Colonialism and Racism Theme Analysis

“The Drover's Wife” takes place in a colonial context, where white settlers are starting to move into new frontier territory formerly occupied only by Aboriginal people. Though the bushwoman is of European descent and thus represents the colonizers in the context of the story, Lawson also says that “her husband is an Australian, and so is she,” implying that their families have been in Australia long enough that they feel a distinct claim to the territory. What’s more, in the story, the bushwoman interacts with Aboriginal people only twice—and in both instances these people are portrayed as tricky or unserious. This, coupled with the fact that the white settlers are portrayed as fighting (and winning) a noble battle against nature, suggests that Lawson views Aboriginal people as lacking a legitimate prior claim to the land and further sees the white settlers as gaining such a claim by taming a barren natural landscape—a common, if ultimately racist and harmful, viewpoint at the time of Lawson’s writing.

Lawson portrays the few Aboriginal characters who appear in the story as deceptive, untrustworthy, and silly. He also calls them “blackfellows,” employing many negative racial stereotypes in their description. The first Aboriginal man to appear in the story is “King Jimmy.” When the bushwoman is giving birth and “ill with fever,” King Jimmy puts his “black face round the door post” and “cheerfully” offers to fetch his “old woman.” Although King Jimmy is ultimately helpful, he is portrayed as unserious, and Lawson takes care to emphasize the darkness of his skin—thereby establishing his difference from (and, given the time period of the story, subordination to) the bushwoman.

The second and last time that an Aboriginal character appears in the story, the bushwoman asks a “stray blackfellow” to build a woodpile for her, a task for which she gives him an “extra fig of tobacco” and praises “him for not being lazy.” However, she later learns that he has cheated her by building a hollow woodpile, and “tears spring to her eyes.” Thus, the only other Aboriginal man in the story does something so deceitful that it reduces the bushwoman, who is portrayed as a resilient character, to tears. Lawson also calls the man who builds the woodpile a “stray,” bringing to mind a dog and thus suggesting a similarity between Aboriginal people and animals. Together, these details create a decidedly prejudiced image of Aboriginals as less noble—and, in turn, less worthy of their land—than the white settlers.

Notably, however, there aren’t many Aboriginal characters in the story at all, despite the fact that many lived in the Australian bush at the time. This absence itself underscores their secondary importance in the white settlers’ minds and suggests that the land in the outback is free for the taking. What’s more, with the exception of King Jimmy and his wife, all of the victories and positive events in the story involve only white European settlers; positive portrayals of Aboriginal people are absent from the narrative. Lawson says that the drover and his wife “started squatting [where they live] when they were married,” implying with the use of the word “squatting” that they were not legally given or sold the land but rather took it without seeking permission for its use. This paired with the heroic depiction of the bushwoman's victories over nature suggests that Lawson is legitimizing the bushwoman's use of the land. In this way, he implies that cultivation of the land creates a legitimate claim to it.

The attitude toward native Australians evident in this story was widespread during the colonial period in Australia and is in fact still widespread there today. Moreover, centuries of mistreatment of Aboriginal people in Australia has led to a situation where such people occupy a much lower social class on average than descendants of white European settlers, and often live separated from the rest of the Australian population. Taken in this historical context, the depiction of aboriginal people in “The Drover's Wife” gives the reader insight into the colonial and racist dynamics that existed in Australia a century ago, and therefore provides insight into how things came to be the way there are in the Australia of today—chiefly, the negative ways that aboriginal people are depicted in the story exemplify the racist attitudes that shaped land rights policy at the time, which subsequently shaped the legal and demographic patterns that still exist in Australia.