Aborigines and European in Colonial Australia - Essay Example

Running head: Frontier violence between Aborigines and European in Colonial Australia Student’s name Institution Course Professor Date Australia as a continent has been at peace for a long period of time. However during the 18th and 19th century, frontier violence was defined as forms of genocide in the country. Frontier violence has been recognized in Australian history as a war between the Aboriginal Australians and those Europeans settlers who moved and settled in their lands. Such verifiable frontier violence was waged in Tasmania in the 1820s.The continued destruction of indigenous people became a global human rights concern to many (Atkinson, 1997). The white settlers comprised of soldiers, convicts and free colonists went to Australia to claim and later established the agricultural penal colony. The conflict between the colonial Europeans and Australian aborigines revolved around two economic issues which included; control of territory and access of limited natural resources (Foster & Attwood, 2003). Most historians agree that conflict occurred between Aborigines and European settlers. In the latter half of the 20th century, there was genocide; a deliberate government policy with a view to destroy a race that was often practiced in Tasmania. The white settlers in Australia utilized the “doctrine of terra nullius” which implied “empty land” in order to justify the menace of invasion and expropriation (Broome, 1988). The Aboriginal Tasmanians had no right to territory since they were not using the land in accordance to European fashion and also lacked legal title under British law. The idea of unclaimed land provided the legal and intellectual framework for genocide acts to take place (Haebich, 2001). Dispossession was rationalized with the indigenous people viewed not worthy to own any land because they were less human as compared to European settlers. The myth of inevitability and lie of empty land supported perpetrators to rationalize genocide and transfer of responsibility to impersonal forces that resulted to deaths of Aboriginal Tasmanians. Moreover, the white settlers either seized Aboriginal children and dashed their brains out or lined them as targets for musket practices (Nance, 1981). They considered the aborigines less than human and also as horribly disgusting that lacked any traces of civilization. Windschuttle, (2002) argued that there was brutal treatment of the indigenous inhabitants especially Tasmanians by the invasive white settlers. The Europeans killed the Aborigines as a way to uphold British law and order. They did so to protect their fellow white settlers from attack by trespassers, indigenous Australians. For instance, the pastoralists at Kamileroi in New England district lost their land and the traditional food sources and also their women were kidnapped by white men (Broome, 1988). The Myall Creek massacre was perpetrated by European settlers as an act of revenge. Attractive Aboriginal women were set aside to satisfy the sexual desired of the murderers before they were eventually killed. According to a published interview conversation with one of the jurymen, viewed the black people as a set of monkeys that needed to be exterminated from the face on the earth in the earliest time possible (Broome, 1988). The nomadic lifestyle of the aborigines was curbed by white settlers which contributed greatly to poor diet and low morale. These losses of food sources, ritual life and sacred regions further led to malnutrition, alcoholism, demoralization and despair. Aborigines’ women were enslaved and raped by white settlers and this greatly threatened the foundations of aboriginal society. Political frustration and vengeful emotions was witnessed due to physical abuse (Manne, 2003). The European settlers and their descendants often used the terms such as extinction, extirpation or extermination to refer to the colonial treatment of indigenous people (Moses, 2004). The policy advocated by Governor Arthur during the Tasmania colonial government allowed the Tasmanian Aborigines to be rounded up and moved to pre-determined areas in the colony; that was away from the European settlers. The Governor too, reiterated that rewards were paid to individuals who captured Aboriginal people successfully (Atkinson, 1997). This policy led to intense confrontations between the white settlers and the aborigines. Black war was the ultimate outcome of the confrontations. The policy brought about an open season for massacres, for instance the “victory hill” killing 30 Aborigines including women and children. In the analysis of frontier genocides waged against the Aboriginal Tasmanians, the following phases occurred. First, there was an invasion initiated by European settlers. Both economic and political frictions developed between the two parties as they struggled for limited resources and power (Manne, 2003). Because those settlers had sophisticated arms, wealth and technology, the indigenous people were unable to compete favorably. Consequently, they had their economy fundamentally threatened and had their basic political rights denied under the white settlers’ regime (Broome, 1988). Under the genocidal military campaign, the aboriginal people in the camps were incarcerated. They encountered problems such as malnutrition, insufficient protection from the elements, overwork, unsanitary conditions, inadequate medical care and violence. They were imprisoned in remote reserves as a means of dispossession and were removed from competing for the scarce resources (Broome, 1988). Furthermore, those ethic gulags provided white settlers with hidden site for continued genocide. After the Europeans settled in Australia, dispossession of indigenous Australia; Aborigines and Torres-Straight Islanders was witnessed. In general, the process of displacement was considered genocidal due to white frontier violence, dispossession of ancestral country, child removal, institutionalization and relocations of indigenous people to reserves and missions. Stolen generations, was witnessed due to white settlers’ invasion (Atkinson, 1997). Most indigenous children were forcibly removed from their aboriginal families to great distances to be raised to fit into white society. Later these children became a focus of assimilative government action. The process of indigenous assimilation via geographical displacement took place mostly in urban areas (Brunton, 1998). Australians aborigines were considered subhuman such that their population did not form part of the Australian census. They relinquish the control of tribal land and culture due to overpowering migratory power from the colonial Europeans (Blake, 1998). The indigenous populations were pushed beyond the margins of their territories by the process of dispersal and forced migration. The aboriginal societies were pushed out of their self sustaining hunter-gatherer habitats that resulted to death, bare subsistence and destruction to cattle stations, mission-reserves and town fringe camps (Atkinson, 1997). State policies of dispossession and removal were able to re-enforce and institutionalized the Aboriginal displacement. Indeed the Aboriginals relocation and institutionalization on missions and reserves were aimed to separate extant tribal aboriginal communities from the mainstream and ease their way to both cultural and physical disappearance (Read, 1982). In order to resist further destruction of traditional means of sustenance by the colonialists in the bush, the aborigines integrated into pastoral activities despite the fact of being underpaid and having unsteady seasonal work. Due to high prevalence of poverty, the aborigines were either forced to gather and wither on reserve under strict state control or give up part of their culture by migrating to urban settings (Broome, 1988). In addition, the aborigines were blamed for the ills provoked by white society and thus they could access the fundamental means to control and manage their lives. Welfare dependency, lack of self-esteem and dysfunctional behaviour characterized most indigenous communities. The issue of stolen generations formalized the frontier practice of indigenous child abduction for exploitative goals. As a genocidal practice, it contributed to rapid decrease of aboriginal numbers, detribalization and loss of kingship structures. Consequently, the mixed European-Aboriginal descent, as a government action were utilized to exterminate the Aboriginal communities via biological absorption and to socially assimilate the locals into white mainstream (Brunton, 1998). Control of children was used to control the size of Aboriginal population. Removal entailed the severing of the emotional, physical, cultural bonds with the Aboriginal progenitors and heritage of the child. This was perpetrated through displacement process, denial of ethnic origins and silencing (Read, 1982). The expansion of European settlement resulted to violent conquest of Australians Aboriginals and their tribal lands. Racism was justified for frontier conflict between the aborigines and white settlers. These colonialists viewed themselves as racially superior to the Aborigines. Racism of convenience was developed to mould the ideas of the natives in order to fit their own needs such as gaining of vast tracts of land for agriculture, forestry or farming (Reynolds, 1974). Moreover, they described the physical appearance of Aborigines as had much more appearance of a baboon than that of a human being. Indeed racism allowed for massacres to be morally acceptable. The killing was brutal and involved rape, dismemberment and scalping. Dress and language customs the British settlers had embraced proved as an advanced culture which led to rationalization of injustice against the indigenous Aborigines. The aborigines never participated in European agriculture and lacked permanent residents and this made them not to be regarded as people at all (Blake, 1998). The aborigines viewed the land religiously as an intimate part of themselves and all life; however the white settlers viewed it economically as a market commodity to be taken, bought, sold or exploited. They perceived aborigines as void of human dignity as objects in the external environment. Therefore, they were able to detach their morals from their brutal actions. The native assimilation policy employed by the colonialists ended up to forms of cultural and physical genocides. The philosophy of biological absorption was adopted by the white settlers to assimilate the indigenous Aborigines into white society (Read, 1982). To enhance assimilation process among the aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander, school aged children were sent to boarding schools to be educated on things Anglican based societies valued as being fundamental (Schimmel, 2005). The motive was to ensure these children blend fairly well into white society. Aboriginal people had to get permits to travel to see their children. In other instances, cultural assimilation resulted in deaths among the indigenous communities (Reynolds, 1974). The colonial Europeans placed the Aborigines on the lowest level on the ladder of human development. They described them as savages who roamed the land without due firm social structures in place. Aborigines became important source of labour in the rural economy especially when they were subdued by the settlers and later allowed to camp on cattle and sheep stations (Atkinson, 1997). The assimilation process was highly destructive to Aboriginal children and moreover in the missions, they were taught on skills vital to become field workers or domestic help workers. The policy of biological absorption adopted by Australian government contributed to stolen generation period. The legislation displayed intent to destroy national, ethnical, racial or religious groups within the state (Brunton, 1998). The British settlers to Australia occupy the lands meant for the local inhabitants. No treaties or negotiations were signed with the Australian Aboriginals, but rather they declared it as crown land. With the invasion no compensation was paid to the indigenous people (Blake, 1998). Furthermore, they were not allowed to carry any weapon especially near the settlements or to walk in groups more than six. During undeclared warfare, the Aboriginal population was decimated by various diseases; which included smallpox against which their body immune system was weakened (Atkinson, 1997). The policies of protection or segregation were put in force during the period of frontier violence. The practice ensured that indigenous people were isolated and the British could not be molested. The loss of language showed loss of spirituality among the indigenous communities which ultimately insinuate loss of both land and identity. Indeed the loss of family ties together with kinship illustrated the genocide that was perpetrated against the Australian Aborigines. The child removal was validated due to misplaced concern for the welfare of the child by the Aborigines (Brunton, 1998). Aboriginal people were prosecuted for the offences that had a basis in cultural life which was beyond the acquaintances o f the settlers. Furthermore, these colonials were prepared to make an exhibition of hanging any Aboriginal offender to deter other Aborigines from committing any offence in the later times. Reynolds sees Australian history as helping strategy to forge reconciliation with Aboriginal communities in Australia with the Europeans settlers. The white settlers were to acknowledge and apologize for the brutal actions of their counterparts, Aborigines. The policy of separatism urged the creation of separate communities for white settlers and Australian Aboriginals. Through enforcement of physical separation, it protected the worrying communities from harming each other (Reynolds, 1974). The native title movements if implemented ensured that ownership of sacred aboriginal lands such as Ayers Rock was transferred to back to the original Aborigines. References Altman, J., & Hinkson, M. (2007). Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilize, Normalize, Exit Aboriginal Australia. North Carlton: Arena Publications. Atkinson, A. (1997).The Europeans in Australia: a history. Volume One: The Beginnings. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press Blake, T. (1998).Deported at the sweet Will of the Government: The Removal of Aborigines to Reserves in Queensland 1897-1939.Aboriginal History 22, 51-61 Broome, R. (1988).The struggle for Australia: Aboriginal-European Warfare 17770-1930 in Michael Mckernan and Margaret Browne, Eds, Australia: Two Centuries of War and Peace: Australian War Memorial Broome, R. (2001).Aboriginal Australians: Black responses to white dominance, 1788-2001, 3rd version, New South Wales: Allen and Unwin Brunton, R. (1998). Genocide, the stolen generations and the unconceived generations, Quadrant, pp19-24 Evans, R., Cronin, K., & Saunders, K. (1998). Race relations in colonial Queensland: a history of exclusion, exploitation and extermination. St.lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press. Foster, S., & Attwood, B., (2003).Frontier conflict: the Australian experience. Canberra: National Museum of Australia. Haebich, Ann, (2001).Broken circles: Fragmenting indigenous people 1800-2000.Fremantle, Australia. Fremantle Arts Centre Press Jessica Schimmel, (2005).Killing Without Murder: Aboriginal Assimilation Policy as Genocide Loos, N. (1982).Invasion and Resistance: Aboriginal-European relations on the North Queensland frontier 1861-1897.Canberra.ANU Press Manne, R, (2003).Whitewash: On Keith Windschuttle’s Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Melbourne: Black Inc Agenda Marcus, A. (1994).Australian Race Relations 1788-1993, St Leonards: Allen & Unwin Moses, A. (2004).Genocide and settler society: frontier violence and stolen indigenous children in Australian history. New York: Berghahn Books Nance, B. (1981).The level of violence: Europeans and Aborigines in Port Philip, 1835- 1850.Historical studies, 19, 77,532-52 Peter Read, (1982). The Stolen Generations: The removal of Aboriginal Children in New South Wales, 1883-1969 (NSW: Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs) Reynolds, H, (1974). Racial Thought in Early Colonial Australia, Australian Journal of Politics and History. Windschuttle, K. (2002).The Fabrication of Aboriginal History. Sydney: Macleay Press. Wolfe, P. (2006). Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native. Journal of Genocide Research 8, 4: 387-409 Read More