Dispossession and Dislocation of Aboriginal Peoples of Country Flashcards
(35 cards)
What is colonsation?
Colonisation is the process of settling among or establishing control over the indigenous people of an area.
What is Invasion in relation to Aboriginal Peoples?
Invasion refers to the British colonisation of Australia that began on the 26th of January in 1788.
What is resistance?
Resistance is the act of Aboriginal Peoples initiating armed conflict, protest, legal challenges and cultural resilience in response to colonisation, dispossession and dislocation.
What is settlement?
Settlement refers to the arrival and establishment of British colonies in Australia despite Aboriginal clans already inhabiting the area.
What is genocide?
Genocide is the act of deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group. In terms of Aboriginal People, this was carried out through colonization, violence and policies such as the land grab, punitive expeditions and massacres.
What are some shared histories of dispossession and dislocation?
Dislocation: Aboriginal Peoples were forcibly removed from their land by British Policies, erasing their cultural practices
Dispossession: The act of removing someone’s possessions, physically and emotionally. For example, in the Stolen Generation dispossession occurred by removing the children from their parents and losing the culture within their clan’s society.
What is Social Justice?
The concept of creating a society where all individuals have equal access to opportunities and resources and where they are treated fairly regardless of their ethnicity and culture.
What are human rights?
Human rights refers to the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world.
What is sovereignty?
The right to self-government without interference from outside
What is Terra Nullius?
‘Terra Nullius’ refers to land belonging to no-one.
What is the native title?
In Australia, native title refers to the legal recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights and interest in land and waters that existed before European settlement.
What were some non-Aboriginal (British) Land management practices?
Creation of Dams and weird in the Murray Darling Basin to divert the water from the snowy mountain to the gReat Dividing Range to augment the Murray Darling Basin’s flow.
Irrigation has been implement as an agricultural strategy
Redgum forest along the rivers have been felled for timer, burnt for firewood and cleared for farms and towns.
Grazing of livestock has been implemented across the river banks
Clearing of native vegetation on the slopes of the Great Divide and across the cast dry plains of the river valley has been transmore to enable production of crops and livestock.
Deforestation has occurred in order to create towns along rivers and have ceopled into cities.
Introduction of European cattle
Perennial native grasses were eradicated and fast growing annuals were introduced
The British took as much food as they could find, neglecting environmental sustainability.
What is the impact of the creation of dams and weirs? (Non-Aboriginal land management practices on their impact on the environment)
The creation of dams and weirs assured water supply to dry inland but the control and use of Murray Darling River waters has experienced significant degradation including pollution, loss of biodiversity and vegetation.
What is the impact of Irrigation? (Non-Aboriginal land management practices on their impact on the environment)
Irrigation has enabled a massive increase in agricultural production; however this results in waterlogging and salinisation.This results in a decrease in river water quality. Additionally, the growth of cities further augments chemicals in the river through pollution in stormwater and sewage. Furthermore, Nutrients in the treated sewage and irrigation drainage increase the frequency and intensity of algal blooms, damaging ecosystems and contaminating water supplies.
What is the impact of Grazing? (Non-Aboriginal land management practices on their impact on the environment)
Grazing does not allow the regeneration of plants. Particular with the introduction of cattle and sheep, the hooves of these animals compacted and hardened the soil. This prevented rains from soaking into the previously soft soil. This resulted in flash flooding and erosion.
What is the impact of deforestation? (Non-Aboriginal land management practices on their impact on the environment)
Deforestation has allowed more rainfall to move down through the soil, filling underground gravel and sand beds until they are overflowing, causing salty ground water that seeps into the river. Due to the depletion of perennial native grasses and replaced with fast-growing flora species which failed to survive droughts, further increased erosion as there was nothing to hold the soil together when flooding rains came.
What is the impact of British colonisation on Aboriginal Peoples’ relationship to Country?
Dislocation (removed from their land)
No longer able to practice those ceremonies which sung the land into life
Many of the elders died from introduced diseases, much of traditional knowledge died with them, threatening the social order of clans
Traditional languages disappeared through colonial violence, resulting in dislocation
Traditional social structures broken down such as kinship systems, removing their cultural practices
Many were forced of their traditional lands at the point of a gun, starvation or by gifts of flour laced with poison, killing many Aboriginal People within clans, causing intergenerational trauma within clans
Country was taken over by colonists which they have inhabited for thousand of years and had developed their culture, resulting in a loss
of cultural identity and fractured communities
Dislocation changed the dispossession of resources they could use, altering their cultural practices and relationship to the land
How did the British view Aboriginals and the Land?
The British saw Aboriginals as incable beings to survive within their culture and portray them as more of a subject that they needed to get rid of instead of emphasizing with them as actual people. The British viewed themselves as Inferior to Aboriginal Peoples.
The British viewed the land as a source of personal wealth to be exploited. In order to achieve wealth from the resources of the land, they needed to establish a sense of control/dominance over the land. The British were economically driven with the lande, contrasting Aboriginal view of being a part of the land and caring for it, to ensure the environment is preserved for the future.
What were some key government legislation and policies in the relation to Aboriginal Peoples’ land and water rights?
- Continuous dispossession from traditional lands
- No access to water sources, impacting Country
- Erosion of cultural practices, neglecting the land and waterways
- Systematic denial of ownership, use and management of traditional land and water resources
What is the impact of dispossession and dislocation of Aboriginal Peoples in terms of social justice and human rights?
The long term effects of dispossession and dislocation have echoed down the generations of Aboriginal Australia:
- loss of access to good foods and a healthy and active lifestyle
- Rations high in fat & carbohydrates and tobacco have left serious health issues
- Loss of culture, language and identity and most damagingly, hope.
- Denied access to health and education has
continued the disadvantage - Stolen Generations have created serious long term intergenerational issues
What are some Aboriginal initiatives to counteract the impact of dispossession and dislocation?
Aboriginal People retaliated from these policies of Protection and Assimilation. A number of protest letters and petitions were written during the 1800’s but were never taken into account by the British government. However in the 1920’s with the aid of the trade Union Movement, Aboriginal Peoples were united with strong leaders, organizing, and protest movements. From these movements it derived, “day of mourning” which began a series of movements, resulting in citizenship rights including the right to vote in 1962.
What is the Assimilation Policy?
Initial policies focused on segregating Aboriginal Peoples from British society however this resulted in a mixed-descent population creating more ‘races’ of ‘half castes’ ‘quadroons’ and ‘octoroons’.
This led to the Assimilation Policy with the British government attempting to absorb all mixed decent Peoples (eventually Aboriginal People) into Australian society.
What happened as a result of the Assimilation Policy and what was the impact?
The assimilation policy caused the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their clans into institutions, forcing them to become part of Western society. This led to a legacy of loss and intergenerational trauma for many Aboriginal Peoples. This dislocation and dispossession resulted in a loss of land which meant a loss of access to good, foods and a healthy, active lifestyle
Loss of culture, language and identity
Denied access to health and education as a disadvantage
What is Myall Creek Massacre?
On 10 June 1838, at Myall Creek, NSW, a massacre occurred where settlers killed at least 28 unarmed Aboriginal people, mostly women, children, and elders. This massacre is significant because it was the first massacre to be formally reported by a non-Aboriginal witness. This caused an investigation to begin, where the first trial was akita; but the second trial which was for the muder of an Aboriginal Child resulted in the conviction and hanging of 7 men marking a rare instance of colonial justice.
