On the frosty morning of Sunday June 30, 1861, a crowd of between 1,000 and 3,000 men marched through the Burrangong goldfields (now the New South Wales town of Young) with a brass band in tow. To the tune of "Rule, Britannia!" they brandished flags with the bloody scalps and pigtails of Chinese men affixed as trophies.

This was not the first parade of its kind, and it wouldn't be the last.

Along with numerous other anti-Chinese riots that took place over a 10-month period between November 1860 and September 1861, the events of Sunday June 30 are referred to as the Lambing Flat Riots.

They are among the most organised race riots in Australian history, and the most severe case of anti-Chinese demonstrations and violence.

The legacy of the Lambing Flat Riots, including the introduction of the White Australia Policy, are at the heart of The Burrangong Affray, an exhibition at 4A Centre of Contemporary Asian Art.

4A director Mikala Tai, co-curator of the exhibition (with Micheal Do), says:

"This show looks at historical and Australian stories, our inherited stories. We're implicated in how we chose to be and respond."



Featuring nine mixed-media artworks by Chinese Australian artists Jason Phu and John Young Zerunge, The Burrangong Affray is part of a three-part project that took place over 18 months, including an artist residency and community consultation in Young.

As part of the project, the artists will produce a legacy publication documenting their research and work, to be made available to schools and locals in Young.

An act of benevolence

On the first floor of 4A, a long white wall has been hung with 27 monochromatic works made up of photographic prints and chalked phrases and words (including "shelter all", "music to scalp by" and "mateship") by artist John Young Zerunge.

Artist John Young Zerunge says that The Burrangong Affray is his first project dealing with a political flashpoint. ( Supplied: 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art )

The prints include archival images from the Gold Rush era, and contemporary photographs documenting the landscape around Currawong Farm, where an estimated 1,500 Chinese gold miners found refuge for several weeks at the homestead of farmer James Roberts, after fleeing 20 km south from the violent June 30 gathering.

From amongst the tragic events at Lambing Flats, Young Zerunge chose to focus on what he considers an important act of benevolence by Roberts.

"The alt-right has actually appropriated this whole event now; if you look at the ultra right wing websites, they use the Lambing Flat Riots as an ethnic cleansing success story," the artist reflects.

Young Zerunge believes it is important to learn from the past and put forward values for a better world.

After 20 years studying the syntax of painting, artist John Young Zerunge now works on historical projects around the Chinese Australian diaspora. ( ABC Arts: Teresa Tan )

"We live in this post-modernist world where information is so flat that history can get eradicated and values get relativised all the time," he says.

The artist acknowledges Chinese migrants' complicit role in colonising Australia with a panel that reads: Wiradjuri Exists.

"Roll Up, Roll Up, No Chinese"

A single work by artist Jason Phu takes up the entire ground floor of 4A: a combination of video documentation from Phu and Young Zerunge's residency in Young, as well as poetry and painting inscribed straight onto the gallery wall.

On the second floor, four drop sheets are cut into flag-like shapes. Each flag depicts a playful variation on the word "roll" in Chinese characters and English.

Jason Phu says that initially the seriousness of the Lambing Flat Riots was a deterrent to his playful art practice. ( ABC Arts: Teresa Tan )

Phu created this work in response to the infamous Roll Up Banner, which is still on display in the Lambing Flat Folk Museum.

He says: "[This work is about] reclaiming that flag and creating something positive from it."

The banner features the words "Roll Up, Roll Up, No Chinese", a St Andrew's Cross, and five five-point stars arranged to resemble the Southern Cross. It was hoisted up at the front of "roll ups" — violent public meetings held by the gold miners to protest Chinese immigration.

Historian Dr. Karen Schamberger says "it's possible someone from the circus actually created or directed the making of [the Roll Up Banner]". ( Supplied: International Conservation Services )

"[Roll-ups] often happened on Sundays because everyone would be at church, so after praying and singing sessions they'd organise this marching band and go out to the fields to beat up Chinese [miners]," Phu explains.

"It's like that thing that someone says to you when you're a kid: 'Go back to where you came from' — so I had an emotional response to it [the flag]."

"The artist's role is to tell a truth — but we can only share the experiences that we have … [T]his speaks to my upbringing."

The birth of White Australia

The Lambing Flat Riots were primarily the work of a small but motivated faction of miners led by men hailing from England, Ireland, Scotland, America and Germany, all focused on eradicating Chinese miners from the Burrangong goldfields.

Young Zerunge reflects: "This [event] is not so different to Trump's America and the US economy, where there are so many disenfranchised people that turn to him, thinking that he is the person who can express their frustrations."

For Phu, the contemporary resonances are closer to home: "The sense of urgency to create this exhibition comes from our [country's] story right now, about how we treat people and choose to treat those fleeing [from violence]."

Historian Dr Karen Schamberger reflects that the rhetoric in newspapers about Lambing Flat Riots reminds her of contemporary newspaper accounts of Muslims in Australia. ( ABC Arts: Teresa Tan )

In her PhD, historian Dr Karen Schamberger (one of the first people enlisted by 4A to work on The Burrangong Affray project) writes:

"The riots themselves and the narratives about them are a study in how a goldfield, a colony and then a nation came to define itself by who it excluded."

Crucially, the riots triggered legislation that became one of the founding stones of the White Australia Policy.

Anti-Chinese legislation had come up for discussion in the NSW Parliament prior to the Lambing Flat Riots, but ultimately didn't pass because Chinese workers were useful traders and labourers. (In fact, from 1828 Chinese immigration was considered as a potential solution to the labour shortage in New South Wales.)

In direct response to the Lambing Flat Riots, the Chinese Immigration Act was passed in New South Wales in November 1861 to restrict further immigration.

The 1901 Immigration Restriction Act, generally considered the starting point for the White Australia Policy, followed 40 years later, to stem a second wave of Chinese immigrants arriving to work in the flourishing furniture trade.

Connecting with community

Both Tai and Schamberger say the most emotional part of The Burrangong Affray has been witnessing the way that the Young community have come together around the project.

The entire ground floor of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art acts as a process journal for the artists' Young residencies. ( ABC Arts: Teresa Tan )

At the start of the project, the artists invited the community to join them in making a burnt offering — a traditional Chinese-Taoist act of reverence for the deceased — at the three historical sites that have informed the exhibition: Blackguard Gully (one of the main Chinese encampments burnt to ruin), James Roberts' farm in Currawong and the Chinese Cemetery in Murrumbarrah. Tai says:

"We're now working with the [Hilltops] council to create three permanent monuments there [on each site] which is a fantastic outcome that will live beyond any of us."

The Burrangong Affray runs until August 12 at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney.

