AustLit

'“We have fared well out of native hands”, wrote missionary Annie Lock from Oodnadatta in South Australia in 1924. Four years later, having moved to Harding Soak north of Alice Springs, she declared the government should “give the natives food in place of their country”.' (Publication summary)

'Who was responsible for the 1928 Coniston Massacre in Central Australia where a police party killed 100 Aboriginal people? Not those who pulled the trigger, according to the Enquiry. Instead it was 'a woman missionary living amongst naked blacks'. This was Annie Lock, the 'whistle-blower' who caused the Enquiry.

'She believed Aboriginal lives mattered, with controversial results. This biography dives into massacres, stolen generations and the thorny problem of Aboriginal missions.

'A faith missionary, Annie Lock fought with Daisy Bates, met the Duke of Gloucester and inspired R.M. Williams. She was shipwrecked in a pearling lugger, drove a buggy 200 miles across desert to escape drought, produced Christmas puddings in 40-degree heat, nursed sore-ridden children, hit headlines for supposedly being 'Happy to Marry a Black', and pronounced on Aboriginal culture and policy with erratic spelling but genuine conviction.

'More problematically, she 'saved' souls, 'rescued' children, eroded culture and condoned Aboriginal men beating their wives.

'A strident and divisive figure, Annie Lock was appealingly eccentric but horrifyingly complicit in Australia's worst policies. Indigenous people variously called her 'lovely' and the provider of 'too much cabbage and Jesus Christ'. (Publication summary)

'In essence, A Bookshop in Wartime is an eclectic collection of snapshots of people and events in Canberra against the backdrop of World War II, with the potential to resonate with readers familiar with the city. The bookshop of the title was run by Verity Hewitt and was at the heart of the city’s life during the 1930s and 1940s. While the blurb suggests it is a book about an entrepreneurial woman—and as a historian of businesswomen, my interest was piqued—it is better characterised as a work that seeks to capture the personalities and intellectual milieu of this particular time and place, using the bookshop as a linkage point.' (Introduction)

'A biography of Australian Muriel Matters is long overdue and Robert Wainwright’s book leaves us in no doubt that Miss Muriel does indeed matter. She was involved prominently in the British suffrage movement, flying in a hot air balloon to drop pamphlets over London and chaining herself to the grille in British parliament, becoming the first woman to give a speech, albeit uninvited, in the chamber. She also toured the English provinces in a horse-drawn caravan speaking to welcoming and unwelcoming audiences on behalf of the Women’s Freedom League. These spectacular exploits, however, are barely known in Australia, and her more serious achievements have been lost entirely. Muriel Matters, as Wainwright’s book reveals, was not just a suffrage activist. She also involved herself in child welfare, joining Sylvia Pankhurst at the Mothers’ Arms in the East End. Matters trained with Maria Montessori in Europe and was a pioneer of the Montessori education system in London.' (Introduction)

'A history that populates the streets of colonial Sydney with entrepreneurial businesswomen earning their living in a variety of small – and sometimes surprising – enterprises.

'There are few memorials to colonial businesswomen, but if you know where to look you can find many traces of their presence as you wander the streets of Sydney. From milliners and dressmakers to ironmongers and booksellers; from publicans and boarding-house keepers to butchers and taxidermists; from school teachers to ginger-beer manufacturers: these women have been hidden in the historical record but were visible to their contemporaries.

'Catherine Bishop brings the stories of these entrepreneurial women to life, with fascinating details of their successes and failures, their determination and wilfulness, their achievements, their tragedies and the occasional juicy scandal. Until now we have imagined colonial women indoors as wives, and mothers, domestic servants or prostitutes. This book sets them firmly out in the open.' (Publication summary)

'During the period in which Lock worked, distinctions were made between full-blood and part Aborigines. For this reason I have used these terms in the text, although they are not in current usage. Similarly, the term half-caste was popular in the early part of this century. The mission society to which Lock belonged underwent four name changes between 1894 and 1940. Between 1894 and 1899 it was the La Perouse Aborigines' Mission (LPAM), from 1899 until 1908 it was the New South Wales Aborigines' Mission (NSWAM), between 1908 and 1929 it was known as the Australian Aborigines' Mission (AAM), and since 1929 has been the United Aborigines' Mission (UAM). If a particular incident or time period is being referred to in the text, I have used the name appropriate to that time. Otherwise I have used the current name. The apostrophe in the names of both the society and its magazines (the Australian Aborigines' Advocate and United Aborigines' Messenger) appears and disappears over the years. For the sake of consistency I have included it in all cases except in direct quotations when it does not appear. There are also doubts about the spelling of three place names in Central Australia. I have used Coniston and not Conniston, Tea Tree and not Ti Tree, and Woodford Creek rather than Woodforde Creek. The first two are taken from a current map, the last disagrees with today's map, but appears in contemporary letters to a significant degree. Finally, I have referred to the "Finding of the Board of Enquiry concerning the killing of natives in Central Australia by Police Parties and others, and concerning other matters.", of January 1929, as the 1929 Enquiry.' (Thesis description)