australianhistory

Aboriginal breastplates (also called king plates or aboriginal gorgets) were a form of regalia used in pre-Federation Australia by white colonial authorities to recognise those they perceived to be local Aboriginal leaders. The breastplates were usually metallic crescent-shaped plaques worn around the neck by the wearer. Aboriginal people did not traditionally have kings or chiefs. They lived in small clan groups with several elders—certain older men and women—who consulted with each other on decisions for the group. By appointing kings of tribes, and granting them king plates, the white colonial powers went against the more collegiate grain of traditional Aboriginal culture. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_breastplate#:~:text=Abor...(also%20called%20king,around%20the%20neck%20by%20wearer.

"If clothes were given to workers in lieu of wages by way of reward for labour, then the clothes should have become the possession of the worker. By possession, I mean that the clothes should have been theirs to keep, to sell, to trade, or to give to family or to others to satisfy customary exchange. But despite official policy, clothes were rarely given as wages, and it was common for clothes to remain the property of the employer. On cattle stations, Aboriginal stockworkers were given clothes suitable for riding and working, but these clothes were on loan rather than clothes to keep." In 1932 Owen Rowe, commented that: One big station firm indulged in the Christian practice of compelling the stockboys, after the mustering of the cattle was finished, which is just a seasonal work, to hand back the clothes, issued them to work in, and then sending them naked into the bush to fend for themselves [:::] The scarcity of clothing among these unfortunates compels them to wear the clothes until they are absolutely filthy or until they fall to pieces on them.30 The assimilation policy was based on the assumption that the barrier to equal rights and citizenship for Aboriginal people was not the fundamental inequality of the law, but the inadequacy of the Aboriginal people themselves. It was assumed that an innate inferiority existed which might, with suitable training and guidance, be gradually overcome. The question of clothing and cash wages was an important part of the new policy. Source: 2007 " When wages were clothes: dressing down Aboriginal workers in Australia's Northern Territory" Julia T. Martinez ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1786&contex...

Excuse me. this photo is taken at may down station. And that dark skin Aborigine man is a my uncle Henry Catchinda. A Bularnu man. Who married a kalkadoon woman.

Christine Dunne Thank you for the information, but which dark skin Aboriginal man? the one on the right or left with long-sleeves?

One with the short sleeve.. horse with white on the front