Free public talk by Dr Libby Connors in conjunction with Grass Dukes and Shepherd Kings travelling exhibition

This talk will discuss the nineteenth century cult of domesticity and how it both shaped and cloaked the gentlemen who usurped the Aboriginal grasslands of early Queensland. The few letters and diaries we have from the women of their networks alert us to the segregation of their private and public lives, creating new dilemmas for the historian seeking to understand the process of dispossession as a new British colony was constructed. The legal records of the colony’s early days help us to prise open a little of this genteel world in order to understand the racial and gender violence that their fortunes were built on.

Biography
Dr Libby Connors is senior lecturer in history at the University of Southern Queensland. She is an active member of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society and the author of Warrior (Allen & Unwin, 2015) which traces the life of an Aboriginal lawman and his confrontation with settlers and the British legal system in early Queensland.

Grass Dukes & Shepherd Kings can be enjoyed in conjunction with this exhibition: 

http://user.toowoombarc.qld.gov.au/eventdetail/6180/-/grass-dukes-shepherd-kings

Image credits: © USQ Media Services