The case of Elsie Barrett: Aboriginal women, sexuality and the Victorian Board for the Protection of Aborigines

This article examines the 'case' of Elsie Barrett, one of a number of girls removed from Victorian Aboriginal missions in the 1910s. Elsie, an 'Aboriginal', was removed from Lake Tyers mission, in Gippsland, following her love affair with a 'half-caste' man who was banned from the mission. This relationship led to the production of one of the lengthiest case files in the Board for the Protection of Aborigines archive. In this article, I explore the question of what made Elsie's case problematic and investigate her perceived transgression of intersecting moral and legal codes. I suggest that her case is revealing of the way in which preoccupations with Aboriginal women's sexuality overrode the statutory racial distinctions set out in the Aborigines Protection Act of 1886. Central to this article is recognition of the crucial role of gender and sexuality in informing the drafting and implementation of the Victorian Aborigines protection legislation.