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Missions and reserves in Queensland dating from the 1880s to early 1980s have specific spatial and physical characteristics that fit Erving Goffman's structural description of 'total institutions' (1962:74). These specific characteristics, analysed here, include locks, wire mesh enclosed verandahs, barred windows, barbed wire fences, strictly regimented spaces and segregated built environments. Material culture in the forms of photographic evidence, surveyed maps and plans are employed. This kind of primary evidence is used due to the paucity of survival of other more traditional forms of archaeological evidence to answer questions concerning the original layout and built environment of mission and reserve sites. This paper about Queensland challenges the findings of research by Rowse (1993), Lydon (2000) and Trigger (1992,1985) concerning the application of 'total institutions" to missions and reserves in Australia. Many missions and reserves in Queensland were total institutions and the spatial and physical environment of these institutions was an attempt at social control over Aboriginal peoples. The physical and spatial environment of missions and reserves in Queensland can be seen as a reflection of power relations in modern society. Introduction The term "total institutions" as defined by the sociologist Erring Goffman (1962) has been applied to missions and reserves in Australia by researchers such as Rowley (1971, 1970), Long (1970), and Koepping (1976). The use of this term concerning missions and reserves has since been challenged in research by Trigger (1992, 1985), Rowse (1993) and Lydon (2000). The aim of this paper is to present new evidence, which provides more information to this debate. Goffman argues that the defining physical attribute of total institutions is the 'barrier to social intercourse with the outside' which is 'often built right into the physical plant, such as locked doors, high walls, barbed wire, cliffs, water, forests or moors' (1962:4). My paper is based on the comparative analysis of photographs, maps and plans of missions and reserves throughout Queensland from the 1880s to 1980s. Maps and plans of missions and reserves indicate common spatial attributes such as the use of surveillance, physical isolation, control of access points and exits which are common to total institutions (Goffman 1962:4). Photographic evidence shows barred windows and high-tiered fences, which are also the physical characteristics of Goffman's definition. Survival of physical and spatial environment: Analytical methods and their value Photographs have proved valuable in this study as they record details that are no longer visible in the archaeological record and often absent from written documents due to the biases of the official State record. Details such as barbed wire fences or bars on windows are often removed or reused once a building is either demolished, changes function or abandoned. Missions and reserves were often moved or demolished to make way for mines or other developments in Queensland, such as the original Mapoon reserve (Brennan 1992:8). The original German Lutheran mission site at Nundah has since been destroyed by the development of residences and schools (author's personal observation, 2002). While photographs themselves may not provide clear cut information, they are a powerful means of accessing past actualities and encompass background details that are not always in the photographer's mind. For example, Superintendent Semple's plan of Cherbourg does not show the demarcation of fences, which segregated the girls' dormitory from the rest of the reserve (Figure 1). Barbed wire fences once located around the perimeter of dormitories in reserves and missions such as Cherbourg, Yarrabah, Mona Mona and Taroom are not visible today; their existence is only found inadvertently in private photographs or in oral testimony (Private Collection 1933; L'Oste Brown et al. … |
