatre Royal in Brisbane
on 29 September 1891. Meston's early lectures--which featured live
Aboriginal people, painted bush scenes, and taxidermied
animals--became the model for the Wild Australia Show.
In late 1891 it was reported that Meston was assembling an Aboriginal
performance troupe to travel to the World's Columbian Exposition in
Chicago. His plan was for the troupe to perform in Australia, New
Zealand, and Europe, before finishing their tour in Chicago. Meston
was joined in the endeavour by Brabazon Purcell, a journalist and
stock and station agent he had met during an 1891 Aborigines'
Protection Society event, who was promised one-third of the profits.
The pair borrowed a substantial sum of money to pursue the project,
hoping that it would prove a commercial success. Meston later said
that he had spent more than £1000 () on the show and that he had been
motivated primarily by the "benefit of the aboriginals".
Recruitment of performers
===========================
Meston and Purcell's recruitment of Indigenous performers took place
between November 1891 and October 1892. Meston insisted that all of
the Aboriginal performers be physically fit to illustrate his vision
of the athleticism of Aboriginal Australians. Purcell set out on an
expedition across northern Australia to recruit Aboriginal performers
and collect artefacts, while Meston worked to secure financing for the
tour. Purcell began by visiting the rainforest region surrounding
Cairns and climbed Mount Bellenden Ker. While he did not recruit any
performers during this initial expedition, he collected a number of
artefacts that were likely among the props used during the Wild
Australia Show.
Purcell then travelled to the frontier region of north-western
Queensland near the Northern Territory border. In late 1891 or early
1892, Purcell met the first group of Aboriginal people to join the
Wild Australia Show: five Wakaya people from near Lake Nash, including
an elder named Kudajarnd and two of his wives. How Purcell convinced
this group to join him is unknown; he was later accused of kidnapping
or coercing some Aboriginal performers, but it is likely that others
joined willingly. The anthropologist Paul Memmott has suggested that
some may have felt that they had few better options available to them
given the violence that they faced on their own lands. Purcell
arranged to reunite with the Wakaya group a few months later. In late
July 1892, Purcell brought the five Wakaya people back to Townsville,
and on 3 August he arrived in Brisbane to hand the group over to
Meston.
Purcell left Brisbane three days later to travel to Normanton, where
he collected Aboriginal people from a variety of tribal groups who had
been assembled by middlemen in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. These
individuals are believed to have been recruited by police officers
with whom Meston had made arrangements earlier that year. He collected
five Aboriginal people from the Kimberley Town Camp and eleven from
camps in the town of Croydon. Most had likely been displaced into the
camps by the violent settler incursions into their lands that had
begun in the 1860s and 1870s. Memmott suggests that some element of
coercion was likely involved in their recruitment to the Wild
Australia Show.
Purcell then travelled to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait to
collect a group of Kaurareg people who had been brought there from
Muralug (also known as Prince of Wales Island) after being recruited
by public servants whom Purcell was using as agents. The group
included Gida, a Kaurareg chief, and his wife and adopted son. On 14
September, Purcell arrived in Cairns with the 21 Indigenous people he
had collected from across the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Torres
Strait, before continuing on to Brisbane. There, the 26 recruits
assembled at a camp in St Lucia to begin their rehearsals.
The last member recruited to the Wild Australia Show was a Kabi Kabi
man named Yamurra who had previously appeared in Meston's lectures. He
arrived one month after rehearsals had begun. Fluent in English and
the only performer from southern Queensland, Yamurra was likely
recruited by Meston to act as a liaison between the other Indigenous
performers and white Australians. He travelled alone to the camp in St
Lucia by train from Maryborough.
Rehearsals and initial performances in Brisbane
=================================================
The troupe spent several months rehearsing in St Lucia between late
September and November 1892. Meston drummed up substantial media
interest in his planned tour and attracted many visitors to the
rehearsal camp. One of these visitors was the painter Oscar Fristrom,
who painted a portrait of a Walangama performer named Werdbura.
Advertisements and newspaper articles began to be published about the
upcoming show. They often referred to the Wakaya tradition of penile
subincision; the practice, known as "Sturt's terrible rite", had
become notorious among the settler population. Many newspapers
referred to the performers as part of a "doomed race", echoing the
popular notion at the time that Indigenous Australians were destined
for extinction. Others suggested that the show would correct the
misconceptions that audiences had been taught and would show them "the
true character of the wild tribes of Australia".
The opening performance was held at Her Majesty's Opera House in
Brisbane on 5 December 1892. The performance was positively received,
although some reviewers criticised Meston's commentary as overly
long-winded and expressed their wish that the Indigenous performers
had simply been allowed to perform uninterrupted. The show's audience
soon dwindled, and it moved to weekly outdoor performances at the
Breakfast Creek Sportsground and then at the Exhibition Grounds, where
it attracted much larger audiences.
Performances in Sydney
========================
The troupe travelled to Sydney and gave its opening performance at the
Bondi Aquarium on 26 December 1892. They quickly came under scrutiny
from New South Wales government officials, who were alarmed by their
lack of control over the Indigenous performers. Unlike the Queensland
government, which did not have a dedicated protection office for
managing its Aboriginal population, the New South Wales government was
pursuing a strict policy of segregation and wished to remove
Aboriginal people from the city of Sydney entirely. Despite scrutiny
from the authorities, the troupe attracted large crowds and began
staging daily afternoon and nighttime performances. It was reported in
'The Sydney Morning Herald' that the opening performance attracted a
crowd of 10,000 people. During their time in Sydney, the performers
were photographed by Charles Kerry at his studio near the Aquarium;
the photographs were offered for sale to the public and were
eventually turned into postcards.
In January 1893, the troupe began performing a condensed nightly show
at the School of Arts as part of the Walshe Family Circus, along with
regular afternoon performances at the Bondi Aquarium. Due to the
smaller size of the stage, this version of the show omitted the spear
and boomerang throwing demonstrations and instead focused on acting
and dancing scenes.
Reviews during the show's time in Sydney were not all positive. One
review in 'The Daily Telegraph' described the performers as "merely an
indiscriminate assortment of blackfellows... having no proper
supervision, and run purely as speculation". Concern about a lack of
supervision was a common refrain; the New South Wales Aborigines
Protection Board, fearing that the performers might be left
unsupervised in the city and unhappy with the "unseemly spectacle" of
their presence, sought to have the show shut down throughout its time
in the city. The board was also determined to avoid a repeat of a
prior incident in which a troupe of 100 Aboriginal performers had been
brought to Sydney and then abandoned in the city. The Aborigines
Protection Board placed the troupe under police surveillance and sent
a letter to the Queensland government inquiring whether Meston had
been permitted to take his Indigenous performers out of the state.
Meston attempted to soothe the board's concerns, while increasingly
facing pressure from those who had lent him money for the tour.
Performances in Melbourne
===========================
The troupe arrived in Melbourne for the next stop of their tour on 25
January 1893. Meston and Purcell had booked a performance as part of
the Australian Natives' Association fête at the Royal Exhibition
Building. While the fête attracted a crowd of about 50,000, the Wild
Australia Show received a less positive reception from its audiences.
Melbourne was experiencing a severe economic depression caused by the
banking crisis of 1893, which led many residents of the city to lack
interest in the performance, and the members of the troupe had become
exhausted by their long tour. Meston was also faced with financial
difficulties and a dispute over contractual terms with the Australian
Natives' Association.
The commercial dispute caused a breakdown in the relationship between
Meston and Purcell. Meston returned to Sydney, abandoning Purcell and
the performers in Melbourne. With the show in substantial debt and the
troupe stranded in Melbourne, Purcell attempted to book additional
performances to allow them to continue their tour. Newspapers blamed
Meston for abandoning the troupe, while Meston, who was attempting to
raise funds by selling a collection of artefacts to the Australian
Museum, defended himself and blamed Purcell and the Australian
Natives' Association for the troupe's predicament. The dispute caused
a media scandal, with newspapers widely criticising Meston's
abandonment of the troupe.
Purcell was still hopeful that the troupe could continue its planned
tour of England and Chicago. He borrowed money to continue the show
and booked a performance at the National Baby Show on 16 February. He
also began to stage more sensationalised acts to revive the curiosity
of audiences, including a scene depicting Aboriginal cannibalism and a
lecture on "Sturt's terrible rite". On 6 March, the troupe began to
perform afternoon and evening weekday performances at the Rotunda
Hall, where it was positively received and attracted sizeable
audiences.
Second season in Sydney and journey home
==========================================
On 22 May, Purcell and the performers returned to Sydney. Purcell had
secured a booking for the troupe to perform in the play 'It Is Never
Too Late to Mend', which opened on 27 May in a production staged by
George Rignold at Her Majesty's Theatre. The troupe performed dances
and acted in background roles during the play. Their performance
received favourable reviews, with one critic writing that "nothing
more striking has ever been witnessed in this city".
Meston lobbied the Queensland government to put a stop to the tour,
writing to the colonial secretary that Purcell was likely to mistreat
the performers and that the planned world tour "ought not to be
allowed". The New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board also wrote
to the Queensland government to ask that the performers be returned to
Queensland. By late June, the Queensland government agreed that the
performers should be returned to their lands. The following month,
Purcell abandoned his hope of continuing the planned world tour and
appealed to the Queensland government for financial assistance in
returning home. The Queensland and New South Wales governments debated
who should bear the £65 cost of feeding the performers and
transporting them back to Brisbane, until the Queensland government
eventually agreed to pay.
The performers arrived in Brisbane on 14 July, although one performer
(likely either Bula or Dugum, two of the Kaurareg performers) decided
to remain in Sydney after being offered employment. The employment
arrangement quickly fell through and the man returned to Queensland a
week later. The performers continued their journeys from Brisbane to
ports in northern Queensland, from where the police helped to escort
them back to their lands. Following their return, all of the
performers with the exception of Gida left little trace in the
historical record.
Court case and aftermath
==========================
Purcell was arrested in Sydney on 11 July after Meston alleged that he
had stolen money, but the case was quickly dismissed. Charges against
Purcell were dismissed for a second time after he was arrested upon
his return to Brisbane. Allegations began to surface that Purcell had
used violence and coercion to force some of the Indigenous performers
to join the Wild Australia Show; Meston denied involvement and blamed
Purcell for any coercion, saying that he had given Purcell strict
instructions to ensure the performers joined voluntarily.
Soon after the performers had returned to their lands, Purcell sued
Meston for "false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and slander".
Purcell sought damages of £1500 (), while Meston launched a £2000
civil counter-suit for injuries to his "credit, reputation and
character". Meston's suit proved unsuccessful, while Purcell was
awarded damages of £50 (). The lawsuits left a detailed historical
record in the form of court documents, and are the source for much of
what is known about the Wild Australia Show's tour.
Performance
======================================================================
The Wild Australia Show's performances evolved over the course of the
tour as the performers adapted to suit a variety of venues and
audiences. The shows included demonstrations of skill, such as spear
and boomerang throwing and staged conflicts, as well as ceremonial
performances, corroborees, and dances. Meston acted as a narrator,
delivering lectures to the audience between scenes and explaining the
cultures and practices of the performers. At times, Meston himself
would participate in displays of combat with the Aboriginal
performers. Performers from the distinct cultural groups that made up
the troupe performed dances inspired by their own traditions; for
instance, Kaurareg dances were characterised by their use of drumming
and masks, while the Wakaya members of the troupe would perform in
feathered headdresses. Memmott suggests that the performers were
likely given a significant degree of creative control and developed
the performance based on their own cultures and traditions. The
outdoor performances featured athletic and pyrotechnic displays, such
as the throwing of flaming spears and boomerangs and the staged
burning of a settler's hut, while the performances held indoors
featured more detailed lectures from Meston and Purcell.
Each performance opened with a war dance within a staged camp. This
was followed by a series of five corroborees: the Wermugga (Cockatoo),
Rengwinna (Goanna), Fish, Waka Linga (Crocodile), and Rah Min
(Adolescents). The show included at least 11 distinct dances. Each
performance ended with a staged scene of conflict inspired by the
Australian frontier wars (a series of violent conflicts between
settlers and Indigenous peoples that was ongoing at the time). The
frontier scene showed innocent settlers being attacked by Aboriginal
warriors, who were then shot and killed by the Native Police. Memmott
has described the show's depiction of white settler innocence and
Aboriginal aggression as an example of "settler denialism", calling it
a "colonial fantasy [that] played into convenient mythologies about
frontier life". The show took inspiration from Wild West shows,
particularly from 'Buffalo Bill's Wild West', which often depicted an
attack on a homestead as its final act. It was also inspired by
American minstrel shows, which were popular in Queensland at the time.
Legacy
======================================================================
During their tour the performers were photographed by several of
Australia's leading photographers, including Charles Kerry, John
William Lindt, and Henry King. Many of these images became widely
circulated and reproduced, but often without naming the performers or
the connection with the Wild Australia Show. At least eight of the
photographs taken by Charles Kerry were later turned into postcards.
Some photographs of the performers were also used as inspiration for
other artworks. Among these was an 1897 bust of Kungkardi by James
White based on one of Henry King's photographs, which is now held by
the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Fristrom painted a portrait of the
performer Narimbu titled 'Nahmbo' in 1909 based on one of Charles
Kerry's photographs.
In 2025, researchers reported that 150 photographs of the Wild
Australia Show troupe had been identified, many of which were
originally uncaptioned or mislabelled. The photographic historian
Michael Aird has attempted to re-assemble an archive of images of the
Wild Australia Show troupe. An exhibition of these photographs curated
by Aird, Memmott, and the curator Mandana Mapar titled 'Wild
Australia' was staged at the Queensland Anthropology Museum in 2015. A
selection of photographs of the performers was displayed at the Sydney
Opera House later that year. Between 2017 and 2018, Aird and Memmott
undertook a travelling exhibition through regional areas in northern
Australia, including the traditional lands of many of the show's
performers. In 2021, Aird and Memmott published the first known set of
properly labelled portrait photographs of all 27 performers.
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Australia_Show
.
you're on gopherpedia.com^70/0//Wild Australia Show
back link is gopherpedia.com:70