Tag: CEDTs

Revealing the Real Face of White Australia: new project and transcribe-a-thon

This semester I am working with Tim Sherratt’s Exploring Digital Heritage class at the University of Canberra to undertake an important project on the White Australia Policy, using records from the National Archives of Australia and collaborating with the Museum of Australian Democracy.

The project involves transcribing digitised files from series ST84/1 – mostly Certificates of Domicile and Certificates Exempting from the Dictation Test dating from the early decades of the 20th century.

Under the White Australia Policy, anyone deemed not to be ‘white’ who travelled overseas had to carry these special documents. Without them travellers could be subjected to the Dictation Test and denied re-entry — even though they might have been born in Australia or had been naturalised.

The certificates contain information about ordinary people living their lives despite the restrictions imposed on them by a racist bureaucratic system. By transcribing these documents — extracting information about their names, their ages, their places of birth, their travels overseas — we hope to learn more about them and their experiences.

Only about 15 per cent of series ST84/1 has been digitised so far, but Tim estimates that there are about 6000 certificates already available online. There are two copies of most certificates, so that’s about 3000 unique certificates.

To extract the data Tim has built a website using Scribe, a community transcription platform developed by Zooniverse and the New York Public Library. His students are developing the documentation for the site and will support volunteer transcribers.

We will launch the transcription site on the weekend of the 9–10 September at the Real Face of White Australia Transcribe-a-thon hosted by the Museum of Australian Democracy. Across the weekend we’ll have transcription stations set up in Kings Hall. We’ll also have a series of speakers – Dr Sophie Couchman, Dr Peter Prince, Tim and myself – talking about the records and what they can tell us. Students will be managing communications and event planning related to the transcribe-a-thon.

It’ll be an exciting event — come along and help! Or if you’re not in Canberra, stay tuned for details of how you can be involved in transcribing the records online.

http://transcribe.realfaceofwhiteaustralia.net

 

Form 21 certificates, 1902–1908

Over the first few years of the 20th century, Form 21 (Certificate of Domicile, then Certificate Exempting from Dictation Test) went through various iterations as the procedures for administering the Immigration Restriction Act were bedded down. After 1906, the CEDT form remained basically the same until the Dictation Test was abolished in the late 1940s.

The certificates below are the first example of each iteration of the certificate found in the records of the NSW Collector of Customs in the National Archives in Sydney. Certificates of Domicile and CEDTs issued in Sydney are held in series ST84/1, except for those issued in 1902 which are held in SP11/6.

1902 – First Certificate of Domicile

The first Certificate of Domicile issued in New South Wales is found in a volume of certificates from 1902 in NAA: SP11/6, CERTIFICATE DOMICILE MISCELLANEOUS PASSENGERS 1909-1926. More about SP11/6 in an earlier post.

Certificate of Domicile of Yaw Foon, 3 February 1902 (NAA: SP11/6, CERTIFICATE DOMICILE MISCELLANEOUS PASSENGERS 1909-1926)
1903 – First Form 21 Certificate of Domicile

Certificates of Domicile from 1903 onwards are held in series ST84/1. More about this first certificate in an earlier post.

Front of Certificate of Domicile of Ah Shooey, 31 December 1902 (ST84/1, 1903/1-10)
Back of Certificate of Domicile of Ah Shooey, 31 December 1902 (ST84/1, 1903/1-10)
1903 – First Certificate of Domicile with photographs on reverse
Front of Certificate of Domicile of Ah Chong, 4 August 1903 (ST84/1, 1903/161-170)
Back of Certificate of Domicile of Ah Chong, 4 August 1903 (ST84/1, 1903/161-170)
1904 – First Certificate of Domicile with photographs on front
Front of Certificate of Domicile of Lee Too, 23 March 1904 (ST84/1, 1904/71-80)
Back of Certificate of Domicile of Lee Too, 23 March 1904 (ST84/1, 1904/71-80)
1906 – First Certificate Exempting from Dictation Test (CEDT)
Front of CEDT of Chun Low, 15 February 1906 (ST84/1, 1906/01-10)
Back of CEDT of Chun Low, 15 February 1906 (ST84/1, 1906/01-10)
1908 – First CEDT with new numbering system
Front of CEDT of King Yow, 20 October 1908 (NAA: ST84/1, 1908/11/1-10)

The real face of White Australia

In October 1911, the Sydney Morning Herald published a short article under the headline, ‘An indignity: photographs and finger-prints’. The article discussed the situation of Charles Yee Wing, a wealthy and respected Sydney businessman, who had asked to be exempted from having to supply his handprint and photograph as part of the process of being issued a CEDT.

Yee Wing had travelled before and was well-known to Customs officials. In this case, the Customs Department was willing to dispense with the necessity of taking his fingerprints, but Yee Wing was still required to provide his photograph. As the Herald wrote:

Mr Wing is a merchant of some standing, held in high esteem by Europeans and Chinese alike, and it was supposed that in his case the notification would be a purely formal business, and that he would not, since everybody who has business relations with the Chinese community knows him, have to go through the process by which the officials identify on their return Chinese domicilied in Australia who have been for trips to their native land.

Yee Wing’s primary objection was that the officials insisted upon photographing him, in various positions, ‘just like a criminal’.

(This photograph of Charles Yee Wing was taken three years earlier in 1908, when he travelled to Fiji where he had business interests. It was the ‘profile’ photograph attached to his CEDT (Certificate Exempting from Dictation Test). NAA: ST84/1, 1908/301-310.)

Today our images are used to identify us in all sorts of situations—passports, drivers licences, student cards, work ID cards, building swipe cards and even online with sites like Twitter or Facebook. We have varying amounts of control over what images of ourselves are used in these contexts—I know that I have a couple of passports with photographs that I would rather had never seen light of day, and I hope that they aren’t the only images of me that survive for future generations! But we generally accept that these representations of ourselves are necessary. And we certainly don’t think when we head to the post office for a new passport photo that we are being treated ‘like a criminal’. So why did Charles Yee Wing feel that way?

A hundred years ago, few people had formal papers which stated their identity, and the use of photographs on such identity documents was still in its infancy. It wasn’t until World War I, for example, that countries like the United States and Britain developed passports specifically designed with a space for a photograph. But over the second half of the nineteenth-century, authorities had begun to use photographs for administrative purposes, particularly as technologies such as the carte de visite made photographs cheaper and more portable.

In Australia, authorities began using photographs in an ad hoc way to assist in the identification of Chinese entering Australia in the 1890s, perhaps even the 1880s, but by far the most common official use of the photograph at this time was in the photographing of criminals. In New South Wales, for instance, the keeping of gaol photograph description books commenced around 1870. Such mug shots were used by police in identifying and keeping track of criminals and, in fact, the close tie between this form of portrait photography and its criminal subjects led some to criticise its use—because it tainted the practice, and art, of photography more generally.

In 2005, the Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV), together with the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo, launched what became a popular travelling exhibition, Forgotten Faces: Chinese and the Law. The exhibition presented large reproductions of gaol photographs of Chinese men imprisoned in Victoria between the 1870s and 1900, accompanied by brief biographical sketches drawn mostly from court and prison records. Dr Sophie Couchman, who knows more about photographs of and by Chinese Australians than any other person alive, was critical of the exhibition for ‘deliberately pulling photographs of Chinese prisoners from the wider prison archive’, thereby presenting the Chinese in colonial Victoria as both criminals and powerless victims of government bureaucracy (Couchman 2009, p. 122). Sophie futher noted that in doing this, the exhibition obscured the fact that Chinese were being treated in the same way as other residents of Victoria. In 2011, the PROV has put a selection of the images from the exhibition in its wiki, encouraging user contributions and plotting the subjects’ place of residence on a Google map.

A wall of faces

As part of our Invisible Australians project, Tim Sherratt has recently been experimenting with facial detection technology to automatically extract and crop photographs from CEDTs. You can read Tim’s discussion of what he’s done over at his blog. After extracting 7,000 photographs from Sydney series ST84/1, about a seventh of which is digitised in RecordSearch, Tim built an interface to display them as an interactive wall of faces. As Tim was putting it all together, I thought of Sophie’s critique of the use of photographs of Chinese people in the Forgotten Faces exhibition and of the way the images had been assembled together in rows as a kind of rogues gallery. I also thought of Charles Yee Wing’s comments a hundred years ago about the indignity of having to provide his photograph for a CEDT.

Could the same kind of criticisms be levelled at our wall of faces as at Forgotten Faces? Are we representing our subjects as more than passive victims of a racist bureaucracy? Are we using their images respectfully and decently? Are their images able to be understood by our contemporary audience? And how should we acknowledge the resistance and opposition of people like Charles Yee Wing?

I have been working with the CEDTs and other associated records (the ‘White Australia records’, for want of a better term) for about 12 years. The photographs are a significant part of what keeps me coming back to them—the photographs and the details about real people that are also found in the records. One of the challenges with writing about the early Chinese community in Australia has been to break through particular stereotypes, and one of the most powerful ways of doing this is through close-grained and detailed studies of individual lives. Yet uncovering those lives can be a difficult and time-consuming enterprise, for they were mostly ‘small lives’ which left only a faint trace scattered across the archive. The White Australia records provide an illumination of those lives, and are now widely used by families to uncover important and unknown information about their forebears.

When I began my research, the CEDTs and case files were not described individually in any catalogue or database, and they were certainly not online; the only ‘finding aids’ were the original handwritten indexes. I used to trek out to the archives, order up box after box after box, and look through the files one by one. In some instances I was the first person to have looked at the records for perhaps decades—the descendants of the men and women whose lives are recorded there knew nothing of the treasures the records held. But putting stuff online and allowing it to be discovered can have really meaningful results.

Since I put my PhD online, for instance, I’ve been contacted by a number of people who cite my research as the catalyst for their own journey of discovery into the families’ Chinese pasts—leading them to the White Australia records, which the National Archives has also done a lot of work on to make them more accessible. As Tim and I would both argue, online technologies and new digital methods really do provide significant and meaningful possibilities in providing access to, and ways of understanding, the lives documented in the White Australia records.

So what of our wall of faces? As Tim has noted, it’s not just an exhibition, it’s a finding aid. To me, this is the key. The wall of faces is another way of seeing into the records and into the lives of the individual men and women, the Australians, who were subject to the indignities of the White Australia Policy. Each image links to a copy of the document it was taken from, which then links to the digitised file in RecordSearch, which then links to other items in the same record series, which then links to other record series created by the same government agency—rich archival context.

But through the Invisible Australians project we also want to provide different links and detail other contexts. For instance, the first experimental version of our wall of faces is based on a small set of records, from Sydney and from the first decade of the 20th century. From this sample, we can see that most of those travelling from Sydney were Chinese men, but there were also non-Chinese and women and family groups. Records from other ports and other decades would produce a different pattern of faces—such as a greater proportion of younger or older people, more women and children, or a different ethnic make-up.

This first effort is certainly not perfect, and we’re already learning from it. We made the decision to leave the images at different sizes, and to widen out the crop so that you can see more than just the person’s face. We hope that this allows for some of the individuality in the images to come through—it’s not so neat perhaps, but maybe it’s also not so prescriptive. As Sophie Couchman has noted, the photographic portraits provided to the authorities by Chinese Australians were far from standardised, and many were studio portraits in which the subjects had a great deal of say in how they were represented. As Sophie has put it, they are ‘not so mug mugshots’. And we want our wall of faces to reflect that.

And now back to Charles Yee Wing

Among the images on our wall are the two portraits of Charles Yee Wing taken before his 1908 trip to Fiji. Those from his 1911 trip, when he made his objections known to both the authorities and the press, aren’t yet digitised. I have done a bit of research into Yee Wing’s family, finding a trove of files about his and his children’s travels over several decades. I don’t think, though, that I had come across this particular CEDT—a typo in the item title means that it doesn’t come up under a keyword search for ‘Yee Wing’. But I did find it browsing through the images in our wall.

Bibliography

Form 21(i): Certificate of Domicile, 1902

This is the first in a series of five posts that looks at the different iterations of Form 21 over the first decade of the 20th century. Form 21 is better known as a Certificate of Domicile or Certificate Exempting from Dictation Test (CEDT), but there is something reassuringly bureaucratic in it having a number. There is something practical in it too, because there were a bevy of other forms as well (32, 22, 19, 9 etc), including the confusion-causing Certificate of Exemption (Form 2, which was a temporary entry permit rather than a re-entry permit).

I have located what I’m fairly confident are the first examples of each variation of Form 21 between 1902, when the Immigration Restriction Act came into effect, and 1908. After then things settled down a bit and the form remained more or less the same over the following decades. My examples are taken from New South Wales.

You can see these examples and others in my Invisible Australians library in Zotero.

Certificate of Domicile for Ah Shooey

The first Certificate of Domicile issued in New South Wales would have been numbered 02/1 – ’02’ being the year 1902 and ‘1’ being the certificate number. There is a volume of certificates from 1902 in NAA: SP11/6, Box 3 (more about this in an earlier post), and my guess is that the first Certificate of Domicile is probably to be found there. Unfortunately it’s not digitised and I’m not in Sydney, so we’ll have to leave confirmation of that ’til a later time.

The first Certificate of Domicile that I can include here is, therefore, from a year later. It was the first Certificate of Domicile issued in New South Wales in 1903 (no. 03/1) and is the first certificate to be found in series NAA: ST84/1, ‘Certificates of Domicile and Certificates of Exemption from Dictation Test, chronological series’. (Here’s a link to the record item it is held in: NAA: ST84/1, 1903/1-10 – the whole item is digitised.)

The certificate was issued in the name of Ah Shooey, a 47-year-old Chinese man from Canton, who was departing Sydney for China on the Kasuga Maru on 1 January 1903. The certificate notes that Ah Shooey has one son, who is accompanying him. This is presumably 22-year-old labourer Louey Back Keong, whose certificate is no. 03/2.

Two copies of the form were completed; the one pictured above includes the word ‘Duplicate’ handwritten in red on the front. This copy was kept on file in Sydney, while the other copy (also found in NAA: ST84/1, 1903/1-10) would have been given to Ah Shooey to use during his travels, before being collected and filed on his return. Details of Ah Shooey’s arrival were also marked on the used certificate (‘Landed Empire 27/05/05’).

Ah Shooey’s form records the following information:

Duplicate

No. 03/1

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
Immigration Restriction Act 1901 and Regulations.

CERTIFICATE OF DOMICILE

I, Nicholas Lockyer Collector of Customs at the port of Sydney New South Wales in the said Commonwealth, hereby certify that Ah Shooey, hereinafter described, has satisfied me that he is domiciled in the Commonwealth, and is leaving the Commonwealth temporarily.

[Signature of Nicholas Lockyer] Collector of Customs
Date 31st December 1902

DESCRIPTION

Nationality Chinese
Birthplace Canton
Age 47 years
Complexion —
Height 5ft 5 1/2 inch in Boots
Hair Turning grey
Build Stout
Eyes Brown
Particular marks Nail on little finger left hand missing. Top of third finger on right hand off from first joint.

(For impression of hand, see back of this document.)

Family One son
Where resident Accompanying
Date of arrival in Australia Year 1877
Place of residence in Australia Deniliquin
Occupation Storekeeper
Property Value £400 Deniliquin

Date of departure 1st January 1903
Destination China
Ship Kasuga Maru

References in Australia (names and addresses) Police Magistrate Deniliquin. A Fordham Deniliquin. C Hitchin Jerilderie.

Form No. 21.

On the reverse, the form includes the words ‘Impression of Left Hand’ and Ah Shooey’s handprint.

Reverse of Certificate of Domicle for Ah Shooey, 1903. NAA: ST84/1, 1903/1-10

Collecting CEDT applications and certificates

The administration of the Immigration Restriction Act was overseen by the Department of External Affairs, but the day-to-day work was undertaken by the state-based Collector of Customs/Department of Customs & Excise.

The Collectors of Customs had been responsible for administering colonial immigration restriction laws, and each had their own systems in place when the new federal legislation was implemented from 1902. Atlee Hunt, Secretary of the Department of External Affairs for the first two decades of the 20th century, set about ensuring that officials in each state implemented federal policy consistently, issuing a book of published guidelines as well as dozens of circulars that kept Customs officials up-to-date on decisions made by the Department.

The chap pictured below is WH Barkley, who was the New South Wales Collector of Customs between 1914 and 1933. His signature can be seen on hundreds of CEDTs issued in Sydney during that period.

Anyway, the different recordkeeping systems used by the state Collectors of Customs means that each state/territory now has a different set of records of CEDT applications and certificates.

To me, the system in Sydney seems pretty nicely organised – basically there is one series with correspondence files containing the applications (Form 22), another series that holds copies of the CEDTs that were issued in Sydney (Form 21), another that has the duplicate CEDTs (and other papers including Form 32s) of people arriving back into Sydney. (Okay, it’s really more complicated than that, but let’s not confuse things too much.)

Things are also very tidily done in Darwin (although on a much smaller scale), with all the paper work filed in the one file – the application (Form 22), the CEDT (Form 21), the return authorisation form (Form 32) as well as any other correspondence.

This post is an attempt to document what CEDT applications and certificates exist for each state, what series they are in, and whether they’re available online through RecordSearch. My list also includes registers of applications, as well as records that were created under colonial legislation.

NOTE: Although I’ve done a lot of research using the Sydney records in the flesh, most of what I know about records in the other states is based on what can be found in RecordSearch and in the National Archives’ guide to Chinese records. There will, therefore, be gaps! Any contributions of local knowledge gratefully accepted (especially Tasmania and South Australia).

NOTE TOO: These are the ‘main’ series with CEDT applications and certificates. There are other odd series that also include CEDT stuff that I haven’t included.

New South Wales

Applications: SP11/26

Series number: SP11/26
Series name: Applications for Certificates of Domicile
Dates: 1902
Contents: Applications by for certificates of domicile. Included are references, statutory declarations, submissions, and the Minister’s decision.
Location: Sydney
Shelf metres: 0.18 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 27 (100 % of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 0
Item title: Includes person’s name, so can be searched by name.
Item titles example: William Ah Bow, application for a certificate of domicile [7 pages and 4 photographs]

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: SP11/26
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: SP11/26, A1

Applications: SP42/1

Series number: SP42/1
Series name: Correspondence of the Collector of Customs relating to Immigration Restriction and Passports
Dates: c.1898–1948
Contents: Correspondence files, varying in size from a few to dozens of pages, mostly concerning one person or family group. Because this series stretches over several decades, the contents varies a bit. Most later files include Form 22.
Location: Sydney
Shelf metres: 119.79 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 6531 (% of series unknown, but probably a significant proportion)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 722 (as of 29 July 2010)
Item title: Generally includes personal name of subject/s, so can be searched by name.
Item title example: Ah Sun [includes 2 photographs showing front and side views] [box 106]

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: SP42/1
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: SP42/1, C1917/4159

Certificates: SP115/10

Series number: SP115/10
Series name: Certificates Exempting from the provisions of ‘The Influx of Chinese Restriction Act 1881’
Dates: 1884–88
Contents: Includes about 450 exemption certificates issued under the NSW 1881 Act and 2 certificates and documents relating to the 1861 Act. The certificates include scant information about the applicants themselves, giving their name, date of issue of the certificate and period of exemption. There may be handwritten annotations on the front and back, some in Chinese, which provide more personal information such as occupation, age and height.
Location: Sydney
Shelf metres: 0.72 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 1 (Whole series item)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 0
Item title: 1 item only. Certificates are not listed as individual items.
Item title example: Certificates Exempting from the provisions of ‘The Influx of Chinese Restriction Act 1881’

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: SP115/10
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: SP115/10, WHOLE SERIES

Certificates: ST84/1

Series number: ST84/1
Series name: Certificates of Domicile and Certificates of Exemption from Dictation Test, chronological series
Dates: c.1903–53
Contents: Certificates of Domicile and CEDTs (Form 21). Each item includes a bundle with the certificates of about 10 people. There may be used duplicate copies of the certificates and other material including Form 32.
Location: Sydney
Shelf metres: 49.14 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 2754 (probably 100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 344 (as of 29 July 2010)
Item title: Includes the names of certificate holders, so can be searched by name.
Item title example: Jong Say, Wong Kwong, Lee You Wing, Foo Gun, Mar Kum, Gock Buck, Ah Get, Jeong Keong, Percy Zuinn and Ah Yum [Certificate Exempting from Dictation Test – includes left hand impression and photographs] [box 122]

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: ST84/1
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: ST84/1,1908/11/31-40

Used certificates: SP115/1

Series number: SP115/1
Series name: Folders containing Certificates of Exemption and related papers for passengers arriving in Australia by ship, chronological series
Dates: c.1911–43
Contents: CEDTs (Form 21) and other identity documents (such as birth certificates) of people arriving into Sydney, as well as completed Form 32s which document why they were exempted from the Immigration Restriction Act. Each item contains the documents of multiple people.
Location: Sydney
Shelf metres: 24.84 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 1433 (probably about 80% of series – items from 1911–14 are not listed in RecordSearch)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 6 (it seems that for most of these the whole item has not been copied) (as of 29 July 2010)
Item title: Gives the name of the ship and the date of its arrival. Does not include people’s names.
Item title example: EASTERN 20/12/1922 [part 3] [Certificates of Exemption for passengers; includes photographs] [2.5cm]

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: SP115/1
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: SP115/1, BOX 18

Used certificates: SP11/6

Series number: SP11/6
Series name: Certificates of Exemption from Dictation Test (Forms 32 and 21)
Dates: 1902–46
Contents: Documents held in this series are, for the most part, similar to those held in SP115/1. The files contain copies of Form 32 and CEDTs (Form 21) or other identity documents of Chinese arriving into Sydney from overseas.
Location: Sydney
Shelf metres: 1.62

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 100 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 0
Item title: Gives the name of the ship and the date of its arrival. Does not include people’s names.
Item title example: Certificate Exempting From Dictation Test Immigration Act 1901-1925: Chinese passengers per SS Tango Maru Sydney 11/10/26 [Box 2]

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: SP11/6
Link to example item in RecordSearch: SP11/6, NN

Register of applications: SP726/1

NOTE: This series does not contain application forms and certificates like the others listed. It is included here, however, as it provides a full record of the CEDTs issued in Sydney.

Series number: SP726/1
Series name: Register of Applications for Certificate of Exemption Dictation Tests
Dates: 1902–59
Contents: 6 volumes listing details of people who applied for CEDTs in Sydney. Registers list details such as name, certificate and file numbers and dates of travel. The registers have a name index at the front.
Location: Sydney
Shelf metres: 0.9 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 6 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 0
Item title: Description of register and date range
Item title example: Register of names relating to exemption from Dictation Tests (1902-1910)

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: SP726/1
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: SP726/1, BOOK 1

Victoria

Applications & certificates: B13

Series number: B13
Series name: General and classified correspondence, annual single number series
Dates: From 1902
Contents: Correspondence files of the Department of Customs & Excise/Department of Trade & Customs, concerning a range of Customs matters including immigration restriction. Because of culling, most files before the 1930s relate to immigration restriction. Files can include applications, supporting correspondence, photographs and certificates.
Location: Melbourne
Shelf metres: 104.08 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 20,120 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 131
Item title: Case files include person’s name, so can be searched by name.
Item title example: Ah Lipp – application for Certificate of Exemption from Dictation Test

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: B13
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: B13, 1908/4495

Register of applications: B6003

NOTE: This series does not contain application forms and certificates like the others listed. It is included here, however, as it provides a record of the CEDTs issued in Melbourne.

Series number: B6003
Series name: Registers of Certificates Exempting from the Dictation Test (Departures), Melbourne
Dates: 1904–59
Contents: Three volumes of registers recording details of people departing Melbourne on CEDTs, noting the following details: Vic. no., CEDT Book no., C&E file no., date of issue, name, age, nationality, occupation, address, period of residence in the Commonwealth, departure – date and vessel and port, return – date and vessel and port, examined by, remarks. The registers date 1904–14, 1915–33 and 1934–59.
Location: Melbourne
Shelf metres: 0.72 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 3 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 0
Item title: All 3 items have the same item title
Item title example: Register of Certificates Exempting from the Dictation Test (Departures), Melbourne

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: B6003
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: B6003, NN

Queensland

Certificates: J2481

Series number: J2481
Series name: Proclamations under The Chinese Immigration Restriction Act 1888 & related correspondence, annual single number series
Dates: 1897–1902
Contents: Proclamations issued during the years 1897–1902 exempting persons named from the provisions of the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act 1888 for a period of two years from the date of departure from Australia. They are in a standard form with photographs and personal details.
Location: Brisbane
Shelf metres: 1.8 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 858 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 858
Item title: Includes person’s name, so can be searched by name.
Item titles example: Foo Lang

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: J2481
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: J2481, 1899/298

Certificates: J2482

Series number: J2482
Series name: Certificates of Domicile issued under The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 and Regulations, annual single number series
Dates: 1902–06
Contents: Certificates of Domicile (Form 21)
Location: Brisbane
Shelf metres: 1.8 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 799 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 798
Item title: Includes person’s name, place of residence and birthplace, so can be searched by name
Item titles example: Ah Tong of Redlynch near Cairns, Qld – birthplace: Canton, China – departed Cairns, Queensland on the Changsha 27 July 1904

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: J2482
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: J2482, 1903/99

Certificates: J2483

Series number: J2483
Series name: Certificates Exempting from Dictation Test [CEDT] issued under “The Immigration Restriction Acts 1901-1905” and Regulations (and amending legislation), two number series
Dates: 1908–56
Contents: CEDTs (Form 21) and Form 32s. Each item contains one certificate (and duplicate) and one Form 32.
Location: Brisbane
Shelf metres: 30.6 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 14,429 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 203
Item title: Includes person’s name, nationality and birthplace, so can be searched by name.
Item titles example: Certificate Exempting from Dictation Test (CEDT) – Name: Margaret Chun Tie [also known as Margaret Choy Larn] – Nationality: Chinese [Australian born] – Birthplace: Croydon

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: J2483
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: J2483, 18/9

Applications: J3115

Series number: J3115
Series name: Alien Immigration files relating to applications for Certificate of Domicile, Certificates of Exemption from the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act 1888 and Certificates of Exemption from the Dictation Test that includes photographs, birth certificates and other historical documents, imposed single number series
Dates: 1899–1928
Contents: Applications for Certificates of Domicile and some for CEDTs, also applications under earlier colonial legislation, so contents of the files is not consistent.
Location: Brisbane
Shelf metres: 2.17 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 161 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 62
Item title: Includes person’s name and where they live, so can be searched by name.
Item titles example: Certificate of Domicile for Young Chin, a storekeeper from Cairns – includes photographs

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: J3115
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: J3115, 25

Registers: BP343/15

Series number: BP343/15
Series name: Registers of aliens departing from the Port of Townsville who were granted a certificate exempting from dictation test [CEDT]
Dates: 1916–55
Contents: Details of aliens leaving the Commonwealth via the Port of Townsville for a temporary period who were been granted a CEDT. The vast majority of records contain a name, description, nationality, place of birthplace, right handprint, place and date fee paid, warrant number, date of departure and name of ship, date of return and name of ship, and number of CEDT. Most also
contain 2 photographs, showing full face and profile.
Location: Brisbane
Shelf metres: 5.22 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 2566 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 17
Item title: Includes person’s name, place of residence, nationality and birthplace, so can be searched by name.
Item titles example: Name: Willie Mar (of Richmond) – Nationality: Chinese – Birthplace: Canton – Certificate of Exemption from the Dictation Test (CEDT) number: 336A/87

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: BP343/15
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: BP343/15, 13/872

Western Australia

Applications: PP4/2

Series number: PP4/2
Series name: Applications for CEDTs with supporting documents, annual single number series
Dates: c.1915–41
Contents: Applications for CEDTs, accompanied by references, photographs of the applicant, and reports by the police and customs officials regarding the character etc of the applicant. Includes Form 22s.
Location: Perth
Shelf metres: 5.22 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 611 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 3
Item title: Includes the name of the person and their ethnicity (Japanese, Chinese etc), so can be searched by name.
Item title example: Quong Leong SET [Chinese] [Application for certificate of exemption from dictation test]

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: PP4/2
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: 1931/94

Applications: PP6/1

NOTE: This series has one of the best series descriptions that I have ever seen in RecordSearch.

Series number: PP6/1
Series name: Correspondence files [subject and client], annual single number series with ‘H’ infix
Dates: 1926–50
Contents: Immigration correspondence files, including those concerning applications for CEDTs. The series also documents other immigration functions such as temporary admissions and naturalisation. Only a small proportion of files in the series concern Chinese, Japanese etc.
Location: Perth
Shelf metres: 36.54 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 6005 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 58
Item title: Includes the name of the applicant and what the file was about, so can be searched by name.
Item title example: Yick YOU [Application for Certificate of Exemption of Dictation Test]

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: PP6/1
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: PP6/1, 1927/H/325

Certificates: K1145

Series number: K1145
Series name: Certificates of Exemption from Dictation Test, annual certificate number order
Dates: c.1901–45
Contents: Contains CEDTs (Form 21) arranged in certificate number order commencing at one (1) each year.
Location: Perth
Shelf metres: 6.84 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 4787 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 24
Item title: Includes person’s name and ethnicity, so can be searched by name.
Item title example: Ah Kett [Chinese]

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: K1145
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: K1145, 1918/137

Northern Territory

Applications and certificates: E752

Series number: E752
Series name: Certificate Exempting from Dictation Test
Dates: 1905–41 (most date from 1915 and after)
Contents: Applications for CEDTs (and one Certificate of Domicile), CEDTs and correspondence. The series includes Form 21s (CEDTs) and Form 32s, which were completed on return to Australia.
Location: Darwin
Shelf metres: 4.5 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 720 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 715
Item title: Includes the name of the applicant, so can be searched by name.
Item title example: [Certificate of Exemption from Dictation Test – Fong Yan]

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: E752
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: E752, 1917/11

South Australia

Register of applications: D2860

Series number: D2860
Series name: Immigration Restriction Act exemption certificate register
Dates: 1902–57
Contents: A register and alphabetical index of CEDTs and related matters. Includes a chronological record of departures from various Australian ports of holders of CEDTs showing date of issue, certificate number, person to whom issued (full name), date of departure, ship (and port if other than Adelaide), certifying officer, correspondence reference number, and number of previous certificate (if any). There are corresponding details for the certificate holder’s return to Australia as follows: date, ship, certifying officer, remarks. The volume is divided into other sections including birth certificates, applications for CEDTs refused, lapsed applications for CEDTs and CEDTs issued in other states to applicants departing from Port Adelaide.
Location: Sydney (a copy is held in Adelaide)
Shelf metres: 0.81 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 1 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 0
Item title: 1 item only
Item title example: Immigration Restriction Act exemption certificate register

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: D2860
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: D2860, WHOLE SERIES

Book butts: D5036

Series number: D5036
Series name: Certificates exempting from dictation test (CEDT) book butts (forms 21)
Dates: 1902–59
Contents: 2 volumes. Comprises book butts of CEDTs (Form 21). The butts include provision for certificate number, name (sometimes showing address, when and where born, occupation and other details), nationality, date of issue to Sub-Collector (of Customs), date of issue to holder and payment of fee. In some cases where certificates have not been issued, the record is cancelled and 2 copies of the certificate remain attached to the butt.
Location: Sydney
Shelf metres: 0.9 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 1 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 0
Item title: 1 item only
Item title example: Certificates exempting from dictation test (CEDT) book butts (form 21)

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: D5036
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: D5036, WHOLE SERIES

Applications: D596

Series number: D596
Series title: Correspondence files, annual single number series
Dates: c.1902–1930s
Contents: Correspondence files of the Collector of Customs, including a small number (less than 100) concerning applications for CEDTs.
Location:: Adelaide
Shelf metres: 53.91 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 11,390 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 63
Item title: Relevant file titles include the person’s name, so can be searched by name; they also generally include the words ‘exemption’ or ‘certificate’
Item title example: Abdul KHALICK – Certificate of Exemption from Dictation Test

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: D596
Link to example item in RecordSearch: D596, 1919/4386

Tasmania

NOTE: The 2 series listed here appear to hold the only remaining Customs records in Hobart relating to the issuing of CEDTs. The Department of External Affairs series A1 held in Canberra contains material relating to Tasmanian Chinese, and it is possible that Melbourne records do too.

Book butts: P526

NOTE: From the series description in RecordSearch, it would seem that this series contains book butts of CEDTs (Form 21) issued in Hobart. There appears to be no remaining copies of the certificates themselves. I’m happy to be corrected on this if someone knows better.

Series number: P526
Series name: Immigration permit butts (form 21) issued to foreign nationals at Launceston and Burnie outports
Dates: 1908–18
Contents: Volumes containing butts of immigration permits issued to foreign nationals wanting to enter Launceston and Burnie outports. The butts include information on the person name, nationality and date of issue. They were issued in Hobart.
Location: Hobart
Shelf metres: 0.06 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 2 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 0
Item title: The 2 items have the same title
Item title example: Australian Customs Service, Tasmania – butts of immigration permit certificates issued

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: P526
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: P526, CUST47

Applications: P437

Series number: P437
Series name: Correspondence Files, Annual Single Number Series
Dates: From 1909
Contents: Correspondence files of the Collector of Customs, including files on immigration matters such as applications for CEDTs. Most items in the series do not relate to CEDT applications, however.
Location: Hobart
Shelf metres: 94.68 m

Number of items listed in RecordSearch: 4959 (100% of series)
Number of items digitised in RecordSearch: 1
Item title: Relevant items have person’s name in the title, so can be searched by name. It appears item titles are taken directly from the files’ original titles as they are not consistent.
Item title example: Gi Hung – Statutory Declaration re Immigration Restriction Acts. – visit China 36 months.

Link to series description in RecordSearch: NAA: P437
Link to example item in RecordSearch: NAA: P437, 1911/291

Invisible Australians: A beginning

Over at discontents, Tim Sherratt has recently posted about a new project he and I are embarking on. Called ‘Invisible Australians: Living under the White Australia Policy’, the project aims to reveal something of the lives of the thousands of men, women and children who were affected by the racially-based immigration policy of early 20th-century Australia. (You might like to read Tim’s post.)

The Immigration Restriction Act, introduced in December 1901, was designed to limited the migration of ‘coloured’ people to Australia, but it (and other elements of the White Australia Policy) also had an affect on the lives of non-white, non-Indigenous Australians – people of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Lebanese, Syrian, Afghan descent who were either born here, or who had already built lives here after migrating.

To administer the Immigration Restriction Act, government officials implemented an increasingly complex and structured system of tracking and documenting the movements of non-white people* as they travelled in and out of the country. This surveillance left an extraordinary body of records containing information about people who, according to the national myth of a ‘White Australia’, were not Australian at all.

Tim and I hope that, starting with the documentary legacy of the Immigration Restriction Act, we can link together disparate fragments of information about non-white Australians to make their presence in early 20th-century Australia more visible. Many writings comment on how the White Australia Policy resulted in a reduction in Australia’s non-white population over the early decades of the century, particularly in the Chinese community – forgetting, it seems, that there were still thousands who just kept on living here, living their lives under the White Australia Policy.

Our first steps in the project are small ones. Tim is beginning work on a transcription tool that will enable the extraction of information from records already digitised by the National Archives of Australia. And I am going back and thinking about the records themselves, in part to provide Tim with details he needs to develop the transcription tool. I am also putting together a guide to researching individuals in the Immigration Restriction Act records from New South Wales (c.1902–1948) that are held in the National Archives’ Sydney office.

The lives revealed in the Immigration Restriction Act records are, for the most part, not big ones. They are those of market gardeners, labourers, hawkers, farmers, shopkeepers, cabinetmakers – as well as a wives and mothers and children. In many cases they are lives that are documented nowhere else. The documents I’ve included to illustrate this post are examples of two of the types of forms that we will be working with: Form 22, which was used to apply for an exemption from the dictation test, and Form 21, the Certificates of Domicile (CoD) and then Certificates Exempting from Dictation Test (CEDT) issued to those whose applications were successful. I’ll be posting more about these documents soon.

I have written elsewhere of the value of the records, and I marvel at the possibilities they offer for creating connections – between different groups of records, between the people documented in the records (parents, children, siblings, cousins, clansmen, neighbours) and between those ‘invisible Australians’ and their descendants today. Some days I’m a little overwhelmed by all the possibilities, but, for today at least, I’m happy that we’re making a start.

* In this post, and in our discussions of the project more generally, we use ‘non-white’ to refer to the people who crop up in the White Australia records because bureaucrats at the time considered them as something other than ‘white’. It’s not a perfect term, but it’s hard to come up with something that adequately covers all bases, particularly considering the instability of racial categorisation. Among those classified as ‘non-white’ were, for example, people of mixed race who had one white parent (usually their mother). Our use of ‘non-white’ does not include Indigenous Australians as they did not generally come under the restrictions of the White Australia Policy.

Photos from NZ certificates of registration

Archives New Zealand has just put online a small collection of photographs of early Chinese settlers, men who lived in Otago in the late 19th/early 20th century. The online exhibition is called Chinese Portraits.

The photographs were attached to the men’s certificates of registration, the New Zealand equivalent of Australia’s CEDTs (and their colonial predecessors). The original records are held by Archives New Zealand’s Dunedin office.

You can also read about the project in the Otago Daily Times.