Violent and ‘Everyday’ Forms of Resistance: Convict Responses to Transportation

Abstract

Studies of ‘resistance’ in the colonial context have proliferated in recent years. Individual subjects are no longer viewed as passive victims of all-embracing webs of power, but as active agents in the formation of colonial societies.1 Early historiographical focuses were solely on the significance of violent action against domination. Insurrection was seen as the only form of genuine resistance within slave communities, for example, with less violent forms pre- if not apolitical.2 Such direct resistance was of course crucial in challenging aspects of certain labour regimes. However, there has since been an historiographical shift away from the concept that violence is the only real form of resistance against oppression.3 It has been shown how peasants in South and Southeast Asia – and convicts in Australia – engaged in unorganised, non-violent, ‘everyday’ forms of resistance against authority. Their tactics ranged from footdragging, false compliance and feigned ignorance to arson and sabotage.4