Aboriginal Changing Rights and Freedoms
Hir
PEOPLE, POWERE AND POLITICS – ABORIGINAL ISSUES
GENERAL OVERVIEW
Dispossession
The arrival and settlement of the British in Australia was not peaceful. As the colonies spread across the continent, Aboriginal people were dispossessed and displaced from their lands, killed in battles for their land, or by hunting parties. The settlers often resorted to inhumane techniques such as the poisoning of waterholes.
The estimates of the numbers of Aboriginal people who died in frontier conflict vary widely, and it is an area of history that is still very vigorously debated today.
Aboriginal resistance to the occupation was immediate, with the most renowned early-on being from Pemulwuy, an Aboriginal warrior who led counter-raids against those settlers responsible for the injustices being suffered by his people at the time.
In June 1802, in response to the many instances of violence, the Governor issued a proclamation stating: “His Majesty forbids any act of injustice or wanton cruelty to the Natives, yet the settler is not to suffer his property to be invaded or his existence endangered by them, in preserving which he is to use the effectual, but at the same time the most humane, means of resisting such attacks”.
Shortly after this proclamation was made, Pemulwuy was shot. No one was ever charged for his murder.
In addition to the violence, many Aboriginal people died from introduced diseases. Aboriginal people had no immunity to European diseases such as smallpox, influenza and measles. As a result of these events, there was a drastic decline in the numbers of Aboriginal people.
In the second half of the 19th Century, Torres Strait Islanders also lost their independence when the Queensland Government annexed the Torres Strait Islands. Torres Strait Islanders were not dispersed from their homelands like Aboriginal people, but were effectively denied full citizenship rights until 1967.
‘Protection’ policies & Federation
The forced relocation of Aboriginal
PEOPLE, POWERE AND POLITICS – ABORIGINAL ISSUES
GENERAL OVERVIEW
Dispossession
The arrival and settlement of the British in Australia was not peaceful. As the colonies spread across the continent, Aboriginal people were dispossessed and displaced from their lands, killed in battles for their land, or by hunting parties. The settlers often resorted to inhumane techniques such as the poisoning of waterholes.
The estimates of the numbers of Aboriginal people who died in frontier conflict vary widely, and it is an area of history that is still very vigorously debated today.
Aboriginal resistance to the occupation was immediate, with the most renowned early-on being from Pemulwuy, an Aboriginal warrior who led counter-raids against those settlers responsible for the injustices being suffered by his people at the time.
In June 1802, in response to the many instances of violence, the Governor issued a proclamation stating: “His Majesty forbids any act of injustice or wanton cruelty to the Natives, yet the settler is not to suffer his property to be invaded or his existence endangered by them, in preserving which he is to use the effectual, but at the same time the most humane, means of resisting such attacks”.
Shortly after this proclamation was made, Pemulwuy was shot. No one was ever charged for his murder.
In addition to the violence, many Aboriginal people died from introduced diseases. Aboriginal people had no immunity to European diseases such as smallpox, influenza and measles. As a result of these events, there was a drastic decline in the numbers of Aboriginal people.
In the second half of the 19th Century, Torres Strait Islanders also lost their independence when the Queensland Government annexed the Torres Strait Islands. Torres Strait Islanders were not dispersed from their homelands like Aboriginal people, but were effectively denied full citizenship rights until 1967.
‘Protection’ policies & Federation
The forced relocation of Aboriginal