Karo : the life and fate of a Papuan

This is a book about a murder. A book about prison, about the clash of cultures and about wild men. Karo was a wild man and a clever one and this book is an attempt to trace his life. It is the history of a Papuan man born in the early part of the twentieth century and follows the path that led him to the most horrible murders and finally to the gallows. An attempt also to understand why he had another, legendary life beyond the gallows. The author became interested in Karo Araua when she heard for the first time the 'Song about Karo', the poem in traditional form in which he was the hero. It was part of her interest in the colonial condition, which was stimulated when she read of the way the lives of those in gaol can throw a great deal of light on the lowly who are also illiterate. Particularly was this the case in colonial Papua where those who landed in gaol were likely to be a cross section of those villagers who came in contact with the white man's law, most of which they did not understand. Most writings about Papua New Guinea deal with the successful people who managed the colonial encounter. Karo, hanged in Port Moresby in 1938, was not successful, but his name lives on among his own people

Recording of Amirah Inglis's visit to Spain in October 1986 part 2

Tthere is information on the content of this tape and item N171-64 in the back of Inglis's diary - Item N171-5

'Not a white woman safe' : sexual anxiety and politics in Port Moresby, 1920-1934

Sexual anxiety, bordering on panic, in the Australian colonial town of Port Moresby - 'Port' - during the 1920s is the theme of this book. Port Moresby was more white, more Protestant, more homogeneous than comparable towns like Darwin or Rabaul. Its Papuan inhabitants were considered low on the ladder of civilisation and were despised for trying to climb up it. At the same time they were feared. Liaison with a black, demeaning to a white man, was regarded as defilement to a white woman, and the Papuans were believed to be primitives, unable to control their sexual appetites. Panic and political passion forced Administrator Hubert Murray, whose native policy was criticised as {u2018}lenient{u2019}, to introduce the savagely discriminatory White Women's Protection Ordinance. It stated that anyone who raped or attempted to rape a white woman or girl would be hanged. Mrs Inglis tells the stories of two Papuans convicted under the Ordinance and shows how guilt over the conduct of the trials and over the public hanging of one of the m en clouded the judgment of the white residents so that they became incapable of telling the truth about the incidents, then or later. She questions their belief, ironically shared by Papuans, that white women, sometimes unwittingly, provoked the attacks by immodest behaviour and demonstrates that the Ordinance was the logical outcome of hurt male prestige, authority, and racial pride. The Ordinance was revoked in 1958

The White Women's Protection Ordinance : a study in the history of Papua 1926-1934

This thesis is about the passage by Sir Hubert Murray of Papua of the White Women’s Protection Ordinance of 1926. It was a piece of legislation so discriminatory in its provisions, so harsh in its penalties, so startingly out of character with what has come to be regarded as Murray’s ’native policy' that no appraisal of Murray's rule and its effect on Papuans, no history of pre-war Papua can be complete without an explanation of it. The White Women's Protection Ordinance was a significant expression of one aspect of the relations between black and white, the fear of sexual attack by black men on white women and girls, the 'Black Peril*. My thesis describes this fear, the passage of the Ordinance and its implementation, attempts to explain these things in order to illumine Port Moresby society in the 1920s and 1930s and to add to our knowledge and understanding of Papuan colonial history and of the Murray regime in particular

Recording of Amirah Inglis's visit to Spain in October 1986 part 1 of 2

There is information on the content of this tape and item N171-65 in the back of Inglis's diary - Item N171-5

Recording of the unveiling ceremony for the Spanish Memorial, Lennox Gardens, Canberra.

Includes Amirah Inglis, Secretary of the Memorial Committee; Lloyd Edmonds, Australian who fought in Spain; Antonio Nunez, Spanish Ambassador; Carmen Caselo, President of the Spanish Club; Bill Wood, ACT Minister for the Arts; Len Fox, Spanish Relief Committee poet; Dr Judith Keene, Committee Member

Amirah Inglis interviews Lloyd Edmonds and Harry Buttonshaw

Item 58 - Cassette tape of Lloyd Edmonds and Amirah Inglis talking with Harry Buttonshaw about their lives and experience in Spain, at Buttonshaw's house at Lavender Hill, Otway Ranges, Victoria. Joy Buttonshaw is also in the room. Duration 88 min 07 sec (gap between 79 min 18 sec and 81 min 36 sec). Photos from this visit are at items 56/4/1-

Amirah Inglis introducing Australians who had served in the Spanish Civil War

This recording was created after Inglis went to Spain in October 1986