Inside the bureaucracy of White Australia

Inside the bureaucracy of White Australia

MATERIALS REQUIRED.

PADS.—Two pads, covered with strong calico, and tacked upon a piece of wood an inch thick and nine inches long by about seven inches wide.

INK.—Black printing ink.

National Archives of Australia: ST84/1, 1905/291-300

fingerprints

National Archives of Australia: SP42/1, C1915/8162

National Archives of Australia: E752, 1915/20

National Archives of Australia: ST84/1, 1909/21/21-30

‘Then the handprint experts went to work - Detective Potter and his assistant; Detective Johnstone, of the Criminal Investigation Branch; and Mr. Shaw, the expert at Pentridge Prison.’

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5421275

‘the wily chinese’

‘As the impression of hand-prints was only required of criminals in China the practice now followed by the Commonwealth in connection with the return to Australia of Chinese on a certificate issued by the Customs was insulting to the Chinese... Other reasonable and sufficient means of identification could easily be adopted in lieu of the degrading hand-print...’

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15169561

‘the degrading hand-print’

‘Forty lives have been lost, mainly Lascars, and the survivors, after their narrow escape from the jaws of death, were at once pounced upon by officials, and compelled to give their handprints.’

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15169561

‘the handprint indignity’

http://invisibleaustralians.org/faces/

faces

3. The immigration into the Commonwealth of the persons described in any of the following paragraphs of this section (herein-after called “prohibited immigrants”) is prohibited, namely:—

(a) Any person who when asked to do so by an officer fails to write out at dictation and sign in the presence of the officer a passage of fifty words in length in an European language directed by the officer;

prohibited

prohibited immigrant

prohibited immigrants

Donohoe v Wong Sau [1925] HCA 6:

‘I regard the test as being whether the person is a constituent part of the Australian community.’

‘I think the Chief Justice has hit the nail on the head when he said that the respondent was not coming home.’

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3379665

‘the test’

http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/1925/6.html

prohibited immigrant

poon gooey

prohibited immigrant

keys

1 0.55539 passport ah student exemption students lee wong chinese young deserter education sing wing chong readmission son hing chin wife

files

functions

Governance emphasizes the dialogue and interaction of citizens and groups with the state as much as the state’s own policies and procedures; focuses as well on documenting the impact of the state on society, and the functions and activities of society itself; encompasses all media rather than privileging written text; searches for multiple narratives and hot spots of contested discourse between citizen and state, rather than accepting the official policy line; and deliberately seeks to give voice to the marginalized, to losers as well as winners, to the disadvantaged and underprivileged as well as the powerful and articulate, which is accomplished through new ways of looking at case files and electronic data and then choosing the most succinct record in the best medium for documenting these diverse voices.

Terry Cook

macroappraisal

http://invisibleaustralians.org/