EUROPEAN COLONISATION Impact on Aboriginal culture in Australia

Pre –European contact Aboriginal people lived in relative peace and harmony with their land for over 140 000 years One million people 600 to 700 tribes 500 languages

1788 Cultural Contact 1770 Captain James Cook attempts several landings 1788 the first settlement takes place under Captain Arthur Phillip

Many Aboriginal groups, their cultures and their languages have been devastated by: White settlement Warfare Disease Religion Education and Economic exploitation

Aboriginal response Impossible to fight against disease and ecological change resulting from feral and domestic animals

However … there was resistance to those settlers who tended flocks and herds Guerrilla wars were fought all along the expanding front-line of European settlement.

Aboriginal people resisted the occupation of their lands by the British until the end of the 19th Century.

Terra nullius (land belonging to no one) British government ignored the sovereignty and strong resistance of the aboriginal people and claimed discovery of a new land.

Terra nullius was – and still is- a deliberate social construction designed to enable European settlement without compensation for the dispossession of the indigenous peoples.

Terra Nullius led to attempted Genocide Mass poisoning of water holes, rations and blankets. So-called ‘dispersals’ – euphemism for murder of Aboriginal people. Indiscriminate shootings ‘Revenge parties’

European Settlement Aboriginal people who were discovered close to the site of an invasion were Sometimes killed And always suffered immediate interference with their economy and lifestyle.

Aboriginal suffering due to white settlement

This was because they both the colonists and Aboriginals wanted the same things: Good sources of water Sheltered positions Access to fish

As the colonists made it plain they were staying by Altering the landscape – clearing trees, building fences- Resistance grew more and more. Aboriginal people were killed.

As the land was occupied their numbers reduced and the way of life destroyed, the survivors began living within or on the fringe of the new European community.

The subsequent history of settlements was strongly influenced by factors such as Which religious group ran the mission What government policy was operating at the time The attitude of individual pastoralists towards Aboriginal people

Who else was also present in an area influenced Aboriginal settlement. Gold rushes had major impacts. Sealers in the south stole women and killed men and children. Pearlers in the north stole young boys to dive.

Aboriginal groups living in settlements and missions were similar in size to those which traditionally formed for ceremonial occasions, however their were two important differences.

Differences to traditional settlement Groupings were permanent Their composition imposed as a result of non-Aboriginal considerations Movement controls isolated Aboriginal people like never before.

The bases for Aboriginal culture was undermined Insufficient numbers to sustain complex religious and cultural practices. Aboriginal identity and self-esteem were difficult to maintain.

Aboriginal culture undermined by white contact and destruction included Customary law and authority. A hunter-gatherer economy. And a close relationship with the land.

Aborigines of the south-east adjusted to this destruction by Firstly interpreting whites as deceased kinsfolk returned, making it possible to establish contact. Secondly, after violence erupted, ceremonies for ridding the returned kin were used.

Both attempts, to see whites as kin or to eradicate them, failed; The spiritual authority resting in the lands of the south-east was pushed aside, their spirits would not return to their lands now filled with white spirits, but would travel to a better land.

Despite the destructive efforts Physically, spiritually and culturally of the colonising society Aboriginal people continue to survive. This survival is set against the enormous assimilation pressures, particularly in the last sixty years.