Since European settlement Indigenous people have experienced continuing changes, and in recent years have banded together to protest against treatment of their people.
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT
European settlement of the Australian continent began with Captain James Cook’s visit and claim of possession in 1770.
This was followed by the establishment of a penal settlement when what is now known as the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788.
(There were some visitors earlier than this – Dutch vessels on their way to Indonesia
were wrecked on the WA coastline. It is thought that some survivors from the Batavia (1629) and the Zuytdorp (1712) may have assimilated into Indigenous society of the time.)
The first official British settlement in WA was in Albany in 1826. Three years later the part of the continent west of longitude 129 was proclaimed a British colony, 41 years after the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove.
For Indigenous people, these settlements ended a period of more than 65,000 years as the sole inhabitants of the country that became known world-wide as Australia.
Non-Indigenous people from around the world have since migrated to the continent to create a predominantly English-speaking country considered as a leader in almost all spheres of western life.
But these developments have not come without a price for Indigenous people – their population, culture, spirituality and homelands have been under threat ever since.
For Indigenous people, these settlements ended a period of more than 65,000 years as the sole inhabitants of the country that became known world-wide as Australia.
White settlement was established through first conquering and killing Indigenous people. It is believed that in the first 100 years of white settlement, 20,000 Indigenous people were killed by the colonial forces.
As one commentator said: ”Most white people seem to imagine that the native inhabitants of Australia melted away magically before the tide of European settlement like fairy floss, but the hard reality is that we killed them.”
This was despite instructions from the English King to WA’s first British leader, Governor Stirling, that he could only “grant unoccupied lands” and that property rights had to be respected.
Indigenous people were seen as the enemy, despite a royal instruction that: “Aboriginal people were legally subjects of the King and protected by law; they could not be treated as enemies of the State”.
Indigenous people had amongst them leading ‘resistance fighters’ who led their people’s efforts to evade and resist invaders. In WA Calyute, Yagan, Weeip and Jundamurra were among the leading Indigenous figures of the early settlement period.
In the early days of settlement Indigenous people were conquered either in battle – guns were an advantage for the invaders – or in slavery.
Children were taken from their families to missions, and grief-stricken parents made to work for white settlers. Indigenous children born to white parents were treated especially harshly, as ‘half-castes’ – a distinction not made between Indigenous people today.
Mission children were forbidden from speaking their language or adhering to rituals important for their spiritual or cultural well-being. This led to a break-down of Indigenous heritage.
The emotional, social and spiritual stress that resulted from the splitting of families is still being felt today by people now referred to as the ‘stolen generation’. Governments are now funding programs to help Indigenous people find their families.
Indigenous people also perished from introduced diseases – ironically passed on through the gift of blankets.
Other benevolent acts such as giving food and education also harmed the people and their culture.
Indigenous people had amongst them leading 'resistance fighters' who led their people's efforts to evade and resist invaders. In WA Calyute, Yagan, Weeip and Jundamurra were among the leading Indigenous figures of the early settlement period.
Settlers gave Indigenous people flour and sugar and places to live, reducing their need to continue the healthier practice of hunting and gathering from the land and making their own homes.
Later Indigenous people were subjected to laws and policies that relegated them to a position of inferiority and attempted to strip them of their heritage and cultural identity.
They had to get permission from ‘protectors’ to marry or move from place to place, and white administrators controlled their employment.
It wasn’t until 1965 that Indigenous people in all states were given the right to vote. WA Indigenous people got the right to vote in 1962.
And in 1967 a Federal referendum decided to give the Federal Government powers to override discriminatory laws in any State or Territory legislation.
In the latter half of the 20th century many paternalistic practices began to make way for a greater understanding of Indigenous people and their culture and State and Federal governments continue to introduce measures to support and honour the country’s first inhabitants.
Among these has been the Federal Government’s recognition, through the 1992 Mabo v Queensland case in the Australian High Court, that Australia was not terra nullius, or without people, at the time of European settlement. This ruling had implications for Indigenous land rights throughout Australia.
In 1999 Prime Minister John Howard passed a seven-point Motion of Reconciliation – a nationally significant step forward despite the controversial expression of “deep and sincere regret” for past injustices, hurt and trauma imposed on Indigenous people. The expression was publicly debated because of a call to the Prime Minister from many for a straight “sorry”.
The National Sorry Day followed this step for reconciliation.
* For more about Post Settlement, see the Timeline for significant milestones in Indigenous history and the Reconciliation links for more about specific issues.
