Jean Devanny, Sugar Heaven

“Organisation is for the purpose of developing the latent talents of the women. See how we live! Nothing uplifting about our lives is there? We’ve got no objective. We live and breed and die. Life isn’t meant to be like that. Life is meant for joy and expansion and objective living. I think it’s the job of women to rear a race of young who will live better lives than we live; who will be able to create a better world than we, their elders, have been able to create. It’s not a question of what women can do; it is what can’t they do?

1982
1 January 1936
2 September 2010
2 September 2010
246, 298
Redback Press
Melbourne

Carole Ferrier, ‘Jean Devanny: Romantic Revolutionary, Journal of Australian Studies, nos 54-55, 1997

Nicole Moore, ‘Remember love and struggle?: reading Jean Devanny's Sugar Heaven in contemporary Australian contexts’, Australian Literary Studies, v21, no3, May 2004

Queensland has always been known for its extremes.

For more than one hundred years Queensland’s main mental health facility was based on the banks of the Brisbane River near Goodna.

Working men often appeared in moleskins, Crimea striped shirts with no collar or coat. Richard Daintree photographed these miners outside their bark hut c1870.

Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland image 71854

What separate spheres do women and men inhabit, and is there a particular Queensland style?

Map of Queensland Reserves and Missions, 1958

QLD
Australia
1 January 1959
1 September 2010
1 September 2010

Location

QLD
Australia
Queensland Parliamentary Papers

Map of Queensland Reserves and Missions, 1958. Location of Government Settlements, Church Missions and Torres Strait Island Reserves. Native Affairs - Annual Report of the Director of Native Affairs for the year ended 30 June 1958, Queensland Parliamentary Papers, Vol 2, 1958–59.  Places mapped include Cherbourg Settlement, Woorabinda Settlement, Foleyvale Reserve, Aitkenvale Hostel, Palm Island Settlement, Fantome Island, Yarrabah Mission, Mona Mona Mission, Bloomfield Mission, Hopevale Mission, Lockhart River Mission, Bamaga Settlement, Mapoon Mission, Weipa Mission, Aurukun Mission, Edward River Mission, Doomadgee Mission, Morningington Island, Boigu Island, Dauan Island, Mabuiag Island, Badu Island, Moa Island, Saibai Island, Darnley Island, Yorke Island, Murray Island, Stephen Island, Yam Island, Coconut Island, and Thursday Island.

Palm Island Dancers, 1930. Collection of John Oxley Library. The photographer has positioned visiting white tourists at centre stage. 

Collection of John Oxley Library

Carpet snake painting

Palm Island’s origins are in Gubbal or Carpet Snake Dreaming. The painting by James McAvoy, with assistance from other Palm Islanders, Joanne Bulmer, Vina Palmer and HJ Wilson, is one of many tributes to Palm’s history that are displayed on the island yet often overlooked by visiting journalists. Private Collection.

Location

Palm Island, QLD
Australia

Plan of Palm Island Compound, Justices Department, 7 January 1931. Collection of Queensland State Archives. Palm Island compound (1930) built on the principle of segregation akin to apartheid.  Palm Islanders were banned from entering tree lined Mango Avenue where white staff members were housed.

Collection of Queensland State Archives

Map of Palm and Surrounding Islands, 1941

Palm Island, QLD
Australia
1 January 1941
1 September 2010
1 September 2010

Location

Palm Island, QLD
Australia
Lands Office

Collection of Queensland State Archives

Map of Palm and Surrounding Islands, 1941. Lands Office, Palm Island Bundle. Collection of Queensland State Archives. Palm and surrounding islands.  Fantome’s lock hospital for treatment of venereal disease was positioned opposite Palm’s Coolgaree Bay. The lazarette for leprosy sufferers were positioned at the opposite end.

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