Exception or Exemption? The Broome Pearling Industry and the ›White Australia Policy‹

• Applicant: Dr. Stefanie Affeldt
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 403220357

The research project "Exception or Exemption? The Broome Pearling Industry and the White Australia Policy" will be a historico-sociological analysis of Australian racism at the turn of the 20th century. Said racism was programmatic, defined the constitution of the country as a nation and aimed at the safeguarding of Australia’s ›whiteness‹. By contrast, the north-western town of Broome often was and still is considered an exceptional case.This project will assess whether this perception holds true and will identify the responsible circumstances. Therewith it provides new and crucial insights into processes of racist discrimination. This applies not only to the construction of ›whiteness‹ and its manifestations in the Australian context. It concerns above all the concept of racism as a social relation, which is determined by prejudice but even more so by the opportunities for agency on the part of those involved, that is offenders as well as victims. Moreover, the research project closes a research gap regarding the history of ›white Australia‹. For this, the project vets cultural, social and political interrelations between Broome and the rest of Australia. To this end, it collates the (unsuccessful) attempt of ›whitening‹ the pearling industry with the successful transformation of the Queensland sugar industry into producing ›white sugar‹. At the same time, the project examines the interrelations between both sectors. This will be contextualized globally (which suggests itself not least because international Western ›warnings‹ against an alleged ›coloured peril‹ were decisively influenced by Australia).The research project employs supplementary research methods. Process analysis discusses mechanisms of transnational inclusion and racist exclusion, illuminates Broome’s special status in light of the implementation of "white Australia", and confronts it with the wider context of a global crisis of "whiteness" triggered by the "yellow peril" and Japan’s aspiration for "racial equality". Network analysis provides valuable insights into local pressure groups, conflicts in the form of intrapersonal interests, and diasporic interconnections between international groups in Broome and their countries of origin. Discourse analysis makes accessible and evaluates governmental reports, local as well as national political debates, and public discourse. The triangulation of the three main groups of primary sources (parliamentary material, newspapers, and other published material) complements the information gained from the secondary literature and seminally analyses the processes that contributed to the forming and persistence of a unique ›coloured enclave‹ in an otherwise "white Australia". In doing so, the project also contributes to questions of both the resistance and the fight against racism.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants