"The Native Mourner" and Sentimental Complaint in the Penal Colony

Image shows an old copy of the Sydney Gazette newspaper dated Saturday, March 5, 1803. The contents of the newspaper is indistinct.
1804 Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser

4th Floor Linkway, John Medley Building, University of Melbourne.

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"The Native Mourner" and Sentimental Complaint in the Penal Colony

Ruby Connor (University of Melbourne)

  • Wednesday 23 September, 4:00-5:30pm
  • 4th Floor Linkway, John Medley Building, University of Melbourne

Abstract

“The Native Mourner” inaugurates a specifically colonial form of sentimental poetry that would crystallise some decades later in the Romantic Aboriginal “lament”. The poem, printed in the 1804 Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, is a lament from the perspective of Aboriginal speaker “Lamhuiga” upon the death of her lover “Ebroe”. By situating “The Native Mourner” in the history of the complaint genre, this paper considers the relationship between the poetic and the legal complaint in early New South Wales, described by Bruce Kercher as a “very litigious place”.

Ruby Connor

Image shows a black and white photo of a woman's face who has shoulder length dark hair and a fringe

Ruby is a graduate research student in English and Theatre Studies. Her MA thesis is about sentimental poetry in colonial Australia.