Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance How did those responsible for creating Britain s nineteenth-century settler empire render colonization compatible with humanitarianism? Avoiding a cynical or celebratory response, this book takes seriously the humane disposition of colonial officials, examining the relationship between humanitarian governance and empire. The story of humane colonial governance connects projects of emancipation, amelioration, conciliation, protection and development in sites ranging from British Honduras through Van Diemen s Land and New South Wales, New Zealand and Canada, to India. It is seen in the lives of governors like George Arthur and George Grey, whose careers saw the violent and destructive colonization of indigenous peoples at the hands of British emigrants. The story challenges the exclusion of officials humanitarian sensibilities from colonial history and places the settler colonies within the larger historical context of Western humanitarianism. alan lester is Professor of Historical Geography at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex fae dussart is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Sussex.
Critical Perspectives on Empire Editors Professor Catherine Hall University College London Professor Mrinalini Sinha University of Michigan Professor Kathleen Wilson State University of New York, Stony Brook Critical Perspectives on Empire is a major series of ambitious, cross-disciplinary works in the emerging field of critical imperial studies. Books in the series explore the connections, exchanges and mediations at the heart of national and global histories, the contributions of local as well as metropolitan knowledge, and the flows of people, ideas and identities facilitated by colonial contact. To that end, the series not only offers a space for outstanding scholars working at the intersection of several disciplines to bring to wider attention the impact of their work; it also takes a leading role in reconfiguring contemporary historical and critical knowledge, of the past and of ourselves. A full list of titles published in the series can be found at: /cpempire
Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance Protecting Aborigines across the Nineteenth-Century British Empire
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Information on this title: /9781107007833 Alan Lester & Fae Dussart 2014 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2014 Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Lester, Alan. Colonization and the origins of humanitarian governance : protecting aborigines across the nineteenth-century British empire /. pages cm. (Critical perspectives on empire) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-00783-3 (Hardback) 1. Great Britain Colonies Administration History 19th century. 2. Humanitarianism Political aspects Great Britain History 19th century. I. Dussart, Fae. II. Title. DA18.L47 2014 323.1109171 0 24109034 dc23 2013040564 ISBN 978-1-107-00783-3 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
For Jo, Daisy, Evan and Alfred; Brian and Patricia, Gary, Tracy, Jessica, Sarah and Thomas; Fred and Pam For Luka, Alia and Mischa; Molly and Georges; Mana and Mike; and in memory of Alastair
Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements page viii ix 1 Colonization and humanitarianism: Histories, geographies and biographies 1 2 The genesis of humanitarian governance: George Arthur and the transition from amelioration to protection 37 3 Colonization and protection: An experiment orchestrated in London 77 4 Humane colonization in practice: The Port Phillip District Protectorate of Aborigines 114 5 The New Zealand Protectorate of Aborigines 173 6 Humanitarian governance in a settler empire 226 Index 276 vii
Illustrations Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Major-General Sir George Arthur, Bart, KCB. Source: Government of Ontario Art Collection, Archives of Ontario. page 38 George Augustus Robinson with Trugernanner and other Aboriginal People from the Bruny Island Settlement, The Conciliation by Benjamin Duterrau (1767 1851), 1840. Source: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. 67 Thomas Farmer and family at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, c. 1876 77. Source: Board for the Protection of Aborigines Photographic Collection, Museum Victoria. 162 Figure 4 Ellen, by photographer Carl Walter (1831 1907). Source: State Library of Victoria. 168 viii
Acknowledgements This book stems from a research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Grant F00230N) to which we are extremely grateful. We can only apologize for the considerable delay between funding and publication. Different sections of the manuscript have benefited tremendously from the advice of some very well-qualified readers including Tony Ballantyne, Saul Dubow, Julie Evans, Sam Furphy, Catherine Hall, Zoë Laidlaw, Kirsten McKenzie, Jessie Mitchell, Amanda Nettelbeck, Eric Pawson, Tiffany Shellam, Rachel Standfield and Andrew Thompson. We owe especial thanks to Elizabeth Rushton, who selflessly provided us with the fruits of her PhD labour on the environmental history of Honduras, which enabled us to say much more about George Arthur s activities in that settlement. Versions of chapters have been presented at conferences and seminars at the Historical Geography Research Group Practising Historical Geography conference, St John s College, Oxford; the Empires and Humanitarianism workshop, University of Bristol; the Histoire Des Colonisations lecture series, École Normale Supérieure, Paris; The Royal Dutch Society for History Annual Conference, The Hague; the Voluntary Action History Society workshop, University College London; the Centre for World Environmental History and the Postcolonial Masculinities Conference, University of Sussex; the Reconfiguring the British, and the London Group of Historical Geographers, seminars, Institute of Historical Research, London; the Postcolonial Human conference, Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, University of Leeds; the New Zealand Historical Geographers Forum and the Canterbury Geography Society conference, University of Canterbury; the Empires and Human Rights workshop, Centre for the Study of Colonial and Postcolonial Societies, University of Bristol; and the World Series Seminars, School of Geography and Geoscience, University of St Andrews. We would like to thank the organizers and participants at each venue. ix
x Acknowledgements Some of the material here has appeared in the following articles and chapters: Alan Lester, Indigenous Engagements with Humanitarian Governance: The Port Phillip Protectorate of Aborigines, inj.carey and J. Lydon (eds.), Indigenous Networks: Mobility, Connections and Exchange, Routledge, London, forthcoming; R. Skinner and A. Lester, Humanitarianism and Empire: Introduction, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History special issue, Empire and Humanitarianism, 40, 5 (2012), 729 47; A. Lester, Personifying Colonial Governance: George Arthur and the Transition from Humanitarian to Development Discourse, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 102, 6 (2012), 1468 88; A. Lester, Humanism, Race and the Colonial Frontier, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 37 (2012), 132 48;A.Lester, Relational Space and Life Geographies in Imperial History: George Arthur and Humanitarian Governance, Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 21, 2 (2011), 29 46; A. Lester and F. Dussart, Masculinity Race, and Family in the Colonies: Protecting Aborigines in the Early Nineteenth Century, Gender, Place and Culture, 16, 1 (2009), 65 76; and A. Lester and F. Dussart, Trajectories of Protection: Protectorates of Aborigines in early 19th century Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, The New Zealand Geographer, 64, 3 (2008), 205 20. We would like to thank the editors and publishers of these journals and books.