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Narrator Rachel Perkins and interviewees Emeritus Scholar Inga Clendinnen and Associate Professor James Kohen impart the story of a cross-cultural relationship between Lieutenant Dawes and Aboriginal woman, Patyegarang. Readings of Dawes’s diaries reveal their conversations.
Curator’s notes
This account of early cultural exchange is very touching. It said that Lieutenant Dawes ‘met with the first Australians on their own terms’ and it is perhaps because of this that he was able to form a trusting relationship with Patyegarang. The intimacy of the language that was exchanged, for example ‘to embrace’ and ‘make love’, is revealing of the possible nature of their relationship.
However, it does not overshadow the fact that more equal and mutually beneficial relationships were possible in this time of conflict and uncertainty. They achieved an understanding of each other’s culture, learnt each other’s language and cultural protocol and shared their views freely and without reproach, as seen in Patyegarang’s fiery insistence that she hold on to her culture in the face of white settlement.
