Indigenous Australians 

are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and

nearby islands. The term "Aboriginal" is traditionally applied to only the indigenous
inhabitants of mainland Australia and Tasmania, along with some of the adjacent
islands, i.e.: the "first peoples". Indigenous Australians is an inclusive term used when
referring to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders (Queensland).

Law and Order

3 Horrendous Anti-Indigenous Laws

 1. It was legal to hunt San (Bushmen) in southern Africa until 1936. When Dutch
settlers arrived at the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) they eradicated most of the local
San population within 150 years, shooting and killing thousands and forcing more into
labor.  From the 1600s-1800s,commandos (mobile paramilitary units) were ordered to hunt
San tribes, whom the Dutch settlers feared and greatly misunderstood. By 1873, the San of
the Cape were hunted into extinction, with other groups of San in the area surviving
under constant threat. 

2. Aboriginals were not considered citizens of Australia until 1967, and some were
regulated under Flora and Fauna Law. The federal constitution, written in 1900, explicitly
stated that Aboriginals would not be counted in any state or federal census. Queensland
was the last state in Australia to grant state voting rights to Aboriginals in 1965. In 1959,
Aboriginals became eligible to receive pensions and maternity leave, but only if they were
not “nomadic or primitive,” and often group payments were made to reserves or missions
rather than individuals or communities. Also contentious is New South Wales’ Flora and
Fauna Law under the National Parks and Wildlife Act. This law claims that the majority of
Aboriginal artifacts are “property of the crown,” and claims jurisdiction over all
Aboriginal heritage and culture. 

3. The United States, Canada, and Australia forced Indigenous children into residential
schools, which were often physically, emotionally, and sexually abusive, in order to
“kill the Indian in them.”  The removal of children remained legal and encouraged by the
government for an entire century, until the last state repealed it in 1969. 

Law of the tribes

In all parts of Aboriginal Australia government was mostly loosely organised and
informal. As with all parts of Aboriginal society, the laws and rules of behaviour were
set in the dreamtime by the ancestral creation beings who are said to have given the
people the laws they were to live by.

In most of traditional Aboriginal Australia the loyalty was locally based, to the land and
the people they know. Strangers were regarded with suspicion, so the further apart 2
tribes are, the more the mutual distrust. At times of great ceremonial occasions, and
when trading, these attitudes were put aside as they were expected to be on friendly
terms for the duration of the ceremonies or trade negotiations. Neighbours who shared
beliefs, as when an ancestral being was believed to have travelled through the territories
of both during the dreamtime, shared the associated ceremonies and were more friendly
than if they believed they were connected to the wanderings of different creation beings.

Nowhere in Australia were there any wars over territory, unlike elsewhere in the world
where it is a feature of human life that goes back a very long way, though they did have
quarrels and fights, sometimes on large scales, but never to take over a territory. They
felt a connection to the land of their territory, the resting places where their spirits
waited to be reborn were on the land. When they did fight there were rules to cover the
fighting and peacemaking after it.

The rules given to them by the ancestral beings that formed the basis of Aboriginal life,
the rituals they performed collectively, such as the movements of a particular dreamtime
being through their territory, constantly reinforced the social identity and solidarity of
those taking part, as well as introducing the religion and rules to the young. Their way
of life was had a religious basis, being based on the teachings of the dreamtime beings.

Not all actions of the dreamtime beings are expected to be followed, being more actions
to avoid. In the Djanggawul stories the brother and his 2 sisters commit incest. Other
stories deal with murder, adultery, and theft.

In the dreamtime the ancestral beings prescribed the roles of men and women for all
aspects of life, sacred and secular, marriage, child bearing, death as well as the economy
of the group. They also warned of the consequences if the taboos and avoidances were
not adhered to. The dreamtime beings were law-givers, but were above the law, in some
of stories about them they tell what to do and in others what not to do. In some cases the
meanings of their statements are inferred by the stories and songs associated with their
rituals.

In some cases acts that were not normally permitted assume a sacred quality, as in
fertility rites in which sexual association between people that normally must avoid each
other. Some of the rules given by the ancestral beings have a practical purpose, as when
it helps the people in a particular environment to survive. The fact that it is viewed as
sacred, having been given by an ancestral being, gives it authority, though it may be the
accumulated wisdom of generations of ancestors who learnt the hard way how to
survive in a particularly harsh environment.

Conformity

Children growing up in a particular tribe would usually accept the teachings of their
tribe without question. The only problems would come when they had contact with
other tribes with varying views on some part of their tribal beliefs. In practice, not all
behaviour dictated by the ancestral beings were strictly adhered to by all. Some
variation was tolerated as long as it was on a matter of lesser importance. But there were
limits beyond which it was not permitted to stray, especially with the actions that were
considered more important.

When deciding if an action was to be tolerated or not the older people, the elders, were
considered to be the most knowledgeable, though there was no defined official, the
person who would usually be regarded as a person of final authority on such matters
would be an older man who was fully initiated, so would have the most knowledge of
the rituals associated with the dreamtime, and hence the actions of the ancestral beings,
as well as a lifetime of practical experience. Other members of the tribe could make
their point, but the final word would come from the unofficial leader.

Discipline for minor offences & children

For children and for minor offences, discipline was usually maintained by the
immediate family. Childhood was generally a time of permissiveness, the rules of their
society being learned by example and informally, such as being told and shown things
as part of daily life, rather than formal lessons. They were told what to do without
explanation, and if they disobeyed too much they could be slapped. Severe punishment
was extremely rare.

For boys, the permissiveness ends when they reach the age of their first initiation, their
discipline is no longer in the hands of their immediately family. Through the various
levels of initiation they are taught the rules as well as the rituals they are expected to
perform, and the way they are to act in adult life. This period of initiation varied across
the country, in some places it involved physical operations, such as sub-incision, in
others there were only the introduction of food taboos.

Puberty is the time when girls are introduced to the ritual life of the group, as when she
is taught in a more formal way the rules she is expected to follow.

Positive Sanctions

Children are gradually introduced to the rules they are to follow and the things they are
not to do from an early age. There are stories told that illustrate to the young the actions
that are considered inappropriate, such as a mother-in-law abusing a son-in-law, who
are expected to avoid each other.

Adultery is not allowed, but some release from this taboo is allowed in some rituals, and
in the practice of wife-lending, probably in the hope that such permitted extramarital
relations will head off straying. But elopements and adultery did occur.

Rewards for conformity could be in the form of ritual and secular leadership, though
over conformity was not liked, sometimes leading to criticism. Or simply as social
approval.

Negative Sanctions

In this category are such things as ridicule, the role of a man in the punishment of his
biological or classificatory sister, fear of supernatural punishment, fear of sorcery, the
threat of physical violence, and worst of all, killed and not being accorded
usualmortuary rites. The forms of negative sanction used in different parts of Australia,
the order of importance of the different sanctions, varied across the country.

Ridicule. This form of sanction is powerful, but doesn't always work because it can
often cause or exacerbate quarrels. This form can sometimes be used against people
who have no control over their actions, such as the deaf or those with mental problems.
It can sometimes lead to partial ostracism, and very rarely to complete ostracism. Many
people with mental or physical impairments are cared for by other members of their
family and group. Swearing or the use of obscenity is also in this category, but it can
also be dangerous, as in some rare cases it has been known lead to the immediate killing
of the speaker. (Berndt & Berndt, 1964). Malicious talk about a particular person could
be used to change the behaviour of people who thought it might affect them, but it could
also cause trouble.

The brother-sister taboo. Where this was used, in some parts of Australia, a man could
be expected to discipline any of his sisters, whether biological or classificatory, for such
things as using bad language or if she neglects her work, family or ceremonial duties or
for fighting.

The possibility of supernatural punishment for offences such as breaching some

taboos or sacred laws, or for failing to perform certain songs, dances or ritual correctly.
Kaberry, 1939, said it was difficult to assess the degree to which the Dreaming
(ngarunggani) is used as a sanction and threat of supernatural punishment for the
breaking of taboos. Examples were sore eyes as punishment for associating with a
tabooed relative, incest could lead to death immediately or in the near future, and a
malignant disease could develop if tabooed food was eaten, such as the animal or plant
associated with a person's totem. The threat of supernatural punishment was associated
with straying from the patterns of behaviour as set down by the spirit beings in the
Dreamtime. Some threats were in the form of 'If you do this, which is wrong, the great
Djanggawul, Ngurunderi, or some other spirit being will punish you.' (Berndt & Berndt,
1964). Mostly they were less explicit 'If you do this, which is wrong, you will become
ill and die.' (Berndt & Berndt, 1964). If they failed to heed the decrees of the spirit
beings they knew what to expect.

The fear of sorcery was a powerful force keeping people on the straight and narrow. It
appears retaliation  by sorcery could be incurred by minor fences. Fear of being a
sorcerer was also present. If a person has a misfortune or gets sick of even dies, a person
known to hold a grudge against him could be accused of sorcery. Suspicions of this kind
were not always associated with claims of the person holding the grudge used magical
rituals. 

When writing about the area around Oenpelli, Berndt and Berndt state that if a woman
has a lover or lovers over a long period of time without her husband's approval, and he
dies she may be accused of being responsible for his death, either by weakening his
heart, or being careless about his belongings, that were subsequently taken by a
sorcerer. Men usually keep track of their wives' affairs, if he knows about them
unofficially he may retain the right to find out about them officially if he decides it is
time to stop them, possibly because they are becoming too frequent or blatant. The
threat of a husband's 'dreaming' of a wife's affairs, with the subsequent arguments that
would follow, tended to keep the straying wife's affairs to a reasonable number.

The threat of physical violence. Some breaches of accepted behaviour could incur
punishment that could involve death or injury. As with the infamous 'witch trials', in
some cases this was occasionally used to settle a grudge, while appearing to maintain
conformity to the rules of the tribe.
The threat of not only being killed but being denied funerary rites. This was a
serious punishment, involving the spirit of the offender as well as the body. The
Aborigines believed in re-incarnation, the spirit travelling to a resting place, such as a
waterhole, while it waited for a woman it could enter to become a baby and be born
again. The threat of not having the funerary rites after a person's death would have been
a powerful deterrent, as it could prevent, or at least make difficult, the return of the
spirit to the waterhole. When this punishment was carried out the relatives were
prohibited from handling the body, if they ignored the prohibition they could be
condemned to the same fate.

The manner of killing of the man at Narrabeen bears a remarkable similarity to a

judicial killing, a ritual execution, of a man who had committed a crime for which the
guilty person could receive a death sentence. In pre-contact Australia this was a normal
part of the social justice system. Therefore this killing may be seen as less of an
indication of the brutal nature of a murder as part of territorial conflict and more as the
process of  a justice system that was unflinching in its application

Maintenance of Order

The maintenance of law and order, social solidarity and cohesion are matters of local
control. The sanctions applied by a clan, tribe or linguistic group were usually applied
within the group. There can be exceptions, as when more than 1 are involved, being
linked by a common culture pattern or close trading links, or share a common sacred
and ceremonial bond. A stranger from a different linguistic group, who had no other
links to the group, had no ritual status within the group. If the group accepted him as a
member, attaching him to a kinship group, he could never be viewed as being as closely
related as those from within the group.

The maintenance of order in pre-contact times had very limited, local application.
Authority was limited and was overridden by claims of kinship. These factors
determined justice. The desire to retaliate in kind is the first reaction to injury, but other
factors come into play, such as why that particular person was injured or killed, what
were the circumstances? Who was he and who were his kin? Who else is interested in
the matter? The identity of the aggressor or aggressors and his/their kin, and the reason
for injuring the man. When these questions are asked, others are involved, becoming
part of the decision making. When these questions are considered the precedents for the
action taken in previous similar cases is discussed. At this point it is the basis of law and
regulation. In all parts of pre-contact Aboriginal Australia there were a number of
mechanisms for dealing with such situations - the council, the meeting, the magarada or
ordeal, armed combat and duel, and the inquest. All these mechanisms are available for
the resolution of disputes. The authority system was not strong enough to impose its
own penalties, but some have seen indications that it may have actually been
much stronger than appears at first sight.

Aboriginal Justice - Trial by ordeal

The magarada or manejag that was practiced in northeastern and western Arnhem Land
is another form of dispute settlement. This is carried out after a man has been found
guilty or confessed, with the aim of restoring peace, all interested parties being
represented. It has been said that it was described by several other terms - 'settlement by
combat', or in some instances, 'settlement by duel'. Some have described it as retaliatory
action rather than law, a legal system in the narrow sense not having been developed. 

Offences against property

In traditional Aboriginal Australia this type of offence was rare. The land occupied by
the tribe or clan is not transferrable, hence the lack of war for conquest. The land is seen
as being held in trust by the living for the members of the unit from the past, present and
future. They think of themselves more as being owned by the land, rather than them
owning the land. This must have been one of the most difficult things for the tribes all
over Australia to understand after European colonisation, that any person could claim
that they owned land. And they believed that the connection between them and the land
was supernaturally sanctioned, having been decreed by the ancestral beings from the
Dreamtime. The same attitude applied to ochre mines and stone quarries.

Offences against the person

If a child is injured as a result of its mother having a fit of anger, or a child is allowed to
stray and subsequently is injured, dies or cannot be found, if a mother deliberately kills
a full-term baby which was healthy and not deformed-these are handled as family
matters, punishment by her husband, and or her co-wives. She would be at least
criticised, and her actions can be used in future argument. If a woman has a child that is
fathered by a man of her moiety it is considered a form of incest. The husband or co-
wives would usually kill the child.

Another sub-category is when a man runs away with another man's wife, or a woman
runs away with another woman's husband. The help of male relatives of the injured
party was usually invoked, sometimes sending a message stick, or war stick. This matter
is mainly handled by the parties involved, but others can be drawn into the dispute
through the kinship system.

A more serious offence is when a murder or suspected murder has taken place. There
are 3 ways in which this offence can be treated. This was usually handled at the family
level, and there was always the possibility of violent retaliation. The close relatives of
the victim were expected to avenge the offence. If a man who would normally carry out
the punishment cannot, possibly because of his kin obligations, in western Arnhem
Land, a special revenge-associated object could be handed to another man under
obligation to him. This man was required to kill the offender, whether he wanted to or
not. In western Arnhem Land the revenge object, the wungbar, may be bound to the
spear used in the killing.

Offences within the tribe or clan

There are 2 main subcategories in this category, sacred and secular. The sacred law is
considered the most important, involves regulations, codes, and behaviours based on the
supernatural. It has a religious connotation similar to the concept of sin. The other
category is of offences against people or property. Not all offences are as clear cut as
those at the extremes, many tend towards one extreme or the other, depending on their
seriousness. Some offences such as incest come under both types of rules, traditional
and supernatural. In practice, less serious offences are not usually covered by both
category of law.

Sacred law

Appropriate punishments for breaches under this category of law were decided upon by
ritual leaders in secret meetings. The maximum punishment for some of these breaches
could be death. 2 or more ritual leaders may take action themselves or delegate it to
another man. He was not always told immediately what they expect him to do, and they
may coerce a man more subtly. One example was that a man may be given tabooed food
to eat, after which he was told to kill a certain person. In Arnhem Land there was a form
of compulsion in which a sacred object was placed on a man's head, the man could not
then refuse to carry out their instructions to kill another man.

Occasionally, when wider repercussions might be involved, an when the act that was
actually mainly personal vengeance, supernatural sanctions could be used to disguise
the real motive for the act. Another method, that was used in the Daly River area, was
to throw a stone spearhead into a sacred ring while chanting ritual invocations. This
placed an obligation on all initiated men to co-operate.

Aboriginal Embryonic court

In most parts of Aboriginal Australia meetings for more or less formal discussions were
held at irregular intervals to settle grievances, though the basis of legal procedures was
self-help. When different tribes come together for ceremonies, as when they carried out
the rituals associated with the wanderings of the Dreamtime beings that crossed the
country of all the tribes at the gathering. There were few other times, apart from trading
trips, when several tribes came together. Theses were usually times when fighting was
avoided, but sometimes, after the main ceremonies were complete, fighting did break
out, but more often it was at these large gatherings that inter-tribal disputes were sorted
out.

Agreement on the ways and means of keeping social order wasn't restricted to within a
tribe or linguistic group, it also applied to neighbouring tribes, or parts of them, sharing
a common mythology and ritual. These meetings were significant because they provided
a means of social control, but they weren't judicially-based bodies, which didn't exist in
Aboriginal Australia. The relatively weak political organisation, concentration on self-
help and the use of sorcery made it difficult for a formalised law system to develop.
Though formally constituted courts never developed in traditional Aboriginal society,
less formal and less systematic councils existed that carried out much the same function.

Feud and Warfare

In traditional Aboriginal society, warfare was armed conflict by the members of one
social unit, it could be a tribe or clan, or in the name of the unit, against another unit.
Feud, though it may have wider implications, involving many people, was armed
conflict between family groups or kin groups. Feuds sometimes became warfare

divides Aboriginal warfare into 2 categories, inter-tribal fighting and intra-tribal (or
inter-clan) feuding. He claimed inter-tribal fighting was common in the early days of
contact, but the number of such instances that were actually inter-tribal fighting has
been disputed, though some instances are supported by other observers. It is believed
that in most cases incidents that were described as inter-tribal warfare were actually
armed expeditions that were socially sanctioned for a particular purpose, such as to
avenge a death, or to punish an offender. It was fairly common to send women to a
camp of visitors whose intentions were uncertain. It was usually done as a friendly
gesture to appease an enemy. But sometimes it was used to put the visitors off their
guard and so vulnerable to an attack. Sometimes members of avenging parties captured
the wives and daughters, and occasionally sons, of the men they killed.

How Aboriginal people lived before colonisation

Aboriginal people lived according to efficient laws and ways of interacting with the
environment to meet their needs.

Aboriginal peoples were lived in tribes and were nomadic. They moved from place to
place in search of food and water. For food, Aboriginal people caught fish and shellfish
from the sea and rivers, hunted kangaroos, possums and birds, collected plants or caught
lizards. They used wood, bone and shells to make tools and weapons. When the natural
resources of an area began to run low, Aboriginal people moved on to the next place.
They did not farm the land, plant or harvest crops or herd animals

European Invasion

The first records of European mariners sailing into 'Australian' waters occurs around
1606, and includes their observations of the land known as Terra Australis
Incognita (unknown southern land). The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast
and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutchman, Willem
Janszoon.

Between 1606 and 1770, an estimated 54 European ships from a range of nations made
contact. Many of these were merchant ships from the Dutch East Indies Company and
included the ships of Abel Tasman. Tasman charted parts of the north, west and south
coasts of Australia which was then known as New Holland.

In 1770, Englishman Lieutenant James Cook charted the Australian east coast in his
ship HM Barque Endeavour. Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from King
George III of England on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island, naming eastern
Australia 'New South Wales'. The coast of Australia, featuring Tasmania as a separate
island, was mapped in detail by the English mariners and navigators Bass and Flinders,
and the French mariner, Baudin. A nearly completed map of the coastline was published
by Flinders in 1814.
This period of European exploration is reflected in the names of landmarks such as the
Torres Strait, Arnhem Land, Dampier Sound, Tasmania, the Furneaux Islands, Cape
Frecinyet and La Perouse. Expeditions between 1790 and the 1830s, led by
D'Entrecasteaux, Baudin, and Furneaux, were recorded by the naturalists Labillardire
andPron.

Treatment of Aboriginal people

In the winter of 1791, when George Vancouver claimed the Albany region in Western
Australia in the name of King George III, the process of British colonisation began.

Initially, the European explorers had reasonably friendly relations with the Aboriginal
people. Governor Phillip always encouraged the new settlers to treat Aboriginal people
fairly. Phillip traded items such as axes and cloth with Aboriginal people in exchange
for food and water.

The relationship became hostile when Aboriginal people realised that the colonisers
would seriously disturb their lives. The settlers took away land, natural food resources
and the order of a nomadic life from Aborigines. Between 1790 and 1810, clan people
of the Eora group in the Sydney area, led by Pemulwuy of the Bidjigal clan, undertook a
series of attacks against the English colonisers.

When Macquarie became governor in 1810, the clashes between the settlers and
Aboriginal people increased. Governor Macquarie believed that the best way to treat
Aboriginal people was to 'civilise' them. That meant replacing the traditional Aboriginal
way of life with European ways.

Macquarie tried to send Aboriginal children to school but many left or returned to their
tribes after a short time. Macquarie tried to create a settlement for Aboriginal people by
teaching them farming and building techniques. His attempts failed because Aboriginal
people did not want to become farmers. After all his failures, Macquarie then made laws
to place Aboriginal people under British control. Under these laws it was permitted to
shoot Aboriginal people if they resisted.

The effect of British colonisation on Aboriginal people

Between 1788 and 1900, the Aboriginal population was reduced by 90%. Three main
reasons for this were the introduction of new diseases, loss of land and loss of people
through direct fighting with the colonisers.

Introduced diseases
The most immediate consequence of British settlement was the appearance of European
diseases. Most were epidemic diseases such as chickenpox, smallpox, influenza and
measles. As these diseases were infectious, they spread very quickly and killed many
people. In large Aboriginal communities, the diseases spread even more quickly.

Loss of land
Another consequence of British settlement was the reduction of access to land and water
resources. The settlers took the view that Aboriginal people, with a nomadic lifestyle,
could easily be driven away from their lands. By the 1870s all the fertile areas of
Australia had been taken from Aboriginal people and given to the white settlers. The
loss of land and other essential resources such as food and water posed great danger to
Aboriginal people who were left with no place to live and nowhere to hunt food.
Already weakened by the new diseases spread by the new settlers, Aboriginal people
had dramatically reduced chances for survival.

The British settlers also introduced alcohol to Aboriginal people which affected them
very badly.

When the Europeans started raising stock in ranches, several changes took place. Many
Aboriginal people lost their land. The spread of European livestock over vast areas also
restricted the nomadic lifestyle of Aboriginal people.

From these ranches, Aboriginal people had a new supply of fresh meat, which changed
their nutrition, their eating habits and ways of finding food. As a consequence,
Aboriginal people started to depend on European settlers for their food and livelihood.

In the later 19th century, new settlers took vital parts of the land in the north, such as
waterholes or soaks, for their own use. They also introduced sheep, rabbits and cattle.
These animals took over fertile areas and fouled the land. Consequently, the native
animals that Aboriginal people depended on to hunt began to disappear. Aboriginal
people started to hunt sheep and cattle as they could no longer rely on hunting native
animals.

During the 1850s, gold was found in south-eastern Australia. Many white pastoral
workers left their stock farms or ranches to search for gold. Many Aboriginal men,
women and children were hired to work in cattle stations and in other less popular
industries, such as diving for pearls. Instead of being paid, Aboriginal people received
food, clothing and other basic necessities.

Christian missions often provided food and clothing for Aboriginal communities and
opened schools and orphanages for Aboriginal children. In some places, colonial
governments also provided some resources.

In remote areas, some Aboriginal communities managed to retain their traditional

lifestyles as late as the 1930s.

 In general, at the beginning, the British colonisers were welcomed, or at least not
opposed by Aboriginal people. With time, however, when the impact of the British
settlement increased, there were more and more conflicts between the white settlers and
Aboriginal people, which often resulted in massacre.

 In the Northern Territory until as late as the 1930s, Europeans travellers were
sometimes speared to death.In retaliation, some European settlers shot Aboriginal
people. The most severe series of killings in the Northern Territory occurred at Caledon
Bay, which became a turning point in the relationship between Aboriginal people and
the white settlers.