Historical accounts have often overlooked the more violent aspects of Australia’s colonisation (Watson 2002, p. 6). This approach to Australian historiography presents a whitewashed view of the past. Within this essay, is a critical analysis and comparison of two representations of the frontier conflicts of Australia. The historical texts reviewed in this paper, Through Their Eyes (Lakic & Wrench 1994) and Rivers of Blood (Medcalf 1995), examine darker elements of Australia’s history and recognise the experiences of Indigenous people. They belong to a modern historiography that extends beyond the proud, patriotic and pleasantly sanitised view of Australia’s dominant culture to explore how the events of Australia’s colonisation impacted people’s …show more content…
lives, particularly Indigenous Australian’s. While the texts pursue localised events in Port Phillip and the Northern Rivers, similar tragedies occurred across Australia.
However, although frontier conflict was widespread it the violent history of colonisation remained largely untold (McGrath 1995; Watson 2002, p. 6). This was due to ‘whitewashing of frontier histories’ (Broome 2010, p. 55) which refers to the exclusion of Indigenous people’s experiences and perspectives. In the past, the unjust treatment of Indigenous Australian’s was deliberately suppressed. Massacres often remained unrecorded, making it difficult to verify their extent (Watson 2002, p. 7). Thus, presentations of the past were one-sided. Attempting to address the lack of Indigenous voices in history, a new wave of Australian historiography arose in the 1970’s (Watson 2002, p. 1). It is to this culturally relative historiography that the texts discussed here belong. In Through Their Eyes, editors Lakic and Wrench (1994) have taken an objective approach to historiography by exclusively using primary sources of information to give insight into the attitudes and emotions of the time. They have curated a collection of persuasive letters written to facilitate peace and wellbeing for Indigenous …show more content…
Australians. The authors of the two texts are resoundingly sympathetic to Indigenous Australian’s resistance to white occupation.
For example, Thomas (cited in Lakic & Wrench 1994, p. 90) writes that he ‘cannot help commiserating’ with the misfortune of the Indigenous people. Repeatedly, he laments the treatment of Indigenous Australian’s, advocating for their protection from malevolent settlers bent on retribution (Lakic & Walker 1994). Similarly, Parker (cited in Lakic & Wrench 1994, p. 86) refers to the European colonist’s actions towards Indigenous people as ‘cruel and unjustifiable’. Parker (cited in Lakic & Wrench 1994, p. 86) admits surprise that Indigenous people do not respond with an equal degree of indiscriminate violence, implying it would been well within their right to do so. While Indigenous people did engage in raids on properties, armed resistance, guerrilla campaigns and acts of sorcery in their attempt to dissuade white occupation, they ‘fought in self-defence, killing only in retaliation’ (Hewitt cited in Medcalf 1995, p. 39). Alternately, European settlers are tarnished by the violent atrocities and numerous massacres the committed against Indigenous people in the name of colonisation. Medcalf (1995) is committed to telling the bloody and forgotten history of Australia and condemns of the inhumane actions of European settlers. He states that the slaughter of many innocent Indigenous people in the Northern Rivers ‘mirrored the brutality that accompanied white
colonisation throughout Australia’ (Medcalf 1995, p. 38) devastating an ancient culture. In contrast, both texts imply that the resistance tactics of Indigenous people were reasonable and justified. Two representations of the brutal history of Australia’s colonisation have been discussed. Both presented accounts sensitive to Indigenous people’s perspectives and experiences. Through Their Eyes, went about this in an objective manner using letters as first hand evidence of life during frontier conflicts. In Rivers of Blood, Medcalf (1995) presented his own interpretation of events incorporating the realities of Indigenous Australian’s resistance experience. Thus, both texts demonstrated a culturally relative historiography.
The Sapphires is a film based on the McCrae sisters, four Australian Aboriginal singers, and their journey to Vietnam to entertain American troops in 1968. In this paper we will use the film The Sapphires to critically discuss the work of Stuart Hall (1997), Aileen Moreton-Robinson (2015), and Judith Butler (2013) and see how these scholars might analyze its relationship to social identities and difference. In the ‘Spectacle of the Other,’ Hall presents the idea of the ‘other’ and the fear and anxiety it creates. While in ‘I Still Call Australia Home: Indigenous Belonging and Place in a White Post Colonizing Society,’ Moreton-Robinson argues that Anglo colonization continues suppress Aboriginals and dominate Australian institutions. In ‘For
Though Coulthard’s argues that Indigenous people’s ressentiment is a valid expression of Indigenous anger against colonial practices under certain
Good morning members of the Mt Gravatt show society. Did you know that World War Two is known as the most destructive war in history? It killed over 60 million people and had a lot more far-reaching impacts than any other wars. Published in 1988 in Inside Black Australia, an anthology of Aboriginal poetry, “The Black Rat” by a famous author and researcher, Iris Clayton, was a poem inspired by her father, Cecil, who fought in the war. The poem describes the depressing life of an Aboriginal soldier who helped off the German army at Tobruk at the time. The message in the poem is that the Aboriginal soldiers did not receive the benefits that European soldiers received, like farming lands after the war ended. This tells how unjust the European society was in Australia’s history.
An Akubra hat clutched by roughened hands, boots worn to the sole and a distinct, robust figure silhouetted against a crimson sky. The 1900s considerably shaped the face of Australian literature, which presented iconic ballads and romanticised poems of heroic Bushmen taming the elements, which we recognise today. While these pioneers were at the forefront of Australia’s identity, one area often overlooked is the perspective of the Indigenous. Now envision land, your land, soil on which you grew, learnt about your origins, seized by foreign men. This wasn’t a peaceful integration, it invasion day. Two prominent poems that explore this view are Ambrose by Roberta “Bobbi” Sykes and Beggar’s Choice by Bruce Dawe. Sykes narrates the disruption
Summary of Text: ‘The Redfern Address’ is a speech that was given to a crowd made up of mainly indigenous Australians at the official opening of the United Nations International Year of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in Redfern Park, New South Wales. This text deals with many of the challenges that have been faced by Indigenous Australians over time, while prompting the audience to ask themselves, ‘How would I feel?’ Throughout the text, Keating challenges the views of history over time, outlines some of the outrageous crimes committed against the Indigenous community, and praises the indigenous people on their contribution to our nation, despite the way they have been treated.
Indigenous People. In evaluating the Legal System’s response to Indigenous People and it’s achieving of justice, an outline of the history of Indigenous Australians - before and during settlement - as well as their status in Australian society today must be made. The dispossession of their land and culture has deprived Indigenous People of economic revenue that the land would have provided if not colonised, as well as their ... ... middle of paper ... ...
...kins , T. (2012). History Alive 10 for the Australian Curriculum. Milton, Qld, Australia. Retrieved March 28, 2014
English literature have been used to express the experiences and history of Australia. In Dorothy Mackellar’s “My Australia” poem, signifies the beauties and the terrors of the luck country. However, Migrants experience a different terror, as conveyed by Ania Walwicz as the “big, ugly” side of Australians - facing the cruel racism of the White Australian Policy. In Australia’s history, Migrants have been treated with alienation and physical discrimination which distant them from Australia’s community. Migrants not only faces the terrors of the land but also the racism enforced by Australia’s laws.
The country I will be using for an example of imperialism is England. England imperialize South Africa, Canada, Australia, and India. The British Empire became the largest empire spanning over 35 million square kilometers in 1913.
Struggles by Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people for recognition of their rights and interests have been long and arduous (Choo & Hollobach: 2003:5). The ‘watershed’ decision made by the High Court of Australia in 1992 (Mabo v Queensland) paved the way for Indigenous Australians to obtain what was ‘stolen’ from them in 1788 when the British ‘invaded’ (ATSIC:1988). The focus o...
Reynolds, H. (1976). The Other Side of The Frontier: Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion of Australia. Queensland, Australia: James Cook University
Jack Davis' No Sugar, first performed in 1985, is a post-colonial realist work written in protest of the 1988 Bicentenary celebrations. In this broadly applicable play, Davis highlights the discrimination against Aborigines between 1929 and 1934 and particularly its justification under the government policy of `protectionism'. Focusing on the experiences of the Millimurra family, No Sugar underscores the view of Aborigines as uncivilized, the attempt to assimilate them to white culture through Aboriginal reserves such as the Moore River Settlement, and the resilience and determination of Aborigines faced with almost complete disempowerment. A fundamental concern of No Sugar is the notion of the definition of power along racial lines. This concern would draw significantly different responses from original and contemporary, Aboriginal and White audiences. Economic, political and social power, but also the less tangible but equally valid linguistic power in the play is invariably held by Whites. That said, Aborigines are, to an extent, empowered by their own language and culture and their resilience in the face of oppression.
“Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human History. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation’s history. The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians” (apology by Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, 16th November 2009, Parliament House, Canberra.)
Within Australia, beginning from approximately the time of European settlement to late 1969, the Aboriginal population of Australia experienced the detrimental effects of the stolen generation. A majority of the abducted children were ’half-castes’, in which they had one white parent and the other of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. Following the government policies, the European police and government continued the assimilation of Aboriginal children into ‘white’ society. Oblivious to the destruction and devastation they were causing, the British had believed that they were doing this for “their [Aborigines] own good”, that they were “protecting” them as their families and culture were deemed unfit to raise them. These beliefs caused ...
This is an incredible paragraph extracted from Bora Ring. This poem depicts perfectly of the European invasion of Australia. It shows how the traditions and stories are gone, how the hunting and rituals are gone and ‘lost in an alien tale’, the Europeans being the aliens. This poem also describes that it seemed as if the tradition of Aborigines was ‘breathed sleeping and forgot’. These are powerful words Judith Wright used to show how they Aborigines were quickly invaded and ‘forgotten’. This poem is an excellent example of why Australian students should study her poetry.