Whistleblowing on Indigenous Labour Abuses in Western Australia: Motivations of Settler Humanitarianism in the Late Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

This article investigates the motivations behind settler whistleblowing on Indigenous labour abuses in nineteenth-century Western Australia, focusing on two key figures, the ex-convict David Carley and the pearler and pastoralist John Walkinshaw Cowan. While historical narratives often portray such humanitarian activists as morally exceptional, this article argues that their motivations were complex, rooted in a duality of altruism and personal self-interest. It explores how Carley and Cowan’s personal grievances with local authorities and business competitors fuelled their activism, demonstrating how settler humanitarianism combined concern for Indigenous wellbeing with the pursuit of personal interests. Rather than viewing settler humanitarianism as merely flawed or cynical, the article suggests that its self-serving dimensions were integral to its very possibility. Ironically, the entanglement of moral action with personal benefit that made settler humanitarianism possible also made it vulnerable, since the existence of ulterior motives provided government officials with reason to doubt whistleblower credibility.