The Aborigines

M.DAFFA AUFA RIFQI AMRAN/200110101016

               Australian Aboriginal peoples, one of the groups that live in Australia. The other is
Torres Strait and Islander peoples. The population in Australia is known for its magnificent
hunting and gathering skills. They maintained those skills to adapt to modern times. Scholars
were arguing about this, but there is evidence of the stuff that aborigines used in the early
practice of planting and taking an advantage of the sea. These findings are doubted by so many
people. Some of them think that this is not completely from aboriginal peoples. The stuff is
similar to Torres Strait Islander’s. Perhaps there is complexity between social organization and
their religious life which has not been found the truth by the researcher.
           In 1770, Captain James Cook encountered few aboriginal people on the Australia
shoreline. He saw the aboriginal people did not grow crops and he assumed that there no fishable
river on that island, he concluded that this island is empty and meant nothing to the people. He
was wrong. Aboriginal people started to ambush Captain James Cook’s armies and put the body
into the bush. So they sailed away and came back 18 years later with more colonists to started a
genocide. The first fleet arrived in Sydney Harbour under Phillip’s command. The colonist
consisted of eleven ships that carried marines, women, children, supplies, equipment, and
livestock. 
Some of the officials of the early European settlement, such as Captain Watkin Tench
and Judge Advocate David Collins, took research in Aboriginal behavior after the colonization.
They were many resistance to the violence and still took a stand against the colonization of their
land and the destruction of their social, religious, legal, and communal systems. There had been
many wounded and killed and other encounters known of in the bush because Aboriginal people
were present wherever farmers went and they always resisted the taking over of their land. The
traces of aboriginal habitants can be found in shell middens even though they were destroyed by
colonist to make a building.
They were several impacts from the British Colonisation that cause great trauma to the
Aborigine people, but the most remembered one is the consequence of British settlement that
cause a wave of Old World epidemic diseases. These diseases had killed Aborigine people for
about 50-60 percent of their population. The second consequence of Brtish Colonisation was lack
of the land and water resources because British army took all of it from Aborigine people. The
original behavior of Aborigines people such as fishing, hunting, and planting was broken down
by the colonizers. They began to fish, get rid of the trees, and shoot animals as much as they can.
This pressure on natural resources leave Aborigine people to hunger during winter and forced
them to take the offer of Governor Phillip and settle down into the town and leave their land.
After they tasted the suffering that was given by the colonizers, the people of the aboriginal was
not just stood still. They were giving resistance to the colonizers. 
There are several figures that made this come true and released the Aboriginal people
from colonizers’ hands. In December 1788, not long after the first landing of the first fleet, there
is one of the Aborigine people that dressed in European clothes. He is known as Arabanoo.
Arabanoo is the one who took care of the epidemic diseases that attacked the Aborigines people
in April 1789. Not long after, Arabanoo got infected by the disease himself and died on 18 May
and was buried in the governor's garden. 
The second one is Bennelong. He was civilized into the European way of life and
enjoying it. Bennelong is also known to give a lesson of Aboriginal peoples language to George
Bass and gave Phillip the Aboriginal name that knows Wolawaree. This was important in order
to communicate and build a good relationship with the Aboriginal people. 
The last one is Pemulwuy, a Bidjigal man from Botany Bay. He did not accept the
damage that the colonizers did to his homeland and was not interested to make them allies either
as Arabanoo and Bennelong had done. He was the leader of the colonizer's settlement attack. He
conquered the settlement from Botany Bay to the Toongabbie. When he was in prison, he killed
another prisoner that he did not like and then wanted for murder. In a battle in 1797, he got shot
but escaped and then hospitalized. But it did not take long enough for the colonizers to take
down Pemulwuy in 1802 and his head was sent to England. His son was taken prisoner by the
colonizer in 1805.
In a modern time, Aboriginal people have a quiet big role to develop Australia’s places,
communities, and the most important one economy. Australia government works with
Aboriginal people to grow the demands for indigenous business, services, and products. They
continue to support back the Aboriginal entrepreneurs and communities to make a profit out of
commercial opportunities to start and make it bigger businesses including expand land assets and
cultural knowledge. This collaboration between Australia government and Aboriginal people is
working well on improving financial and cooperation of communities for both of them.
 Refrences

Tatz, Colin. 2018, Significant Aboriginal People in Sydney, Accessed from

https://www.sydneybarani.com.au/sites/significant-aboriginal-people-in-sydney/. 11-06-
2021.

Ronald M. Berndt, Robert Tonkinson. 2017. Ausrtalian Aboriginal peoples. Accessed

from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Australian-Aboriginal/Leadership-and-social-
control. 11-06-2021.

Erin Blakmore. 2019. Aboriginal Australians. Accessed from

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/aboriginal-australians. 11-06-2021

Reynolds, H. 2013, Forgotten War, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, pg.16

Reynolds, H. 2013, Forgotten War, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, pg.30

Reynolds, H. 2013, Forgotten War, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, pg.32