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    113 views8 pages

    Ikc Assess 2

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    Brenton Hawken IKC101 Assessment 2 ESSAY 11538282 Due Date: Tuesday 5" May 2015 Brenton Hawken Student Number: 11538282 Campus: Wagga Wagga Lecturer: Kirsten Locke IKC101 ASSESSMENT 2 Word Count: 1565 Due Date: Tuesday 5 May 2015 Brenton Hawken IKC101 Assessment 2 ESSAY 11538282 Due Date: Tuesday 5! May 2015 Australia’s history in relation to how it has treated the nation’s First Peoples, has a dark and unpleasant stigma attached to it. Australia shamefully attempted to cull and breed out the rightful owners of this great nation, rather than to protect and preserve the rich culture and heritage of the Australian Indigenous People. This essay will discuss how the colonial fronticr and policies such as protection, segregation, assimilation and the Stolen Generations, attempted to control and breed out the Indigenous population. It will also look at the ways in which Indigenous peoples responded to and resisted the non-Indigenous occupation of Australia, For forty thousand years before European settlement, Indigenous Australians lived efficiently and successfully in isolation, practicing sustainable land management and caring for the land. “All Aboriginal communities were semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers which meant that cach tribe foraged for food across its own defined territory” (Broome , 1994, pp. 9-21). There ‘was no need to use physical barriers such as fences to farm their food sources, Indigenous Australians met foreign invaders abruptly and unexpectedly in 1788 when Captain James Cook landed the ‘First ‘Fleet at Botany Bay. The settlers claimed the land as Terra Nullius, even though it was already settled by Indigenous Australians, Borch (2 223) notes this was considered reasonable as the common view held was that Indigenous peoples had “advanced beyond the state of nature only so far to have developed language and the community of family but no further, in particular had developed no agriculture” (Borch, 2001, p. 223), Without the physical barriers and the land not being used for agriculture and farming, the settlers sought out to occupy and own the land. The rapid rate at which European settlement occurred, caused tension between non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples, leading to the colonial frontier, violent attacks and polices that would be later used to control the nation’s First People. a Brenton Hawken IKC101 Assessment 2 ESSAY 11538282 Due Date: Tuesday 5® May 2015 ‘The post colonisation practices, policies and legislation that would later be introduced, became a harsh and brutal reality of what life was going to be like after settlement. Tough time periods would follow that would eventually strip Indigenous people of their powers and freedom. As more and more settlers arrived in Australia, contact with Indigenous Australians increased. The British p: © desire to occupy and own large land masses for crop growing and animal grazing, motivated harsh treatment towards Indigenous Australians, During the colonial frontier (the time of first initial contact between both cultures), cases of murder, violence, rape, poisonings, physical removal and capturing started occurring more frequently (scfcrence), Violent outbreaks, fights and massacres occurred regularly as the tradition owners of the land began to retaliate and fight back, In retaliation of camp massacres and attacks on the Indigenous population, Pemulwuy of the Eora people co-ordinated raids upon European settlements, killing and injuring non-Indigenous pioneers and convicts. “After surviving several attacks, and although wounded five times, Pemulwuy fought at every opportunity” (Boyce, Langton, Perkins, & Atkinson, 2010, p. 23). As an individual, Pemulwuy exercised a large degree of resistance against the non-Indigenous occupation of Australia, It was a time of devastation which had an extreme impact on Indigenous Australians as. “Approximately 300,000 Aboriginal people were living in 1788 when the Europeans arrived, divided into over 500 tribes, each with their own distinct territory, history, dialect and culture” (Broome , 1994, pp. 9-21). By the end of this volatile period, a significant number of lives, land and territory had been lost (rcference). The Indigenous peoples had a strong love and deep connection to their territory, as expressed through this song from the Oenpelli region: “come with me to the point and we'll look at the country, we'll look across at the rocks, Look, rain is coming! It falls on my sweetheart” (Broome , 1994, pp. 9-21). Brenton Hawken IKC101 Assessment 2 ESSAY 11538282 Due Date: Tuesday 5 May 2015 Kinship systems that marked strong solidary ties that provided security and intimacy to Indigenous groups were destroyed. Governor Arthur Phillip ordered for Bennelong, a young Indigenous man belonging to the Eora people, to be captured and taken back to settlement at Sydney Cove (refercuce). The Governor “hoped to learn from him more of the natives” ‘customs and language” (Dark, 1966). This was an carly attempt to assimilate Indigenous People into the European culture. “Bennelong took readily to life among the white men, relished their food, learned to speak English and became attached to the Governor” (Dark, 1966) This bold decision showed it could be possible to join both cultures together as one, and led into the protection, segregation and assimilation periods that would follow. During the twentieth century, policies of protection, segregation and assimilation became the ‘main approaches involving high levels of government interference in relation to the treatment of Indigenous people. By the end of the nineteenth century, disposition of land, violence and disease devastated the Indigenous population, causing scientists and governments to label the Indigenous population as a “dying race”. “The northern natives are disappearing more slowly but none the less surely - their ultimately extinction is also but too certain” (McGregor, 1997, . 55). ‘Social Darwinism’ supported this idea as “it incorporated the concept of race itself, the idea of a racial hierarchy and the commonly accepted grading of the world’s people” (Francis, 1996, p. 92). This theory believed various races of the world were at different stages on the evolution scale. ‘Dark-skinned’ races were at the bottom of the scale compared to primates, while ‘white skinned’ people were at the top closer to human perfection (rc nce). This theory influenced people’s opinions on race and Indigenous Australians, clearing the way for Protection Boards and Protection Acts to be introduced. Protection Boards and Protection Acts now controlled every aspect of Indigenous life, in an attempt to protect, segregate and then assimilate Indigenous Peoples into non-Indigenous Brenton Hawken IKC101 Assessment 2 ESSAY 11538282 Due Date: Tuesday 5 May 2015 culture. Where you lived, what jobs you could have, which family members you could interact with, and whether you were Indigenous, was now determined through legislation and policy. “Policies and practices were not uniform” (Totten & Hitchcock, 2011, p. 95) between the States and continued to change overtime. They began to slowly destroy the Indigenous people’s way of life. In Victoria during 1860, a Board of Protection was established. The Victorian Governor could order the removal of any child to be re-located to a reformatory or industrial school, and by 1869, fifty percent of the Indigenous population were living on missions or reserves. Despite this, Indigenous Australians continued to retaliate against these practices and continued to show the resilience of their culture.- “While missions and reserves were often sites of control and attempted assimilation, they were also places of survival and resistance, and many have become important places for Indigenous communities today” (Lydon, 2010). Protection Acts were now introduced colony by colony. ‘The Protection and Management of the Aboriginal Natives of Victoria’ Act was introduced in 1869 and was “the first statute to legislate for the differential treatment of “full-blood’” and “half-caste™” (Haebich, 2000, p. 165). In New South Wales in 1881, a protector of Aboriginal People was appointed (reference). The Wiradjuri People of New South Wales had their lives controlled by the Aboriginal Protection Board, and were forced to “merge with the wider community, Ieading to the eventual ‘withering away” of the communities” (Haebich, 2000, p. 182). These destructive practices and polices not only aimed to ensure Indigenous people lost their Indigencity, but also weakened the foundations of the Indigenous culture, Perhaps the most extreme and destructive part of Australia’s history is the Stolen Generations. As a result of past missionary practices and government policies, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were forcibly removed from their families and kinship networks (reference). “Indigenous children have been forcibly separated from their families S[Page Brenton Hawken IKC1O1 Assessment 2 ESSAY 11538282 Due Date: Tuesday 5" May 2015 and communities since the very first days of the European occupation of Australia” (Commonwealth of Australia, 1997, p. 22). During the nineteenth contury, “violent battles over rights to land, food and water sources characterised race relations. Throughout this conflict Indigenous children were kidnapped and exploited for their labour” (Commonwealth of Australia, 1997, p. 22). Indigenous children ripped from their parents and placed in institutions were taught to reject their Aboriginality, and “expected to become labourers or servants. In particular, Aboriginal girls were sent to homes to be trained in domestic service” (Young, 2009), The forced removal of Indigenous children had a destructive effect on the kinship systems and social foundation of the Indigenous culture. Children were being stripped of their indigeneity and identity. “It is estimated that one hundred thousand Indigenous people had been affected by the policy of removal” (Young, 2009). Doris Pilkington’s Book ‘Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence” (

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