Indigenous Australian Genocide
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| “ | In less than twenty years we have nearly swept them off the face of the earth. We have shot them down like dogs. In the guise of friendship we have issued corrosive sublimate in their damper and consigned whole tribes to the agonies of an excruciating death. We have made them drunkards, and infected them with diseases which have rotted the bones of their adults, and made such few children as are born amongst them a sorrow and a torture from the very instant of their birth. We have made them outcasts on their own land, and are rapidly consigning them to entire annihilation. | „ |
| ~ Edward Wilson, The Argus, March 17th, 1856. |
The Indigenous Australian Genocide, AKA the Aboriginal Australian Genocide or the Australian Genocide, was the mass extermination of Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) committed by British colonists. It began with the Australian Frontier Wars starting with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 to the Stolen Generations in the 20th century. It is estimated that a total of 70,000 died.
History edit
Australian Frontier Wars edit
New South Wales edit
After the arrival of the First Fleet at Botany Bay in 1788, the British settlers under admiral Arthur Phillip established a penal colony in the area, where they clashed with the aboriginal natives residing in the area. The natives led by aboriginal warriors such as Pemulwuy conducted raids and murders against settlers, leading to the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars. These continuous attacks led to governor Philip Gidley King to authorize the shooting of the natives.
As British settlers encroached on Wiradjuri territory in the Blue Mountains, they were repelled by attacks from Wiradjuri warriors, leading to governor Thomas Brisbane to declare martial law and kickstart the Bathurst War. The conflict lasted until Windradyne was forced to peacefully surrender to the colonial government.
In the Liverpool Plains, frontier conflict escalated between the aboriginal people and the settlers, which led to over 500 aboriginal deaths as a result of several massacres, including the Myall Creek and Waterloo Creek massacres.
Tasmania edit
During the initial settlement of the island of Tasmania, massacres and rapes were already taking place against the aboriginal natives of the island. In 1804, a hunting party was massacred near an outpost at Risdon Cove out of fear that they would attack their site. The atrocities committed against the aboriginal people would lead to attacks on settlements and lieutenant-governor George Arthur declaring martial law, leading to the Black War. Eventually, the natives surrendered and were peacefully relocated to Flinders Island, though they were subject to violence there as well. Most of the natives died from disease and their bodies were exhumed, with Truganini being considered the last full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanian and Fanny Cochrane Smith being the last known native speaker of an indigenous Tasmanian language.
Western Australia edit
After the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829, conflict escalated between the British settlers and the Noongar people, leading to the Pinjarra massacre orchestrated by governor James Stirling and the war of resistance organized by Yagan, who was eventually captured and executed. Other Noongar tribes were massacred in reprisal for murders of settlers and were exiled to a prison on Rottnest Island.
Other conflicts took place against other aboriginal groups, such as the Wangkathaa and Bunuba and persisted until the Forrest River massacre of 1926.
South Australia edit
Despite each governors' commitments to the fair treatment of aboriginal people, violence persisted against the natives, largely due to a policy of aboriginal people not being legally obliged to testify in court in addition to reprisals for attacks on farms. Other natives were captured and executed by police officers, due to a massacre near a shipwreck called the Maria and attacks near Port Lincoln.
Victoria edit
Massacres and frontier violence took place against the aboriginal people in the state of Victoria ever since the initial settlement in 1834. The most infamous of these massacres were the Convincing Ground massacre against the Gunditjmara in 1834 and the Gippsland massacres against the Kurnai people from 1840 to 1850.
Queensland edit
In 1840, the colonial government of Queensland declared a war of extermination against the natives in the area in retaliation for attacks on settlers. Most of the massacres were perpetrated by Native Police units and private citizens. These massacres persisted until the natives were forced onto reserves under the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act of 1897 and the extermination policy officially ended, though violence was still rife among aboriginal communities. Approximately 65,000 aboriginal people in Queensland were killed.
Northern Territory edit
As the British colonists began establishing military outposts, they were frequently attacked by aboriginal natives trying to drive them off their lands and responded with massacres in reprisal. The last known sanctioned massacre took place near the Coniston cattle station in 1928 and the last frontier conflict took place during a series of murders at Caledon Bay in the early 1930s.
Stolen Generations edit
Throughout much of the 20th century, starting in 1905, the Australian government pursued a policy of forced assimilation against aboriginal people by forcibly taking their children away from their parents to raise them in concentration camps, such as the Moore River Native Settlement. The goal of the policy was to biologically absorb aboriginal people into the white population by removing children of mixed descent and allowing full-blooded individuals to die out under the assumption that they were doomed to extinction. The assimilation policy took place under the bureaucracies of Chief Protectors of Aborigines such as A.O. Neville, Cecil Cook, and William Garnet South. The removal policy remained in place until the early 1970s.
Videos edit