ABSTRACT

During the 19th century, The Argus was a popular broadsheet newspaper for Victorians situated in the southern colony of the Australian mainland. As the Colonial Office and the Queensland colony debated the practicalities of annexing the southeastern region of Papua in 1883, the editors of The Argus seized on the Victorian colonists’ interests in the region and funded an expedition to demonstrate New Guinea's value to its audience. As the expeditionary team travelled from Port Moresby to the Astrolabe Ranges they produced a series of articles and sketch maps. The following article examines these sketch maps as multi-layered artefacts of material culture, created as the British colonies’ interest in New Guinea intersected with Indigenous curiosity about settlers’ intentions. My analysis of these maps illuminates how ambitious colonial emissaries performed settlement discourses to support the annexation of the southeastern portion of New Guinea. Simultaneously, the Indigenous intermediaries performed settlement discourses to establish trade and judicial relationships with Britannita. I contend that these sketch maps are material manifestations of encounters where political imaginings, social negotiations, and cultural knowledge were communicated.

摘要

在19世纪，阿格斯（Argus）是位于澳大利亚大陆南部殖民地的维多利亚人的热门报纸。当殖民地办公室和昆士兰殖民地在1883年就吞并巴布亚东南部地区的可行性进行辩论时，《阿格斯》杂志的编辑抓住维多利亚州殖民者在该地区的利益，并资助了一次探险活动，向听众展示了新几内亚的价值。当探险队从莫尔兹比港（Port Moresby）前往Astrolabe山脉时，他们制作了一系列文章和草图。下一篇文章将这些草图作为物质文化的多层文物进行了考察，这些文物是英国殖民地对新几内亚的兴趣与土著对定居者意图的好奇心相交而产生的。我对这些地图的分析阐明了雄心勃勃的殖民使者如何进行定居论据以支持对新几内亚东南部地区的吞并。同时，土著中间人进行了定居点讨论，以建立与不列颠尼塔的贸易和司法关系。