Australian Aborigines – PART 2 Colonization and Current Issues

European Contact Australia had been visited by European explorers beginning in 1606, but it was in 1770 that James Cook arrived and claimed the east coast of the country for Britain He named the land New South Wales At the time, the Aboriginal population was estimated to be around 775,000 people An engraving from 1886 showing Aboriginals opposing the arrival of James Cook in 1770

European Colonization British ships arrived in 1788 to establish a penal colony This practice continued until 1868, during which time over 160,000 criminals were brought to Australia Most were small-time thieves This illustration, published in London in 1792, shows two British women mourning for their lovers, who are about to be transported to Australia

European Colonization The British declared all of Australia to be terra nullius (“nobody’s land”) and did not recognize the property rights of the Aboriginals In the century that followed, the British established other colonies on the continent, and European explorers ventured into its interior As the European population grew, Aboriginals were pushed off of their land to make room for settlement Aboriginals attempted to fight back, but were systematically pushed into the interior (Outback) and even exterminated

Australian Frontier Wars The frontier wars were a series of conflicts fought between Aboriginals and European settlers that spanned a total of 146 years The first fighting took place soon after colonists arrived in 1788 and the last clashes occurred in the 1930s At least 20,000 Aboriginals died, along with around 2500 Europeans Mounted police engaging Indigenous Australians during the Slaughterhouse Creek Massacre of 1838

Population Decline While many Aboriginals died because of fighting, far more devastating were the effects of disease, loss of hunting grounds, and starvation As in the Americas, smallpox, measles, influenza and other new diseases swept from one Aboriginal camp to another Over a period of 150 years, nearly 80% of Aboriginal people were wiped out

Treaties Unlike in countries such as the US, Canada, and New Zealand, no treaties were ever made with the Aboriginals in Australia It is the only Commonwealth nation that does not have a treaty with its indigenous peoples The only attempt to make a treaty with Aboriginals was by Australian farmer and explorer John Batman In 1835, he negotiated with local Aboriginals to acquire land that would eventually become the city of Melbourne

Batman’s Treaty Batman negotiated a deal to rent the land on an annual basis for 40 blankets, 30 axes, 100 knives, 50 scissors, 30 mirrors, 200 handkerchiefs, 100 pounds of flour and 6 shirts The treaty was deemed invalid by the Governor as the land was claimed by the Crown 1880s drawing of the Treaty being signed

Reservations Many aboriginal people were forced to live on special pieces of land called reservations that were run by churches and government The reserves were off of traditional lands, and families were often split up Aboriginals were not to travel off the reserves freely, practice their traditions, or speak their native languages

Disconnection The Aboriginal disconnection from their traditional lands and culture has led to serious social issues including: Alcoholism Drug abuse High suicide rates Higher rates of physical and sexual abuse These are called intergenerational impacts, because they are passed down from one generation to another

The Stolen Generation In the early 1900s, the Australian government tried to assimilate Aboriginals into European culture Children of mixed race were taken from their families between 1910 and 1970 and placed in Church-run homes Most of the children never saw their families again

Day of Mourning On January 26th, 1938, Aboriginals held a Day of Mourning to mark 150 years of British colonization It was meant to protest the poor treatment of Aboriginals and the seizure of their land Purposefully coincided with the Australia Day celebrations The protest became a tradition, and Days of Mourning continue to be held

Aboriginal Rights By the mid-1960s, Aboriginals gained the right to vote In 1971, the first Aboriginal was appointed to the Senate In 1976, an Aboriginal was appointed Governor of South Australia (the state level version of Governor-General) An aboriginal would not be elected to the House of Representatives until 2010 By the 1970s Aboriginals began to regain title to land in some parts of Australia Some Aboriginals moved back to their traditional homelands during this period

Symbolic Transfer In 1985, the Australian government returned ownership of Uluru to the local Aborigines One of the conditions being that the Anungu people would lease it back to the National Parks and Wildlife agency for 99 years and that it would be jointly managed

Aboriginal Land Rights In 1976, the first Aboriginal land rights act was passed Allowed for a claim of title if Aboriginals can show evidence of their traditional association with land In 1992, the High Court of Australia overturned the legal concept of terra nullius That same year, the Prime Minister said in a speech that European settlers were responsible for the difficulties Aboriginal communities continued to face: “We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practiced discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice”

National Sorry Day National Sorry Day is an annual event held in Australia on May 26th, to remember and commemorate the mistreatment of Aboriginals The first Sorry Day was held in 1998, after a government report on the Stolen Generation recommended that the Prime Minister apologize to Aboriginal people John Howard, the PM at the time, refused to do so, stating that he "did not subscribe to the black armband view of history"

National Sorry Day In response, a popular movement evolved to celebrate "sorry day" in the absence of formal political recognition from the conservative government In 2008, Kevin Rudd became the first Prime Minister to publicly apologize to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Australian federal government

Aboriginal People Today Today, Aboriginals make up about 3% of the population in Australia, with a total number of approximately 670,000 The number has still not recovered to the point it was before the British arrived, but has increased considerably from the 1900 low point of 117,000 The median age for Aboriginals, currently 22, is much younger than the median age in the general population, which is currently 37 The majority of Aboriginal people live in Australia’s eastern states and not in the remote desert Outback

Aboriginal Challenges The average life expectancy for Aboriginals is 17 years less than the general population Aboriginals are six times more likely to commit suicide For those between the ages of 15-35, suicide is the leading cause of death Alcohol abuse and gas sniffing are major problems in many communities The Aboriginal unemployment rate has lowered significantly in recent years, but is still much higher than the general population Only around 25% of Aboriginals have completed school to grade 12 and very few continue to post-secondary education Aboriginals make up 24% of the total prisoner population