Roving Mariners: Australian Aboriginal Whalers and Sealers in the Southern Oceans, 1790–1870

A comprehensive history of Australian Aboriginal whaling and sealing. For most Australian Aboriginal people the impact of colonialism was blunt—dispossession, dislocation, disease, murder and missionisation. Yet there is another story of Australian history that has remained untold, A story of enterprise and entrepreneurship and Aboriginal people seizing the opportunity to profit from life at seas as sealers and whalers. In some cases participation was voluntary; in others it was more invidious and involved kidnapping and trade in women. In all cases the individuals involved maintained and exercised their personal autonomy and agency within their new circumstances. This book explores some of the lives and adventures of those Aboriginal people who became roving mariners. The techniques used to delve into these stories are a combination of individual stories, analysis of diaries and journals, and an exploration of European artifacts housed in museum collections. The sources for these stories are the archival records of maritime industry, captains’ logs, ships’ records, recollections of sailors and the reflections of those who took to the sea. Much of what is known about this period comes from the writings of Herman Melville, and in this book Melville’s whaling novels act as a prism through which relations onboard ships are understood. As such Roving Mariners uses both history and literature to explore the lives, lifestyles, friendships, and sexual relationships that these people formed.