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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Marcus Clarke's daughters, Rose Amelia Louisa Bradly and Ethel Marian Marcus Clarke, applied for the copyright of this song, adapted from Marcus Clarke's work, in 1927.
Notes
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The full text of this song is available online via the National Archives of Australia.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Fiction and Fakements in Colonial Australia
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Studies , September vol. 23 no. 3 2020; (p. 360-370)'The imaginations of convicts in Australia became attuned to the pairing of opposites and this led to strange tensions in their way of representing things. On Norfolk Island the meanings of words were reversed, so that ‘good’ meant ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ meant ‘beautiful’. This undermining of official meanings produced the argot called the ‘flash’ or ‘kiddy’ language of the colony. Designed at first to keep private sentiments from being inspected, it eventually supported a system of dissident actions called ‘cross-work’ or ‘cross doings’. One word loomed large amidst these inversions: ‘fakement’, meaning booty, forgery or deceit. The verb has more extensive meanings: rob, wound, shatter; ‘fake your slangs’ means break your shackles. It also meant performing a fiction and accepting the consequences of it.' (Publication abstract)
-
Fiction and Fakements in Colonial Australia
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Studies , September vol. 23 no. 3 2020; (p. 360-370)'The imaginations of convicts in Australia became attuned to the pairing of opposites and this led to strange tensions in their way of representing things. On Norfolk Island the meanings of words were reversed, so that ‘good’ meant ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ meant ‘beautiful’. This undermining of official meanings produced the argot called the ‘flash’ or ‘kiddy’ language of the colony. Designed at first to keep private sentiments from being inspected, it eventually supported a system of dissident actions called ‘cross-work’ or ‘cross doings’. One word loomed large amidst these inversions: ‘fakement’, meaning booty, forgery or deceit. The verb has more extensive meanings: rob, wound, shatter; ‘fake your slangs’ means break your shackles. It also meant performing a fiction and accepting the consequences of it.' (Publication abstract)