Indigenous Australians and Genocide

Activity One

Look at the following table outlining the broad relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state in Australia since settlement:


Period          Action                     Time______

Frontier Days          European Settlement                1788  -  1890’s
Protectionism          Segregation                              1890’s  -  1930’s
Assimilation           Merging into Euro Culture       1940s  - 1960s
                  
Integration              Recognition of rights                1960’s  -  1970’s
Self                        Decision making rights             1980’s -     
Determination 


What are the broad trends of Indigenous history in Australia?

Activity Two

Look at the map below of Indigenous groups in NSW at the time of settlement:












Read the words of Captain Cook (the first Englishman to discover Australia):


"From what I have seen of the natives of New South Wales, they may appear to be the most wretched people upon the earth, but in reality they are more happier than we Europeans, being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous, but the necessary conveniences so much sought after in Europe; they are happy in not knowing the use of them. They live in a tranquility that is not disturbed by the Inequality of Condition. The earth and sea of their own accord, furnishes them with all things necessary for life."

What was Cook's assessment of Aboriginal Australians?


What does this map suggest about Aboriginal life in Australia pre-European settlement?

Look at the following statistics about religious diversity in Australia since1944 taken from http://www.ceosyd.catholic.edu.au/Pages/Home.aspx




What is the dominant religion in Australia?

What do these percentages suggest about the impact of European settlement on Aboriginal belief systems or on the relative connection of Aborigines to their religion?

Think about the characteristics of genocide? What are some of the characteristics that are relevant to the Australian Aboriginal experience?

Activity Three



Consider this photo taken from http://www.ceosyd.catholic.edu.au/Pages/Home.aspx of Aborigines chained and forced off their land in Western Australia pre-1900 :



What do the images above this suggest about the relationship between settlers and Aborigines before 1900?
Find some corroborating evidence to support the images presented - research estimates of the number of Aborigines alive at the time of settlement 1788 and the number of Aborigines alive today.

See Australian Bureau of Statistics: ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER POPULATION

What do your findings suggest about the treatment of Aborigines by the European immigrant population of Australia? How do population statistics of Aborigines stack up against other genocide accounts?

What do population maps of Aborigines in Australia from the ABS site suggest about the relocation of Aboriginal people?

Activity Four

Look at the following painting taken from http://www.ceosyd.catholic.edu.au/Pages/Home.aspx:


What does this painting show about traditional Aboriginal religious rites? Describe the elements and nature of this rite - boys initiation ritual.

Look at the following painting taken from http://www.ceosyd.catholic.edu.au/Pages/Home.aspx:


What does this photo suggest about the nature of Aboriginal spirituality post-colonisation?

Compare and contrast the painting and picture. What are the differences? What are the causes of the differences in the state of Aboriginal spirituality from the painting to the photo?

Activity Four

Look at the following diagram taken from http://www.ceosyd.catholic.edu.au/Pages/Home.aspx:




How does land figure in the spirituality of Aborigines?

Given the painting above by C.A.Cawthorne - what could be the impact of the dispossession of Aboriginal land by European settlers on Aboriginal spirituality?


View the following video. What links does the documentary establish between the policy of assimilation employed by Australian state governments in the twentieth century and genocide? View the following video. Complete an ICON prompt activity in relation to Aboriginal people and settlers.

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