Married to a ‘British Subject’

In the archives lie the stories of our past, stories that knowingly or unknowingly live in our present. For Aboriginal families, finding records can be a critical source of great healing, enhance and affirm identity, and provide families with new understandings of how things came to be. This essay affords agency to First Nations families looking to the archives for their stories, reading historical documents against the grain, and telling their stories their way. Through family memory, reflection, and archival research, it delivers the microhistory, rich in feeling, of one First Nations family, through the experiences of Mabel Ita Eatts (née Frederick), an ancestral matriarch, a Jaru woman, and the Great Grandmother of the author. Mabel was a member of the Stolen Generations and was later deeply influenced by exemption policy. Her story brings to life the struggles faced by Aboriginal ‘half-caste’ women living in Broome and Derby in the 1920s and 1930s, explicitly highlighting not only the invasive oppression expressed through this policy but, more importantly, how Mabel actively negotiated the system. This paper is a powerful example of how one Aboriginal family writes back to the colonising archive.     

Empirical testing of estimated DNA frequencies

Direct empirical testing of forensic DNA micro-probabilities has proved difficult. Substantial support for the population genetic models on which these micro-probabilities are based has come from powerful but indirect means. However for many people empirical testing rather than models remains the ideal.Following the example set by Weir and Evett we report here a large-scale empirical test of a population genetic model incorporating substructure and relatedness. Given that all models represent simplifications of reality the fit of observed and prediction is remarkable and gives substantial support to the reliability of current methods.     

The effect of uniform and prior knowledge on children's event reports and disclosure of secrets

The present paper examined the effect of police uniform on the accuracy of 6- to 8-year-old children's reports about an event and it explored the roles that interviewer prior knowledge and social status play in mediating any effects of uniform. Two studies were conducted; in the first study, interviewers wore uniforms that were independent of a forensic context whereas in the second study, the interviews were conducted by police officers who wore either uniform or civilian clothes. Children reported more information (accurate, as well as inaccurate) to a police interviewer in civilian clothes compared to uniform. This finding was found only in the police uniform context. Interviewer's prior knowledge had no impact on the children's reports in either context. The likely impact of police uniform is discussed. Authors' Note: Thanks to many teachers, principals and children who volunteered to partake in this project and to Sarah Agnew, Greg Angenent, Catherine Borg, Sue Connor, Agnes Kalinowski, Joanna Kellis and Vivian Mikhail who assisted in the data collection, coding and analysis. Thanks also to the members of the Victorian Police (Community Policing Squad) who conducted interviews for this project, and to Sergeant Lisa McMeeken, and Senior Constable Jennifer Evans of the VATE project who coordinated the police interviews.     

The Defence of Iturbide or the Defence of Federalism? Rebellion in Jalisco and the Conspiracy of the Calle de Celaya, 1824

Abstract: This article investigates a planned rebellion in favour of Agustín de Iturbide organised by a group of his supporters in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in 1824. It shows that the rebels in Guadalajara were in close communication with a second cadre of conspirators in Mexico City. By examining the various plans drawn up by the rebels, the article demonstrates the existence of two separate and apparently contradictory aims for the rebellion: the return of Iturbide and the defence of federalism. The question posed by the paper is: does this discovery indicate a coalition between federalists and iturbidistas against the central government in Mexico City?