The Backstory
Before British colonization in 1788, over 500 different indigenous groups lived in the area now known as Australia. They numbered between 315,000 and 750,000. Each group had its own language, culture, and belief system. However, everything changed once the European immigrants arrived.
Dutch explorers were the first to come to the continent in 1606, but the British colonized the land initially as a penal colony and later as a settlement for farmers. An estimated 50,000 convicts were transported over 150 years until 1840 when free settlers were given virtually free Crown land starting in 1793 in Sydney and building up to a huge wave of people in 1815 who decided to make a new life in Australia. These settlers gradually developed and expanded an agriculture economy, which effectively forced the native inhabitants out of their territories through violent conflict, disease, and dispossession of their traditional lands. Restrictive government policies later followed and further created a huge stain on the myth that Australia was "peacefully settled".
During the 19th century, the vast majority of settlers came from the British Isles (principally England, Ireland and Scotland) with significant immigration from China and Germany. The discovery of gold in the 1850s led to millions more immigrants from other parts of Europe as well as China, and India. The White Australia policy (1901-1973) was instituted in order to restrict non-European immigration, especially Asians and Pacific Islanders. After World War II, large groups of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe looking for work were encouraged to come to Australia. Since 1973, Australia has pursued an official policy of multiculturalism to attract immigrants from all over the world. In the 21st century Asia is Australia's largest source of immigrants even though the majority of people born in Australia are of British or Irish descent.
The population of Australia is estimated to be 26,708,900 as of August 2023. It is estimated to reach 30 million by the end of the decade. Here is a ranking of the principal ethnic groups in the Australian population. But for purposes of this blog, I will focus on the government's effort in multiculturalism to address the Aboriginal Australian population that was displaced as the country grew in size and diversity.
| 1 | British | 67.4% |
| 2 | Irish | 8.7% |
| 3 | Italian | 3.8% |
| 4 | German | 3.7% |
| 5 | Chinese | 3.6% |
| 6 | Aboriginal Australian | 3.0% |
| 7 | Indian | 1.7% |
| 8 | Greek | 1.6% |
| 9 | Dutch | 1.2% |
| 10 | Other | 5.3% |
European Attitudes and Interactions with Indigenous Peoples
Reynolds argues that armed resistance by Aboriginal people to white encroachments on their land amounted to guerrilla warfare. For example, in the early years of colonization, David Collins, the senior legal officer in the Sydney settlement, wrote his opinion of the local Aboriginal people:
"While they entertain the idea of our having dispossessed them of their residences, they must always consider us as enemies; and upon this principle they [have] made a point of attacking the white people whenever opportunity and safety concurred."
In 1847, Western Australian barrister E.W. Landor stated:
"We have seized upon the country, and shot down the inhabitants, until the survivors have found it expedient to submit to our rule. We have acted as Julius Caesar did when he took possession of Britain."
Then, in a letter to the Launceston Advertiser in 1831, a settler wrote:
"We are at war with them: they look upon us as enemies – as invaders – as oppressors and persecutors – they resist our invasion. They have never been subdued, therefore they are not rebellious subjects, but an injured nation, defending in their own way, their rightful possessions which have been torn from them by force."
Reynolds also quotes numerous other writings by early 19th century settlers who described themselves as "living in fear" due to attacks by Aboriginal people determined to kill them or drive them off their lands. He argues that Aboriginal resistance was in some cases temporarily effective. The killings of men, sheep and cattle, and the burning of white homes and crops drove some settlers to ruin. However, the white settlers would prevail as their numbers increased and those of the Aboriginals decreased as violence--even massacres--ensued. Government policies and educational programs in the latter half of the 19th century and most of the 20th further defeated, disenfranchised, and denigrated the Aborigines.
This does not mean that there was not some collaboration between the Aborigines and the Europeans. Aborigines served as guides and aides for European explorers and were often vital to the success of their missions. For example, in 1801–02, Bungaree, a Kuringgai man, served as an emissary to the various Indigenous peoples encountered in Matthew Flinders' first circumnavigation of Australia. The famous Eora man, Bennelong, and his companion became the first Aboriginal people to sail to Europe in 1792 to be presented to King George III. In 1813, Colomatta helped British explorers and an Australian statesman cross what would be known as the formidable Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
In 1815, Governor Macquarie established a Native Institution to provide elementary education to Aboriginal children. He also settled 15 Aboriginal families on farms in Sydney and made the first freehold land grant to Aboriginal people at Black Town, west of Sydney. In 1816, he initiated an annual Native Feast at Parramatta for Aboriginal people.
During the 1820s and 1830s colonial governments developed a number of policies aimed at protecting Aboriginal people. They also established a small number of reserves and encouraged Christian missions to provide some protection to the Aborigines from violence in the frontier. In pastoral districts the British Waste Land Act of 1848 gave traditional landowners limited rights to live, hunt and gather food on Crown land under pastoral leases.
Despite these efforts, the 20th century would promulgate some unfair and unjust policies and practices that treated Aborigines as non-human. One major reason why this occurred was that unlike New Zealand that had a valid treaty with the Indigenous people, Australia's Aboriginal peoples were never offered a treaty. The reason why this happened was that they comprised hundreds of tribes and language groups without "chiefs" with whom treaties could be negotiated. Moreover, Aboriginal Australians had no concept of alienating their traditional land in return for political or economic benefits.
One devastating policy outcome from this lack of protection to the tribesmen was the "Half-Caste Acts of 1886", the common name given to legislation passed by the various Australian states that aimed to control the Aboriginal people. These acts allowed the seizure of "half-caste" (i.e., mixed race) children and their forcible removal from their parents. Theoretically, this legislation was an attempt by government to provide the children with better homes than those afforded by typical Aboriginal people. However, the effect of this policy was so dire, the removed children are now known as the "Stolen Generations".
"Half-caste" people were negatively distinguished from "full-blood" Aboriginal people. They were usually offspring of an Aboriginal mother and an absent white father. In 1967, there was a referendum on continuing this policy, however, some of the controls first created by the Acts remained in place until the early 1970s. As a consequence, this term is today regarded as disrespectful and unacceptable.
August 3, 1927 letter of the Prime Minister utilizing Half-Caste Act legislation as a solution
"Saving" mixed-race children
From 1932 until 1942 the Telegraph Station in Alice Springs served as a home to these children. The Government adopted a policy of taking these children and placing them in institutions. They believed it was in the children's best interests for them to be educated and adopt European customs. Parents occasionally placed their children in the homes by choice as they went to find work in the bush. Sometimes the mother would go with her children to the home where she might work as a domestic. However, in most cases, the feelings of the mothers were barely considered and their children were forcibly removed. Some mothers never saw their children again.
April 2, 1953 -- This newspaper clipping illustrates the negative attitude toward the Aborigines
The "Stolen Generations"
In the early 20th century, well-meaning Europeans saw the Aboriginal people as living a wretched existence that needed to be corrected. They compelled the federal government to act, with laws to protect those who were suffering and, in particular, the children of mixed race. Within a decade, the government began removing children from their families and put them in institutions to be "civilized", which often meant that they were assimilated into European values, beliefs, and customs and to be trained as cooks, house servants, and stockmen on farms. The "Stolen Generations" of children turned out to be an extension of the stolen lands, stolen water, and devastation of a culture that had been sustained for tens of thousands of years without any help from outsiders.
Worse yet, government
administrators and bureaucrats managed this policy towards the Aboriginal
children from a distance. Decisions about their future
employment, where they would live, and even their association with other
Aboriginal people were determined from afar.
For example, in
1914, mixed race children began to be removed from camps around Stuart and housed in a shed behind the Stuart Arms Hotel. Topsy
Smith, an Aboriginal woman who had seven children of her
own, and Ida Standley, the town's first school teacher looked after the
children in a compassionate way. However, by 1928, the numbers had grown to 70 children and the conditions there were crowded and "deplorable", according to government reports.
The children were moved to Jay Creek, some 30 miles from town. However, within months a damning report appeared in the newspapers that described the place as "a standing disgrace to any civilized government." Once again, the children were moved. This time they went to the Alice Springs telegraph station, which had room for them because the telegraph office had been relocated to town in 1932. From then until 1941, the station became known as "The Bungalow". The federal government closed the facilities and asked that various church missions take over the care of the children through subsidies. Most of the children were transferred to the Methodist Mission on Croker Island or the Roman Catholic Mission on Melville Island. Those remaining were sent southern Australia in mid-1942 when the war was raging.
Testimonials on the effect of the policy
Many place names in Australia with English names have been changed
back to their traditional names. Ayers Rock has been renamed its original name, Uluru. Fraser Island (south of
the Great Barrier Reef) is now known as K'gari, which is named after an
Aboriginal goddess who fell in love with the Earth and never wanted to
leave it. The King Leopold Ranges in Western Australia are now Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges, a combination of the Ngarinyin and Bunuba traditional names for those ranges.
Initially the ranges were named in 1879 after King Leopold II because he had an
"interest in exploration" even though he had never been to Australia. Naming places is all about owning them, and Australia is
trying to deal with its colonial past by acknowledging the original
people who lived here.
The Koorie Heritage Trust (KHT) seeks to promote "a society where Aboriginal culture and history are a fundamental part of Victorian life." They Trust does this with a number of programs and activities whose learning outcomes include:
- Developing awareness of Aboriginal culture and identity;
- Developing awareness of the strengths of Aboriginal culture and people;
- Assisting in making the connection and understanding the impact of colonization and past policy for Aboriginal people today;
- Developing capacity to be more understanding and responsive to Aboriginal colleagues and clients;
- Motivating participants in their cultural competence journey.
It is significant that the KHT is located at Federation Square. This was a place of meeting for the Aboriginal peoples in the past just as it is a gathering place for the people of Melbourne today. It is a recognition of their "shared history" and the rising importance of the Aboriginal peoples as participants in a 21st century community.
Signs like this one seeks to acknowledge the traditional Aboriginal land owners of Australia. They are posted in many places and on many buildings. 
The Barak Building (the one in the center with the face on it), located on the land of the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation, pays tribute to Melbourne's Aboriginal past. William Barak (1823–1903), the "last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe", was the last traditional ngurungaeta (elder) of the Wurundjeri-willam clan. He became an influential spokesman for Aboriginal social justice and an important conveyor of Wurundjeri cultural lore. As an 11-year-old, he witnessed John Batman and the tribal Elders sign the infamous treaty of 1835 that led to the indigenous community’s loss of 500,000 acres of their lands that resulted in the dislocation from their ancestral home.
On Hosier Lane where people paint murals on the buildings of this narrow street, this painting of an Aboriginal is not only way up high in an inaccessible place, it is never painted over out of respect for the Indigenous peoples who populated Melbourne and Australia for over 60,000 years.
St. Paul's Cathedral recognizes refugees from other lands who seek refuge from persecution and danger in their own countries. Refugees add greatly to the multicultural mix of Australia's population.
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