Sheet Music - W.E. Naunton & H.J.W. Gyles, 'White Australia', 1910

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Sheet Music - W.E. Naunton and H.J.W. Gyles, 'White Australia', 1910

Summary:: Sheet music for the 'White Australia' song, composed by W.E. Naunton with words by Naunton and H.J.W. Gyles, and performed at the Australian Natives' Association National Fete, 31 January 1910. The song consists of three verses and a chorus. Motifs on the sheet music include a white map of Australia. Naunton was a prolific composer who wrote music for many songs relating to Australian nationalism and other subjects. Naunton's College of Music was located at 145 Collins Steet, Melbourne.The sheet music was published by A.M. Dinsdale,105-107 Bourke Street, Melbourne.

This music is an unusual and evocative example of the popular promotion of the White Australia sentiment which dominated Australian immigration policy after Federation and which was promoted by organisations such as the Australian Natives' Association. The Australian Natives' Association was a Friendly Society which provided benefits to its Australian-born members. It was a staunch supporter of trade protection and immigration restriction, and Prime Minister Alfred Deakin was a member.
Description:: Six-page sheet music, with central spine fold and one loose central page. Cream paper with illustrated front cover in primarily blue, red and yellow. Includes Commonwealth of Australia coat of arms with words 'ADVANCE AUSTRALIA ANA' underneath; white map of Australia with song chorus; and images of Sir T. Gibson-Carmichael, K.C.B, State Governor of Victoria, His Excellency the Earl of Dudley, Governor-General of the Commonwealth and W.E.Naunton the composer.

Inside pages contain music and lyrics for 'White Australia'. Rear cover features advertisement for 'the Keyboard System of Music' by W.E. Naunton.

Discipline:	History
Dimensions:	360 mm (Height), 260 mm (Width)

More information

Tagged with:	white australia policy, 1 or 1 1, 1 1, 1 and 1 1, or 1 1--, order by 1000, or a a
Themes this item is part of:	Australian Natives Association (ANA), Melbourne, Victoria, Cultural Diversity Collection, Migration Collection, Public Life & Institutions Collection, Getting In, Immigration Museum Exhibition, 2003-2015
Primary Classification:	POLITICS & PUBLIC PROTEST
Secondary Classification:	Nationalism
Tertiary Classification:	music
Inscriptions:	Printed on front cover: 'THE GREAT NATIONAL POLICY SONG / WHITE AUSTRALIA / ADVANCE AUSTRALIA / ANA. / Australia! Australia! / Sunny south of Old Britannia's sons, / Australia, the white man's land, / Defended by the white man's guns, / Australia! Australia! / For Anglo Saxon race and Southern Cross, / God bless and help us to protect / Our glorious land Australia. / AUSTRALIA THE WHITE MAN'S LAND / Dedicated by the / composer / to / THE AUSTRALIAN NATION / FEATURED and SUNG AT THE A.N.A. NATIONAL FETE, JANUARY 31st 1910, / SIR THOMAS GIBSON - CARMICHAEL, Bart., K.C.M.G. / THE NATIONAL SONG / MUSIC BY W.E. NAUNTON / WORDS BY / THE COMPOSER & H.J.W. GYLES / NAUNTON / MELB. / COLLEGE. / W.E. NAUNTON / Published for the Composer by / A. M. DINSDALE, / 105 - 107 BOURKE ST. MELBOURNE / This Song is published in the Keyboard System of Music invented by - W.E. NAUNTON, and obtainable at 145 Collins St. Melb.' Reverse printed in blue ink: 'A GREAT AND SUCCESSFUL AUSTRALIAN / MUSICAL INVENTION / Naunton College of Music, / 145 COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE / Established 1904' Extensive text follows.
Composer:	W. Naunton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1910
Composer:	H. Gyles, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1910
Issued By:	Australian Natives' Association (ANA), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1910

Comments

Jenny Gilard Posted on 27 Mar 2012 7:07 PM

That is Sooooooooooooooo racist you guys should be ashamed of your selfs! God what a selfish idiots.... You know what? if it wasn't for Asia and America especially China, you guys would have lived harder! you guys cant do much a lot without others around the world, you guys are not in charge! also you guys are one of the weakest countries! just live like others, I bet no other countries wrote this kind of crap! WTF.... I think you guys should be embarrassed by uploading this....

Discovery Centre Posted on 28 Mar 2012 10:54 AM

Hi Jenny, thanks for your response to this item in the Museum’s collection. Unfortunately the offence caused in terms of the Museum’s own position is perhaps misplaced. Museum Victoria develops collections which reflect the diversity of Australia’s history – which must include both positive and negative aspects of our past. Objects such as this White Australia sheet music demonstrates the racism which has existed in Australian society over time and enables the Museum to explore these issues in exhibitions at the Immigration Museum such as Getting In: Australia’s Immigration Policies Past and Present (in which this object is displayed) and Identity: yours, mine, ours where racism is tackled as a major theme. Please refer to the exhibition website to see other examples of how Museum collections can be used to discuss challenging topics, and without which, our representations of the past would be sanitised and incomplete.

Geoff Ellis Posted on 30 May 2012 11:23 AM

If we ignore our history we are bound to relive it. These policies were a product of their times and reflect concerns based on xenophobia and isolationism. Keeping these items available to public scrutiny reminds us of how far we have progressed and opens debate about how much further we have to go.

Osred Posted on 19 Aug 2012 3:03 PM

Every Australian Prime Minister and political leader from Edmund Barton to Robert Menzies believed (or at least claimed to believe) in the "White Australia Policy". They were evidently supported by the overwhelming majority of the Australian electorate. To suggest that an entire nation was motivated by mere "xenophobia and isolationism" is a thoughtless slur on the brave and intelligent people who made this nation so successful that foreigners are willing to risk drowning in unseaworthy boats while trying to get here.

Gary Haskins Posted on 19 Aug 2012 6:36 PM

A quote from “Rethinking the White Australia Policy” by Professor Andrew Fraser:

“… The orthodox doctrine that race is only skin deep is only one of the official fictions (of the globalist regime) underpinning the transnational system; more fundamental to the regime's legitimacy is the cornucopian myth of endless economic growth. Seen through the eyes of the managerial class, Australia is an economy, not a country. Nevertheless, a folk memory still survives of a time when Australia was "the lucky country," the homeland of a particular people of British stock with their own particular way of life. Should the globalist economy first falter and finally fail, regime change may yet become possible for this and other Western countries …”
Full article can be read at:
http://www.ironbarkresources.com/articles/fraser2005rethinkingwap.htm

Jennifer Green Posted on 19 Aug 2012 8:13 PM

It is aweful to see the comments people are making about racism,We are AUSTRALIANS And how many country'S that have taken over other countrys in the past,You dont see them giving back the lands they won In wars.....You also do not see them keeping The original Settlers country names Either..... Im proud to be of English descent,pioneer stock.I never hurt nobody or stole their land,Get over It people and move on......

Danny Knowles Posted on 20 Aug 2012 2:33 AM

Thanks for that uneducated bit of pointless diatribe Jenny Gilard. Gave me a chuckle at least

Seana Fenner Posted on 21 Aug 2012 9:48 AM

@ “Discovery “ What you have said is actually what is “racist”. As an employee of this organization, presumably state funded (?), how DARE you refer to white European Australians being united as a people as being “racist” or “negative”? Would you do that in regard to a group of Maori looking after their own rights and welfare and singing an ethnic song…call them “racist”? The term” racist” was invented to make whites think caring about their own interests and identifying with their own people is somehow “wrong”. This idea of “racism” is never applied to any OTHER people of course. Are you, as someone who works at this establishment, publically espousing anti- European views and calling Europeans who love their own culture and people abusive names? There is no benefit WHATSOEVER to European Australians in non- European immigration, in fact, quite the reverse. In America, more than 90 percent of all inter-racial crime has white victims, and worldwide, Europeans are now only 7 percent.

Simon harkom Posted on 21 Aug 2012 1:31 PM

Isnt the document in question a historical one?
Isnt the museum a place for historical documents to be exhibited?
Seriously why argue about this?

Alexandra Posted on 21 Aug 2012 2:29 PM

Simon is right as far as he goes. A problem arises when the museum portrays what was the normative and is still a powerful viewpoint in Australia as being negative and somehow aberrant. It isn't, and it wasn't. The desire for a "White Australia Policy" was one of the main causes of Australian Federation in 1901. The fact that white people wanted a secure homeland is not a "challenging topic" that must be "tackled". It is a basic human desire, shared by all races and cultures. Nor is it somehow "unsanitary", as suggested by the museum spokesperson above. And that comment typifies the problem. The Museum is taxpayer-funded, and is not there to impose its current staff's interpretations on Australian history.