FRED CAHIR, RANI KERIN AND KYLIE RIPPON The Aboriginal Adjustment Movement in Colonial Victoria Whilst much has been written about Aboriginal religious syncretism in Australia, par- ticularly about what has become known as the “ Adjustment Movement” that occurred in Arnhem Land in the 1950s (see McIntosh 2004), there were several remarkable examples of spiritual adjustment by Aboriginal people a century earlier on the Victo- rian goldfields that hitherto have not been explored by historians. Building on Magowan’ s (2003) discussion of the connection between Christianity and the ancestral law of Aboriginal culture in northern Australia, this article will examine how Christian influences in colonial Victoria competed with, and conversely moulded, southern Kulin ancestral understanding. Several Kulin ceremonies — including the Myndee ceremony and the “Veinie Sacred Sunday Dance”— will be examined. These ceremonies were described by colonial officials (Joseph Panton, a Gold Commissioner, and William Thomas, the Aboriginal Guardian of Aborigines in Victoria) in the midst of a second wave of invasion and rupture for Victorian Aboriginal people — the first being the sheep herders in the 1830s, and the second being the gold rush which commenced in 1851. Serving as exemplars of what might be called the Victorian Aboriginal Adjust- ment Movement, these ceremonies demonstrate the extent to which Aboriginal people on the goldfields of Victoria engaged in a culturally congruent mode of Christianity. In 1981 anthropologist and historian Diane Barwick proffered a blistering analysis of her fellow academics’ approach to Aboriginal Christianity: Academics are rarely scornful about indigenous religious beliefs. These are exotic, ethnic and acceptable. Christian beliefs are not accorded equivalent respect as cul- tural markers. The acceptance of Christian religion by Aboriginal communities is either ignored or lamented by anthropologists and historians. No other aspect of Aboriginal life has been so deliberately unexamined. 1 Fred Cahir is an Associate Professor, Faculty of Education and Arts, Federation University Australia, PO Box 663, Ballarat, 3353, VIC, Australia. Kylie Rippon is a HDR candidate in the Faculty of Education and Arts, Federation University Australia, PO Box 663, Ballarat, 3353, VIC, Australia. Dr Rani Kerin is an academic in the Faculty of Education and Arts, Federation University Australia, PO Box 663, Ballarat, 3353, VIC, Australia. 1. It should be noted that Barwick did acknowledge the general deleterious impact of missionar- ies on Australian Indigenous people, as part of the invasion and colonisation process. D. Barwick, “Writing Aboriginal History: Comments on a Book and its Reviewers, ” Canberra Anthropology 4 (1981): 74–86. 1 © 2019 Religious History Association Journal of Religious History Vol. ••, No. ••, 2019 doi: 10.1111/1467-9809.12630