Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers by Philip Jones (review)

The main intent of this engaging and deeply informed book is to highlight the hybrid character of certain encounters between Aborigines and Europeans on the Australian frontier. Each chapter's point of departure is a particular, usually obscure, artifact from a museum collection that embodies this hybridity in material form. The circumstances that led to the creation of these artefacts provide the narrative framework for what proves to be a compelling and powerful study that addresses a wide range of issues, including the sources of ethnographic knowledge, the premises of museum practices, the impact of missionary endeavors, the roots of artistic innovations, and more.

Jones, a senior curator at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, brings to this project an interdisciplinary expertise in history, anthropology, and art, as well as a keen appreciation for the insights that can be gleaned from material objects themselves. The first artifact that he examines is a cat o' nine tails–style whip that a British naval officer who accompanied the first fleet to Australia crafted from an Aboriginal club. How the officer may have acquired the club leads to a broader examination of the improvisatory nature of early encounters between Europeans and Aborigines. Subsequent chapters use a shield, an ax, a firestick, a string bag, a dress, and other objects to trace cultural interactions and exchanges in various frontier zones from the late eighteenth through the mid-twentieth century.

Several larger agendas undergird these meticulously researched, richly detailed case studies. One is to challenge the conventional view among anthropologists and museum curators that the Aboriginal objects of greatest interest and value are those that are culturally uncontaminated by Western influences. Jones makes a compelling case for the historical and cultural significance of the hybrid objects that he examines. Another agenda is to demonstrate that the frontier was often a zone of "mutual acculturation" between Aborigines and Europeans where "genuine communication and exchange" took place (245, 246). This argument stands in studied contrast to one of Australian historians' central concerns over the past few decades—the violent clashes that broke out along the colonial frontier between Europeans and Aborigines, which often resulted in the massacre of Aboriginal men, women, and children.

Jones is certainly right to insist that some Europeans brought a genuine sense of curiosity and good will to their encounters with Aborigines, thereby working to bridge the gulf between the two peoples and cultures. However, he does not place as much emphasis as he might on the fact that almost all of the Europeans that he studies were explorers and missionaries who had to achieve some understanding of, and accommodation with, Aborigines in order to achieve their objectives. This strategy was far less common among the pastoralists, miners, and other settlers who pushed into Australia's frontier zones.

Specialists in Australian history, anthropology, art, and museology are likely to be most attentive to this book. Still, its concerns are relevant to anyone who studies cultural encounters on colonial frontiers. Moreover, its approach is impressively interdisciplinary. Engagingly written, meticulously documented, and richly illustrated, it is a work that deserves a broad readership.