Negotiating the colour bar

It was a nervous night for the entrants of the Grafton Jacaranda Queen contest, gathered at the Garden Theatre in Grafton on September 10th, 1968.

Most candidates were young local women who worked in the retail or service sectors. Now dressed in glamorous gowns, they vied for the coveted title by presenting a three-minute prepared speech and discussing their occupation, interests and hobbies.

None, perhaps, was more nervous than Rachel ‘Dolly’ Mundine, the first Aboriginal candidate ever to contest the title in the thirty-three year history of the Jacaranda Festival.

The festivities of the Grafton Jacaranda Festival provided an important opportunity for residents of this north-eastern NSW country town to display community pride and promote tourism.

The Queen of the Jacaranda Festival embodied the best features of the community: pleasing looks, talent, and philanthropic spirit. They represented this image to the outside world and also back to the community itself.

Sponsoring an Aboriginal candidate had been a long held ambition of members of the local Aboriginal community, and the six-year affiliation of prominent Aboriginal matriarchs with a nearby branch of the Country Women’s Association (CWA) provided an influential organisation from which to stage their campaign.

The entry of an Aboriginal candidate in the Jacaranda Queen competition showcased her attainment of respectability. Coming only one year after the historic 1967 ‘yes’ vote to include Aboriginal people in the census and to centralise responsibility for Aboriginal affairs with the Federal Government, this attempt to claim Aboriginal social inclusion was ambitious; particularly given the northern NSW rural social context, where racism had been widely exposed during the Freedom Rides of 1965.

Yet, Dolly Mundine’s CWA sponsors were optimistic about her chances. They described her as an “ideal representative” and spoke of their pride in her charm, good looks and poise.

Like her brothers Mick and Tony Mundine, who later enjoyed distinguished careers in rugby league and boxing, Dolly displayed athletic talent at an early age. Her public profile was built upon sporting achievements and her prominent role as retail assistant at the Baryulgil store.

This role signalled Dolly’s ability to negotiate the local colour bar, the often unspoken codes which denied Aboriginal access to certain community services, facilities and employment opportunities. Dolly’s social confidence was also informed by her membership in a community renowned for its independence from government control.

Baryulgil, an isolated rural village 82 km upriver from Grafton in the rugged and majestic Clarence River valley, was home to an Indigenous community known for its autonomy. Aboriginal employment rates were unusually high, thanks to the local asbestos quarry owned by the James Hardie Group. Ninety-five percent of mine workers were Aboriginal, including Dolly Mundine’s father, who worked at the mine for twenty-three years. Her thrifty mother kept the family of nine children warm at night by sewing asbestos bags together to make cosy quilts.

Before the poisonous legacy of asbestos related illness was exposed, the mine provided the respectability of regular work and enabled home ownership amongst the Baryulgil Aboriginal community. This longstanding foundation of community pride encouraged Aboriginal matriarchs of the district to challenge the low social standing of Aboriginal people on a number of fronts, including the Queen of the Jacaranda Festival, which presented the perfect opportunity to display their achievements.

Thus in September 1968, Dolly Mundine, dressed in an elegant sleeveless frock featuring clusters of pearl-centred flowers on the bodice, mounted the stage with her chaperone for the judge’s decision. She was greeted by a rousing standing ovation, in recognition of her “making history” as the first Aboriginal candidate for Jacaranda Queen competition.

The judging panel, however, was more impressed by Robyn Bartlett, a sales assistant at Holten’s Newsagency. Bartlett had proven her calibre as 1967 Grafton Chamber of Commerce Debutant of the year.

It is unsurprising that Dolly’s attempt at the Jacaranda Queen title was unsuccessful, given that one of the Jacaranda Queen’s public duties included hospital visiting. The attentions of an Aboriginal Queen would have been unwelcome to many rural white people, who still insisted on racial segregation for fear of Aboriginal contagion.

Dolly Mundine moved to Sydney not long after her Jacaranda Queen candidacy, establishing herself in the dental unit of the fledgling Redfern Aboriginal Health Service and bearing two children.

Like many Aboriginal people, however, her life was marred by injustice. Dolly was diagnosed with leukaemia at a young age and her children were forcibly removed during one of her treatment periods. She died at age twenty-eight. Her children have only recently been reunited with their Mundine kin.

Dolly Mundine’s sponsorship by the Copmanhurst-Baryulgil branch of the Country Women’s Association forms a part of post doctoral research, now in the concluding phase, by Dr Jennifer Jones, The Australian Centre, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Dr Jones is currently seeking a publisher for her book, which will be titled Country women and the colour bar: Aboriginal assimilation in the Country Women’s Association. She will take up a lecturing role at La Trobe University Bendigo in July.