'Annamese Coolies' at Australian Ports: Charting Colonial Geographies of Emotion, and Settler Memory, from French Vietnam to New Caledonia via Interwar Australia. Issue 3 (3rd July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rhook, Nadia
• Is Part Of: Australian historical studies. Volume 48:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 399
• Page End: 415
• Publication Date: 2017-07-03
• Subjects: History -- Periodicals; Australia -- History -- Periodicals; New Zealand -- History -- Periodicals; 994.005
• DOI: 10.1080/1031461X.2017.1338740
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1031-461X

Abstract

Abstract : In 1927, a ship carrying indentured Vietnamese workers travelled down the eastern coast of Australia on its way to New Caledonia. The movement of the Ville d'Amiens steamer through Australian waters sparked protests against alleged 'French slavery' and, eventually, moved politicians to recall the 'injustice' of the 'pre-White Australia' era. This article uses the Ville d'Amiens episode as a portal through which to explore the nexus between geographies of colonialism and of emotion. It argues that colonial and national power operated in pervasively 'triangular' ways, via the interplay of an affective triangle – of guilt, shame and pride – and a geo-political triangle – of French Vietnam, Australia and New Caledonia. Further, the article calls for greater exploration of the historical, geo-spatial contingencies of memory, motion and emotion.