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Into the Loneliness: The unholy alliance of Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates
An original and riveting biography of two of the most singular women Australia has ever seen.
Daisy Bates and Ernestine Hill were bestselling writers who told of life in the vast Australian interior. Daisy Bates, dressed in Victorian garb, malnourished and half-blind, camped with Aboriginal people in Western Australia and on the Nullarbor for decades, surrounded by her books, notes and artefacts. A self-taught ethnologist, desperate to be accepted by established male anthropologists, she sought to document the language and customs of the people who visited her camps. In 1935, Ernestine Hill, journalist and author of The Great Australian Loneliness, coaxed Bates to Adelaide to collaborate on a newspaper series. Their collaboration resulted in the 1938 international bestseller, The Passing of the Aborigines. This book informed popular opinion about Aboriginal people for decades, though Bates's failure to acknowledge Hill as her co-author strained their friendship.
Traversing great distances in a campervan, Eleanor Hogan reflects on the lives and work of these indefatigable women. From a contemporary perspective, their work seems quaint and sentimental, their outlook and preoccupations dated, paternalistic and even racist. Yet Bates and Hill took a genuine interest in Aboriginal people and their cultures long before they were considered worthy of the Australian mainstream's attention. With sensitivity and insight, Hogan wonders what their legacies as fearless female outliers might be.
Daisy Bates and Ernestine Hill were bestselling writers who told of life in the vast Australian interior. Daisy Bates, dressed in Victorian garb, malnourished and half-blind, camped with Aboriginal people in Western Australia and on the Nullarbor for decades, surrounded by her books, notes and artefacts. A self-taught ethnologist, desperate to be accepted by established male anthropologists, she sought to document the language and customs of the people who visited her camps. In 1935, Ernestine Hill, journalist and author of The Great Australian Loneliness, coaxed Bates to Adelaide to collaborate on a newspaper series. Their collaboration resulted in the 1938 international bestseller, The Passing of the Aborigines. This book informed popular opinion about Aboriginal people for decades, though Bates's failure to acknowledge Hill as her co-author strained their friendship.
Traversing great distances in a campervan, Eleanor Hogan reflects on the lives and work of these indefatigable women. From a contemporary perspective, their work seems quaint and sentimental, their outlook and preoccupations dated, paternalistic and even racist. Yet Bates and Hill took a genuine interest in Aboriginal people and their cultures long before they were considered worthy of the Australian mainstream's attention. With sensitivity and insight, Hogan wonders what their legacies as fearless female outliers might be.
448 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 17, 2021
This book is as the blurb from Clare Wright on the cover states: "a stunning achievement of epic storytelling, historical enquiry and elegant analysis." Daisy Bates and Ernestine Hill were two pioneering women a generation apart who would wind up being tied together in an 'unholy alliance' through their desire to explore the wild open spaces of Australia, learning about and documenting the 'disappearing' Aboriginal race, and wanting recognition for their work from the male dominated society of the 1st half the 20th century. In the late 1800's and early 1900's Daisy Bates decided to make it her life's work to document the customs and 115 dialects of the Aboriginal people of Western Australia. In 1930, Ernestine Hill headed west on the overland train as a free-lance writer for the Sydney Sun newspaper looking for a story dressed in camouflage in men's clothing to blend in. Meeting Daisy Bates, began a lifelong on again off again friendship and professional relationship. This first meeting led Ms Bates to come to Adelaide to write a series of articles in the Advertiser that were called My Natives and I, with extensive editorial and writing help from Ms Hill. In 1938 these articles were fleshed out into a book, with Ms Hill's contribution's uncredited, called The Passing of the Aboriginies, which also included fabricated stories of cannibalism and infanticide.
Ms Hill published her first book: The Great Australian Lonliness about her travels and observations about this same time which went on to be a best seller, which begins: "I was confirmed a wanderer, a nomad even as the Aboriginies." She subsequently published several more books that were not as successful.
Ms Bates was a keen observer of the natural world and the Australian bush as she wrote: "One is in God's own house here in the wild wide spaces....One is able to enter God's house at all times, there is no need of bell or candle or book or any artificial aid to worship."
Ms Hill was later given a job at the ABC Weekly as women's page writer. And later she was assigned to the board of the ABC where she thought that she could make a noticeable change in the what was thought to be women's programming. She left both disillusioned and sick of city life in Sydney, wanting for the wide open spaces.
In researching this book Ms Hogan traveled to the wide open spaces to visit places where Ms Hill an Ms Bates lived and traveled, setting up meetings with the Anangu people where most of Bates research was done. And in those meetings she got conflicting stories from people that either knew one or both when they were young children, or from what they heard from the parents or grandparents. Some of these stories conflicted with the official stories of both women. This was a fascinating and illuminating read for me, someone still trying to come to terms with the colonial history of my new home Australia.
Ms Hill published her first book: The Great Australian Lonliness about her travels and observations about this same time which went on to be a best seller, which begins: "I was confirmed a wanderer, a nomad even as the Aboriginies." She subsequently published several more books that were not as successful.
Ms Bates was a keen observer of the natural world and the Australian bush as she wrote: "One is in God's own house here in the wild wide spaces....One is able to enter God's house at all times, there is no need of bell or candle or book or any artificial aid to worship."
Ms Hill was later given a job at the ABC Weekly as women's page writer. And later she was assigned to the board of the ABC where she thought that she could make a noticeable change in the what was thought to be women's programming. She left both disillusioned and sick of city life in Sydney, wanting for the wide open spaces.
In researching this book Ms Hogan traveled to the wide open spaces to visit places where Ms Hill an Ms Bates lived and traveled, setting up meetings with the Anangu people where most of Bates research was done. And in those meetings she got conflicting stories from people that either knew one or both when they were young children, or from what they heard from the parents or grandparents. Some of these stories conflicted with the official stories of both women. This was a fascinating and illuminating read for me, someone still trying to come to terms with the colonial history of my new home Australia.
June 13, 2021
An epic quest to understand Bates and Hill and their engagement with Aboriginal people. Hogan is an insightful and vulnerable quester, asking difficult questions of herself. Her historical treatment of her subjects is built on careful archival work and is beautifully nuanced. She captures them so well in their messy wanderings, their successes and long failures. It is a costly work - Hogan dedicated many years of her life to and that dedication shines through.
July 12, 2021
Fascinating read about two amazing women in outback Australia. As they cross paths and travel across Australia many other names pop up, such as Dame Mary Gilmore and Henrietta Drake-Brockman. Learned so much Australian history.
July 7, 2024
Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates - two women I had not heard of before. Not surprising as women tend to be left out of the popular narrative, especially when writing about the past. Both of these women were writers, had an adventurous spirit, were dogged in their opinions and took the mold they were supposed to adhere to and threw it into a ditch.
Daisy Bates desperately wanted recognition and she set out to achieve this through her observations and studies of our First Nations peoples. She camped near them, lived the remote life, made her observations, documented their language and customs. She even noted how their land had been taken from them. Her work though was influenced by white preconceived ideas about indigenous people and how much agency they should have in governing their lives.
Ernestine Hill was a journalist who went out to find Bates to convince her to collaborate on a series of articles on her experiences. Their complex relationship is what makes this book fascinating. Hill had already written The Great Australian Loneliness so had some skin in the game for producing in-depth work, the issue was getting Bates on side.
They end up collaborating (in a fashion) with the resulting book, The Passing of Aborigines becoming an international best seller in 1938. However, this book had ongoing consequences. The first was that Bates would not acknowledge Hill as her co-author, so their relationship declined. Secondly the book set up opinions of First Nations peoples that impacted how they were perceived for decades, none of them helpful, some still survive today.
It is a book about two women who ignored societal expectations, took their own path and experienced the loneliness of the outback, doing the unexpected and complex relationships with each other and with those with whom they shared their lives.
Daisy Bates desperately wanted recognition and she set out to achieve this through her observations and studies of our First Nations peoples. She camped near them, lived the remote life, made her observations, documented their language and customs. She even noted how their land had been taken from them. Her work though was influenced by white preconceived ideas about indigenous people and how much agency they should have in governing their lives.
Ernestine Hill was a journalist who went out to find Bates to convince her to collaborate on a series of articles on her experiences. Their complex relationship is what makes this book fascinating. Hill had already written The Great Australian Loneliness so had some skin in the game for producing in-depth work, the issue was getting Bates on side.
They end up collaborating (in a fashion) with the resulting book, The Passing of Aborigines becoming an international best seller in 1938. However, this book had ongoing consequences. The first was that Bates would not acknowledge Hill as her co-author, so their relationship declined. Secondly the book set up opinions of First Nations peoples that impacted how they were perceived for decades, none of them helpful, some still survive today.
It is a book about two women who ignored societal expectations, took their own path and experienced the loneliness of the outback, doing the unexpected and complex relationships with each other and with those with whom they shared their lives.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews