Against the Grain
Colonialism and the Demise of the Bunya Gatherings, 1839–1939
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1321816600002956Keywords:
Triennial bunya festival, bunya gatherings, race relations history, colonialism, intrusion and displacementAbstract
Idyllic accounts of South-East Queensland's triennial bunya festivals - invariably written by Europeans - seem to float like beckoning mirages above a relative historiographical desert.' The story of the bunya gatherings in the coastal Blackall Ranges or in the Bunya Mountains, at the north-eastern periphery of the Darling Downs, is largely cut adrift from the intricate race relations history of these districts, its aura of ‘romantic reminiscence’ conveniently unsullied by surrounding patterns of colonialism, racism and violence which punctuate the extended process of European intrusion and displacement.
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