Page 7 - Indiginous Australians

Mary Alp
2.Diseases.
Colonization brought with it diseases including measles, influenza, smallpox (although there is thought that this might have come from trade contact with the Macassans in the North), tuberculosis, & venereal disease (sexual abuse of
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Indigenous Australians did resist the European settlement. The Frontier Wars are said to have lasted from 1788 – 1934 and included small scale resistance fighting to outright war & wholesale massacres of Indigenous people. It is estimated that
18 30,000 Aboriginals & 5,000 Europeans were killed in these conflicts .
Government policies - add to initial trauma
By 1900 colonial authorities introduced harsh government policies which aimed to Civilize & Christianize the remaining Indigenous Australian population. Indigenous people were made wards of the state & Protection policies were introduced with the intention to ’soothe the dying pillow’ (Indigenous people
19 were thought of as inferior & as such in the Darwinian sense - would die out) .
They were forcibly moved away from their country & placed on government reserves which had total control over their lives, or on Christian missions that were perhaps a little less controlling. This system faulted – the population steadied with the increase in the numbers of so-called 1⁄2 caste children. They didn’t die out. The government then resorted to the assimilation policy that was enforced between 1910 – 1970. This even more draconian system saw the forcible removal of Indigenous Australian children from their families. The intention was to absorb them into white society. (to get rid of them). The
16 Australians Together ‘Colonisation’ pp 1.
17 SBS, 2016. ‘Frontier Wars’.
18 H. Renyolds, quoted in SBS 2016 ‘ Frontier Wars’; ‘List of massacres of Indigenous Australians, Wikipedia; ‘The Killing times’, the Guardian Nov. 2019.
19 R.Broome, 2019 Ibid. pp 100-108.
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diseases which ravaged communities. There is contention as to whether or not
Aboriginal women & girls).
Indigenous Australians had no immunity to these
some of these diseases were intentionally introduced – small pox.
3.Conflict.