"On duty in pursuit of the natives": accounting and truth-telling about Australia's frontier wars

Sutton, N

"On duty in pursuit of the natives": accounting and truth-telling about Australia's frontier wars

Sutton, N

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Publisher:: EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: ACCOUNTING AUDITING & ACCOUNTABILITY JOURNAL, 2022
Issue Date:: 2022-08-18

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Sutton, N https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4413-3003
dc.date.accessioned	2022-09-14T07:11:11Z
dc.date.available	2022-09-14T07:11:11Z
dc.date.issued	2022-08-18
dc.identifier.citation	ACCOUNTING AUDITING & ACCOUNTABILITY JOURNAL, 2022
dc.identifier.issn	0951-3574
dc.identifier.issn	1758-4205
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/161820
dc.description.abstract	<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>This paper considers how archival accounting records may support truth-telling about past atrocities during Australia's frontier wars.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p>The study examines two colonial accounting records – military muster payrolls and the ledger statements of a local tax fund – used during the British's punitive expeditions against the Aboriginal peoples of Sydney in 1816.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p>The accounting records reveal new information about the full scale of the campaign, the degree to which the violence was formally endorsed and acts of Aboriginal resistance. However, much of the human toll of the campaign remains obscured by the highly structured, monetary lens of financial records authored and archived by the British colonial regime.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Social implications</jats:title><jats:p>Australia's First Nations have called for greater truth-telling about the frontier wars to enable meaningful reconciliation and political recognition of Indigenous sovereignty. This study highlights the potential role of accounting records as a resource for contemporary truth-telling processes.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p>The study contributes to the literature about the dark history of accounting by explicating genre features in the content, form and context of archival accounting records, which can both render past atrocities more visible as well as perpetrate invisibilities, ambiguities and silences.</jats:p></jats:sec>
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD
dc.relation.ispartof	ACCOUNTING AUDITING & ACCOUNTABILITY JOURNAL
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1108/AAAJ-07-2020-4710
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The version of record is available at https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-07-2020-4710. The full citation is as follows: [“On duty in pursuit of the natives”: accounting and truth-telling about Australia's frontier wars. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability
dc.subject	1501 Accounting, Auditing and Accountability
dc.subject.classification	Accounting
dc.title	"On duty in pursuit of the natives": accounting and truth-telling about Australia's frontier wars
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.for	1501 Accounting, Auditing and Accountability
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business/Accounting Discipline
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.date.updated	2022-09-14T07:11:10Z
pubs.publication-status	Published

Abstract:

PurposeThis paper considers how archival accounting records may support truth-telling about past atrocities during Australia's frontier wars.Design/methodology/approachThe study examines two colonial accounting records – military muster payrolls and the ledger statements of a local tax fund – used during the British's punitive expeditions against the Aboriginal peoples of Sydney in 1816.FindingsThe accounting records reveal new information about the full scale of the campaign, the degree to which the violence was formally endorsed and acts of Aboriginal resistance. However, much of the human toll of the campaign remains obscured by the highly structured, monetary lens of financial records authored and archived by the British colonial regime.Social implicationsAustralia's First Nations have called for greater truth-telling about the frontier wars to enable meaningful reconciliation and political recognition of Indigenous sovereignty. This study highlights the potential role of accounting records as a resource for contemporary truth-telling processes.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature about the dark history of accounting by explicating genre features in the content, form and context of archival accounting records, which can both render past atrocities more visible as well as perpetrate invisibilities, ambiguities and silences.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/161820