Merle Oberon

[matilda]

Yup, no records, confirms it for me - Blackfulla. And of course Palewa say she's Palewa and in a small place like Tassie everyone knows who's who- reliance on understanding of kinship and non-Western ways of recording is paramount for us in understanding who's who and who's related.

People went to extraordinary, extraordinary lengths to conceal identity especially birth records - no birth recorded = less chance of child being removed; hidden identity meant access to employment, able to move off the missions or restricted areas and live without having to apply for 'dog tag' (permission to live/work as European person, conditional in most States on no mixing with Aboriginal people).

And of course parents took all these measures so that their children and grandchildren had chance of "better" life.

I've been having a great time thinking about all those Blackfullas in Tassie during the yars of Merle's career reading about her Anglo-Indian indentity and laughing hilariously to themselves - no doubt her relatives are still doing it - and at the same time feeling such great sadness about her/their situation/s. Very typical that her decision to 'pass' was honoured until quite recently, but similiarly sad.

So not a mystery to me, very ordinary part of everyday Aboriginal life unfortunately.

So go Merle - what a woman. Pity we still have to deal with the conjecture - says to me that it's all still alive and well - but that's Australia unfortunately.!

I take the position that we should honour the decisions of those who passed - most of it based on survival and it would seem, in Merle's case, I would have thought burning ambition to flee from the horrible racism of her birthplace, and succeed.

So Maggie - a Wuthering Heights discussion?

Cheers

M

[Kasman]

tasphotos.blogspot.com/2007/03/trouble-with-merle-oberon.html

[maggiethecat]

Great link, well worth reading, and thank you! What a complicated and tragic story.

Autres temps . . .

[Kasman]

Bar digging her up (I assume she's buried not cremated) and doing genetic testing for ancestry, I don't think there's any way to really be sure of her origins. Adds to the mystery, don't it? ;D

[matilda]

Tks Kas, sounds like everyone in Tassie, Palewa and non-Palewa, had a claim. Bless em.

I stand corrected - REALLY interesting about ABC (fyi all you non-Aussies: ABC = Australian born Chinese, self-identifying label!) mob up North Tassie. Must have travelled down from Victoria post-Gold Rush?

Thank you for finding site Kas. It's a great site and Tasmanian owned and operated and so I would think trustworthy - if it wasn't I'd still be wondering - remember ABCs were a step up from Blacks on the "race and class" (as the site says) ladder of the time so would have been sceptical about the Chinese story as well.

All of that said, still - what a woman. Independence and driving ambition with all of that baggage to ovecome - I still wish she was ours!

Cheers

M