The Privileges of Mobility: George French Angas's Representations of Indigenous People in Savage Life and Scenes and his Debt to ‘Learned Friend’ William Cawthorne

Abstract

One of the most influential travel books about colonial Australasia, Savage Life and Scenes, was written by George French Angas, a well-to-do traveller with all the privileges of mobility. Angas made good use of his wealthy father's contacts in two British colonies—South Australia and New Zealand—where he had direct access to the colonial experience of a number of settlers, many of whom had expert knowledge of indigenous people and information on an evolving history of contact and conflict. One of the sources for Angas's representations of indigenous Australians in South Australia was a battling colonial schoolteacher, William Anderson Cawthorne (1824–1897). Angas made use of Cawthorne's work and writings without full acknowledgement. Without access to the writing and experience of travelling companions and knowledgeable intermediaries like Cawthorne, Savage Life and Scenes could not have been written. The discovery of the collective colonial experience that underpins such an important text is a reminder that often travel books reflect rather more than the unique experiences of a solitary traveller, especially when the traveller in question is wealthy and well-connected.