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The ‘Malay’ Community in Pre-war Darwin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2016
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This paper examines the ‘Malay’ community in pre-war Darwin, focusing on those men who were brought to Australia to work in the pearling industry. It considers their status within the community, and questions the degree to which the White Australia policy impinged upon their lives. The tenn ‘Malay’ in this context does not refer to the ‘Malays’ of present-day Malaysia, but rather to the ambiguous colonial construction which was loosely based on notions of ‘racial’ grouping. Adrian Vickers’ study of South-East Asian ‘Malay’ identity points to its multiple forms: the colonial constructions of the British and the Dutch; the existence of non-Muslim Malays; and the many ethnic groups whose identities cut across the national boundaries which form present-day Malaysia and Indonesia and the southern Philippines. In the Australian context, the works of John Mulvaney and Campbell Macknight have examined Macassan contact with northern Aboriginal groups, particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria. According to Mulvaney, the term ‘Macassan’ was used to refer to the Bugis and Macassan seafarers who came to Australia from southern Sulawesi. He notes, however, that nineteenth-century Europeans, such as French commander Baudin and Matthew Flinders referred to them as ‘Malays’.
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References
Notes
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