Clothing is capable of providing a range of insights into aspects of identity, authority, power, and hierarchy. Here we present the results of an analysis of an assemblage of uniform buttons and accoutrements from seven 19th-century Native Mounted Police (NMP) camps in Queensland, Australia. As part of wider colonial structures of discipline and expropriation, the NMP uniform was a powerful symbol of control: over troopers’ bodies, over NMP detachments by officers, and over “wild” and “savage” Indigenous peoples by the NMP. Exploring the history and development of the NMP uniform, its intent in constructing officers and particularly troopers, the indexical qualities it acquired as a symbol of violence and fear amongst Indigenous people, and some of the alternative ways in which uniforms could be worn provides a variety of insights into the role, nature, and experience of the Queensland NMP.

服装能够提供对身份、权威、权力和等级制度等方面的一系列见解。在此，我们展示了对来自澳大利亚昆士兰州 7 个 19 世纪原住民骑警 (NMP) 营地的制服纽扣和装备组合的分析结果。作为更广泛的殖民纪律和征用结构的一部分，NMP 制服是控制的有力象征：对士兵的身体、对军官对 NMP 分遣队的控制、对 NMP 对“野蛮”和“野蛮”原住民的控制。探索 NMP 制服的历史和发展、其培养军官特别是士兵的意图、它作为原住民中暴力和恐惧象征的索引品质，以及制服的一些替代穿着方式，提供了多种选择。对角色的洞察，