Gateway Chronicle 2021

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land rights was clear, with a treaty in New Zealand
in 1840 being produced that recognised the
native Maori land rights, but no similar provision
was made for Aboriginal Australians. Despite the
conflict, no state of war was declared. Actions by
settlers in attacking these communities therefore
entered into a legal grey area, as the Aboriginal
Australians were technically subjects of British
Empire which should have granted a degree of
legal protection. In this scenario, if an Aboriginal
Australian attacked a settler’s livestock, they might
be expected to be put on trial in front of a court.
However, no perpetrators of violence were brought
to trial. Similarly, settlers were never punished for
disproportionate reaction nor their appropriation
of land. No significant efforts were made to slow
the advance of settler communities into the interior.
Therefore, violent clashes were guaranteed to
continue. Only when new, more reliable weapons
were used by settlers from about the 1850s were
they able to set out and deal with whom they saw as
troublesome.
Aboriginal Australians were slowly pushed from
areas with enough availability of resources, and
being forced into areas inhabited by other groups,
which produced even greater population pressures.
As the last available land was quickly being settled,
impoverishment and unsuitable life on the frontier
left many with no choice but to live on the fringes
of European settlements. The remainder, by law
were forced into restricted reserves, like that in the
state of Victoria in 1856. Many Europeans viewed
the position they put these communities in to be
a ‘cultural extinction’, with Aboriginal Australian
populations falling dramatically. Those able to live
near European settlements typically did so in slums.
Any work that was available was poorly rewarded-
some could offer their skills and knowledge of
navigating the wilderness, but others were forced
to scavenge and beg. Poverty, poor sanitation, poor
health and their proximity to Europeans meant that
a significant number died from Old World Diseases
such as smallpox. The helpless state that Aboriginal
Australians had been forced into was noticed
by contemporaries and was in some spheres praised
and in others condemned. One such is Secretary of
State for the colonies, Sir George Murray’s letter to
Governor Arthur of Tasmania, speaking of how:
“The extinction of the Native race could not fail to leave
an indelible stain upon the character of the British government”
The Gateway Chronicle
Clearly, therefore, one can see the profound impact
that British colonialism had on Aboriginal Australians.
After having lived and adapted to the varied
climates of Australia over thousands of years, many
were left uprooted from their lives and forced to
move over huge distances just to escape the advance
of colonisation.
Even today, Aboriginal Australians suffer with the
effects of colonisation and settlement. Most did
not have full citizenship and voting rights until
1965, and only in 1967 was it voted that federal
laws would also apply to them equally. From 1910
to 1970 a policy of assimilation was pursued by the
Australian government. This involved the forced
removal of 10-33% of Aboriginal Australian children
from their homes, to then be placed in adoptive
families or institutions. When there, they were
forbidden to speak their native languages and had
their names changed, and abuse and neglect were
common, all based on the false assumption that
their lives would be improved if they became part
of European society. The effects of this still leave
scars upon the community- many forced into these
families and institutions, as well as their own families
and communities, suffer with higher rates of
mental illnesses. Aboriginal Australians still suffer
worse health and socioeconomic outcomes. Efforts
have been made to heal these historic injustices,
with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issuing a national
apology for the country’s actions towards these
individuals in 2008, however there is much more
to be done for these communities. Not only were
many lives lost due to colonialism in Australia, but
Aboriginal culture, language, even their knowledge
of the land they lived in, that had developed over
thousands of years were also lost. Historians can
only hope to piece together a coherent picture of
Aboriginal history from the evidence still available,
but the loss of such a unique and long-lasting society
presents not only a loss to Aboriginal Australian
communities themselves, but a fatal detriment to
humanity as a whole.
Sam McDonald U6LAB