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Power in Food on the Maritime Frontier: A Zooarchaeology of Enslaved Pearl Divers on Barrow Island, Western Australia

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Abstract

Use of Indigenous divers on nineteenth-century northwest Australian pearling luggers gave rise to a transregional apparatus of coercion, physical mistreatment, and arguably, slavery. Where accounts of conditions experienced by divers are limited to the documents of contemporary colonial men, our contribution explores a rare archaeological perspective. Zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of the Bandicoot Bay campsite, Barrow Island, evokes an exploitative labor relationship inherited from a wider colonial process yet actively renegotiated by its participants through subsistence practices. The operation’s pearlers selected a camp that advantaged concerns for labor organization and resource management while their divers seized opportunities for self-directed subsistence.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the participation and support of Buurabalayji Thalanyji Aboriginal Corporation and Kuruma Marthudunera Aboriginal Corporation. Our great appreciation goes out to the full Barrow Island Archaeological Project (BIAP) team for all their support. In particular, thank you to Professor Peter Veth for his comments and edits on this paper. Much appreciation to the Western Australian Museum for the loan of reference specimens used in this analysis. The BIAP was funded by an ARC Discovery Grant (DP130100802) 2013–2015 awarded to Lead CI and Discovery Outstanding Research Fellow Peter Veth and Cis Alistair Paterson, Tiina Manne, Mark Basgall, David Zeanah, and Christa Placzek. Analysis was also funded by an ARC DECRA (DE150101597) to Manne. We thank Department of Parks and Wildlife, WA Oil, and Chevron Australian Business Unit for their personnel and logistical support.

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  1. School of Social Sciences, University of Queensland, Michie Building (9), Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Tom Dooley & Tiina Manne

  2. School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia

    Alistair Paterson

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Dooley, T., Manne, T. & Paterson, A. Power in Food on the Maritime Frontier: A Zooarchaeology of Enslaved Pearl Divers on Barrow Island, Western Australia. Int J Histor Archaeol 25, 544–576 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-020-00575-3

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