Chapter 11: The most interesting race on earth
p267 ‘The natives at . . .’ from Edith Coleman, 1938, ‘One man’s meat’, Walkabout, 4, pp36–38. pp269–71 This reconstruction is based on information in Edith’s letters to Rica Sandilands. The material about the fundraiser for animals and Gladys’s return from her trip comes from a letter dated 2 November 1933, while other material on Gladys is from letters dated 31 December 1931, 7 February 1932 and 27 March 1932. Some of their misadventures while up north are recorded in Donald’s newspaper articles of the time, particularly the series ‘White Man and his wife: Life up north among the Nomads’. Edith’s thoughts about Dorothy marrying are from a letter to Rica Sandilands dated 25 February 1932. All the letters from the Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. p271 Information on Blackburn and Healesville’s original custodians from Isabel Ellender and Peter Christiansen, 2001, People of the Merri Merri: The Wurundjeri in Colonial Days (Merri Creek Management Committee: East Brunswick) pp112–113 and Gary Presland, 2001, Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People (Harriland Press: Forest Hill) pp105–107. p272 ‘Could we get . . .’ ‘The Coranderrk petition’ (21 September 1886) E 9263, Public Record Office of Victoria. For a history of Coranderrk see Diane Barwick, 1998, Rebellion at Coranderrk (Aboriginal History Inc: Canberra). p273 ‘colonising narratives that . . .’ Hannah Donnelly, 2016, ‘The Unnatural Way of Things’, The Book That, https://thewritersbloc.net/unnatural-way-things [accessed 20.2. 2017]. p274 ‘English is my . . .’ Quoted in Maryam Azam, 2014, ‘Alexis Wright: “it was like writing a story to the ancestors”’, The Guardian, 25 May, https://www.theguardian.com/books/australia-culture-blog/2014/may/25/ alexis-wright-it-was-like-writing-a-story-to-the-ancestors [accessed 27.2.2017]. Mark Tredinnick, 2007, ‘Under the mountains and besides a creek: Robert Gray and the shepherding of Antipodean being,’ in C. A. Cranston and Robert Zeller (eds) The Littoral Zone: Australian contexts and their writers (Rodopi: Amsterdam) p141. ‘The land and . . .’ Judith Wright, quoted in Veronica Brady, 1998, South of My Days: A biography of Judith Wright (Angus and Robertson: Sydney) p121. p275 ‘When the stories . . .’ Catherine Mauk, 2017, ‘Geography of the self’, Terrain.org: A journal of the built and natural environment, https://www.terrain.org/2017/nonfiction/geography-of-the-self/ [accessed 25.3.2017]. Information on Donald Thomson from Bruce Rigby and Nicolas Peterson (eds) Donald Thomson, the man and scholar (Academy of Social Sciences in Australia: Canberra) p3. Gladys seems to have completed all her studies by the end of 1926 (after taking no subjects in 1925) but her degree was not conferred until 1928, when her research grant was awarded (Student Record for Gladys Thomson, UMA). John Thomson recalls that Gladys supported the family with her writing. During this time Donald also published prolifically in the newspapers as a naturalist and anthropologist. ‘You can imagine . . .’ letter from Edith Coleman to Rica Sandilands, 31 December 1931, Rica Erickson Papers SLWA. p276 ‘As soon as . . .’ and ‘Almost anyone will . . .’ Donald Thomson, 1934, ‘White Man and his Wife among Nomads of the North, Part 1’ The Mail (Adelaide) 8 September, p2. ‘Flo Kennedy, then . . .’ and ‘the old people . . .’ from Rigby and Peterson, 2005, p13. Lindy Allen, 2008, ‘Tons and Tons of Valuable Material: The Donald Thomson Collection’, in Nicolas Peterson, Lindy Allen and Louise Hamby (eds) The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections (Melbourne University Publishing: Melbourne) p394. Diane Bell, 1980, Daughters of the Dreaming (University of Minnesota Press: Minnesota). p277 ‘A few natives . . .’ and ‘One felt a . . .’ from Edith Coleman, 1929, ‘Across the continent to Perth: Impression of colour and vast distances’, The Argus, 23 November, p10. ‘They are almost . . .’ in a letter from Edith Coleman to Rica Sandilands, 2 November 1933, Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. p278 ‘would only place . . .’ letter from Peter Thomson to Rica Erickson, 26 February, 2001, Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. p279 ‘Scientists in Australia’s Far North–Adventures of Mr and Mrs Donald Thomson’, The Sydney Mail, 1 November 1933, pp26–27. ‘It seems strange . . .’ letter from Edith Coleman to Rica Sandilands, 2 November 1933, Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. ‘They are scrupulously . . .’ ‘Life among Natives: Scientists’ Experiences’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 October 1933, p12. p280 ‘They had walked . . .’ in a letter from Edith Coleman to Rica Sandilands, 5 September 1932, Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. p281 ‘His wife and . . .’ ‘Life among Natives’, 1933. ‘The illustrations depict . . .’ and ‘Gladys was always
