Coverup of the brutal history of the taking of Aboriginal land
Frontier atrocities against Australian Indigenous people were appalling. Frontier conflict is not pleasant at the best of times, but what happened in Australia has been covered up for too long. I leave you with the words of Henry Reynolds (2006) when summing up attitudes towards frontier conflict – and conflict it was – real, bloodthirsty, brutal – a battlefield and a war, waged almost silently, and with little record of it.
It can be found in almost every type of document – official reports both public and confidential, newspapers, letters, reminiscences. Settlers often counted black bodies either in anger or in anguish; members of punitive expeditions confessed to their participation in a spirit of bravado or contrition. Later observers came across bones and skulls; burnt, buried or hidden and occasionally collected and put proudly on display (Reynolds 2006: 127).
Battlefield Australia : Frontier Conflict in Early Australian Settlement by Sue Carter : HeritageDaily , September 28, 2013 It has been estimated that the first people arrived in Australia possibly around 45,000 years ago and from that time, until the settlement of Europeans on the eastern coast, the Australian Aborigines had been turning space into place for much of that time.
It is equally quite easily demonstrated that Indigenous
people were frequently massacred indiscriminately
and with impunity in Colonial Queensland and
that their remains were treated with disrespect,
if not outright contempt (Ørsted-Jensen 2011: 169)
They viewed their lives as being part of an overall design where everything had a right to live, they carved their position nestled in the landscape, and viewed their lives within it as part of a design in which Country was seen as place. Everything within the Indigenous cultural paradigm was multidimensional and people were attached emotionally, psychologically and metaphysically to the land they inhabited (Bird 1996). They sang songs regarding the history and birth of their part of Country, painted and recited stories which were passed down through generation after generation. ……..
The settlement of the continent included invisible boundaries that were known by the various tribes. Each had their own district where they belonged through spiritual and ancestral bonds and there was interaction between neighbouring tribes where their boundaries overlapped in many complex ways, through spirituality, kinship ties and interaction. A major aspect of the inter-tribal and family relationships was that of sharing; no one owned anything – it belonged to all within the group (Reynolds 2006). They lived with and on the land – protecting, nurturing and preserving – for thousands of years.
When Europeans first of all appeared in Australia in the 18th century they described it as Terra Nullius – a place belonging to no one. But it soon became apparent that there were inhabitants on the continent. It was decided that the land could be taken by conflict, by reducing numbers and driving people to other parts of the country. However, little did they understand that, due to tribal law, this was not possible and many became disposed not only of their lands, but also their spirituality, kinship ties and way of life that they had known for thousands of years……….
As the years passed, the care given to try and protect and assimilate the Indigenous people into settler society waned. A large number of atrocities would have been known to authorities, local, state and national. Reports to authorities were questionable too, but remained unquestioned – for example, statements from settlers and police differed (Olive 2007: 68-69), and Indigenous people were not allowed to be witnesses so their statements, views and recollection of events were hardly ever taken into account. There are a few recorded incidents where they were, but these are very rare, and only surface where public opinion was against the violence that was so brutally inflicted upon the natives, even some of those in authority had an negative attitude towards the Indigenous people, as the following examples shows, regarding the findings of the Myall Creek Massacre.
The hanging of seven stockmen in 1838 for their part in the Myall Creek massacre caused controversy throughout the colony, led to heightened racial tensions and hardened attitudes towards Aboriginal people (Reece 1974: 48). This was evident on the day of the execution when the Australian newspaper published a letter which said, ‘I look on the blacks as a set of monkies, and the earlier they are exterminated from the face of the earth the better. I would never consent to hang a white man for a black one’ (Australian 18 December 1838), (cited in Australian Government. 2008)…………
These are only a few examples of what was happening across the continent. Many killings and massacres are not recorded ‘a lot of things that happened in the early days have been covered up or were never written down’ (Allbrook & Jebb 2009: n.p). Settlers appear to have been in a constant disagreement with Aborigines regarding land, possession and resources. Not only were local Indigenous men shot, they were also abducted, some made to work on pastoral stations, others taken away and sold to work on the pearling boats off the north-west coast of Western Australia; this activity was commonly known as Black-Birding (Reynolds 1987: 85). Indigenous people were being forced to work against their will, or were killed if they refused to work………..
Following is a list of some of the recorded and known massacres, which deserve to have memorials dedicated to those that lost their lives. [the author lists 52 documented massacres]…….
These are only some of the known and recorded massacres and killings, with possibly hundreds of others lost to time and will never been known. May they all, wherever their remains lie, rest in peace.
Frontier atrocities against Australian Indigenous people were appalling. Frontier conflict is not pleasant at the best of times, but what happened in Australia has been covered up for too long. I leave you with the words of Henry Reynolds (2006) when summing up attitudes towards frontier conflict – and conflict it was – real, bloodthirsty, brutal – a battlefield and a war, waged almost silently, and with little record of it.
It can be found in almost every type of document – official reports both public and confidential, newspapers, letters, reminiscences. Settlers often counted black bodies either in anger or in anguish; members of punitive expeditions confessed to their participation in a spirit of bravado or contrition. Later observers came across bones and skulls; burnt, buried or hidden and occasionally collected and put proudly on display (Reynolds 2006: 127).
European settlers were considered to be more civilised than the Indigenous people….. http://www.heritagedaily.com/2013/09/battlefield-australia-frontier-conflict-in-early-australian-settlement-by-sue-carter/99079
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