A History of Race Relations from the First Fleet to Mabo

Gabriella T. Espák, IEAS UD, 2014

OverviewSourcesPerceptionsEvents and Political SolutionsLandrightsReconciliation

Hello Class,

I have loved working on the First Fleet. I have learn’t so much from when they left and who was the captain and who led the First Fleet. I think that it is important for kids to know about the First Fleet because it’s the start of our Australian history. The thing I found most interesting was that we could of been Spanish or French if there were no convicts.From Sabastianhttp://classprice.edublogs.org/2012/08/01/the-first-fleet/

Eddie Mabo of Mer island in the Torres Strait spent a decade

seeking official recognition of his people’s ownership of Mer

and on 3 June 1992, the High Court of Australia agreed, rejecting the doctrine that Australia was

terra nullius (land belonging to no-one) at the time of European settlement.

http://www.indigenous.gov.au/eddie-mabo-the-man-behind-mabo-day/

SourcesSource criticism: author, text, filters, age, backgroundCultural relativism: “this doctrine holds that all cultural systems

must be approached (and assessed) as if they are equally good and valid, when situated within their historical and environmental context” (Fleras)

The Last of His Tribe

Henry KendallWe Are Going

Oodgeroo NoonuccalHe crouches, and buries his face on his knees, And hides in the dark of his hair;For he cannot look up to the storm-smitten trees, Or think of the loneliness there – Of the loss and the loneliness there.

The wallaroos grope through the tufts of the grass, And turn to their coverts for fear;But he sits in the ashes and lets them pass Where the boomerangs sleep with the spear – With the nullah, the sling and the spear.

Uloola, behold him! The thunder that breaks On the tops of the rocks with the rain,And the wind which drives up with the salt of the lakes, Have made him a hunter again – A hunter and fisher again.

For his eyes have been full with a smouldering thought; But he dreams of the hunts of yore,And of foes that he sought, and of fights that he fought With those who will battle no more – Who will go to the battle no more.

It is well that the water which tumbles and fills, Goes moaning and moaning along;For an echo rolls out from the sides of the hills, And he starts at a wonderful song – At the sound of a wonderful song.

And he sees, through the rents of the scattering fogs, The corroboree warlike and grim,And the lubra who sat by the fire on the logs, To watch, like a mourner, for him – Like a mother and mourner for him.

Will he go in his sleep from these desolate lands, Like a chief, to the rest of his race,With the honey-voiced woman who beckons and stands, And gleams like a dream in his face – Like a marvellous dream in his face?

(1864)

They came in to the little town A semi-naked band subdued and silent All that remained of their tribe. They came here to the place of their old bora ground

Where now the many white men hurry about like ants. Notice of the estate agent reads: 'Rubbish May Be Tipped Here'. Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring. 'We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers. We belong here, we are of the old ways. We are the corroboree and the bora ground, We are the old ceremonies, the laws of the elders. We are the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told. We are the past, the hunts and the laughing games, the wandering camp fires. We are the lightening bolt over Gaphembah Hill Quick and terrible, And the Thunderer after him, that loud fellow. We are the quiet daybreak paling the dark lagoon. We are the shadow-ghosts creeping back as the camp fires burn low. We are nature and the past, all the old ways Gone now and scattered. The scrubs are gone, the hunting and the laughter. The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place. The bora ring is gone. The corroboree is gone. And we are going.'

(1964)

Perceptions Culture shock conceptual differences, “primitive” William Dampier 1688, “the miserablest people in the world” James Cook 1770, noble savage, “far more happier than we

Europeans” cultural luggage: fertile and valuable land (terra australis

incognita), social hierarchy, private property, Christianity, peaceful natives,

Joseph Banks 1779: “there would be little probability of any opposition from the natives”

Christian superiority: “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth” (Gen.I. 1:28), the agricultural explanation, terra nullius, the Great Chain of Beings, Social Darwinism

new historiography, new Aboriginality, “the Great Australian Silence” (W.E.H. Stanner)“it undermines the theory of peaceful settlement as well as the notions of British justice, humanitarianism and egalitarianism which were central to the Australian nationhood and identity constructed by the earlier history.” (Bain Attwood) 

Kid, what’s up for homework?

“Well, we can do it about anything, I thought I might do it on the white invasion!”

Fr Frank Brennan SJ’s nine-year-old niece in a 1997 video Talking Native Title & Reconciliation: Aboriginal and White Australians Speak Out.

Events: war or peacespirits returned from the dead, aggressorsColonial Office: colonial subjects, instructions

to Gov. Phillip:“You are to endeavour by every possible means to open an intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all our subjects to live in amity and kindness with them.”

“Why Massa Gubernor”, said Black Jack. “You Proclamation all gammon, “How blackfellow read him, eh? He no learn him read book” Read that then”, said the Governor, pointing to a Picture.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3417430

War?no treaty, Batman’s Treaty 1835pastoral leasesfrontier violence, punitive expeditions, Black

War in Tasmania, Myall Creek massacreNative Mounted Police

Peace?Protectorates, reserves, missions,

paternalism, protection, assimilationtrackers, station hands, domestic servants,

fringe-dwellers1967 Referendum - welfare, social problemsConstitution Alteration Act 1967Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act

1975

In 1967 the Referendum to repeal section 127 and change section 51(xxvi) of the Australian Constitution was carried with 90.77% support, thereby for the first time Aborigines became constitutionally equal, undifferentiated citizens. The changes voted for in the 1967 Referendum were passed in the Constitution Alteration Act 1967. The texts deleted from sections 51(xxvi) and 127 are printed here in italics:

CHAPTER I. THE PARLIAMENT PART V. – POWERS OF THE PARLIAMENT Legislative powers of the Parliament51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:– [. . .](xxvi.) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws: [. . .]

CHAPTER VII. MISCELLANEOUS. [. . .]127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.

Investigating the pastRoyal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in

CustodyStolen Generations: Bringing Them Home

Report, genocide

Landrightsself-determinationLand Rights Movement, Tent Embassy in

Canberra 1972, Charles PerkinsBarunga Statement, Survival Day

The Barunga Statement We, the indigenous owners and occupiers of Australia, call on the

Australian Government and people to recognise our rights: • To self-determination and self-management, including the freedom

to pursue our own economic, social, religious and cultural development;

• To permanent control and enjoyment of our ancestral lands • To compensation for the loss of use of our lands, there having been

no extinction of original title; • To protection of and control of access to our sacred sites, sacred

objects, artefacts, designs, knowledge and works of art; • To the return of the remains of our ancestors for burial in

accordance with our traditions; • To respect for and promotion of our Aboriginal identity, including

the cultural, linguistic, religious and historical aspects, and including the right to be educated in our own languages and in our own culture and history;

• In accordance with the universal declaration of human rights, the international covenant on civil and political rights, and the international convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, rights to life, liberty, security of person, food, clothing, housing, medical care, education and employment opportunities, necessary social services and other basic rights.

We call on the Commonwealth to pass laws providing:• a national elected Aboriginal and Islander

Organisation to oversee Aboriginal and Islander affairs;• a national system of land rights;• a police and judicial system which recognises our

customary laws and frees us from discrimination and any activity which may threaten our identity or security, interferes with our freedom of expression or association, or otherwise prevents our full enjoyment and exercise of universally recognised human rights and fundamental freedoms.

We call on the Australian Government to support Aborigines in the development of an international declaration of principles for Indigenous rights, leading to an international covenant.

And we call on the Commonwealth Parliament to negotiate with us a Treaty recognising our prior ownership, continued occupation and sovereignty and affirming our human rights and freedom.

http://www.yothuyindi.com/images/Bangarra-painting.jpg

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/01/20/wbABORIGINAL_wideweb__470x312,0.jpg

NoonkenbahMy mother's breast that nourished me with legends and with songs gives out milk as black as I so from her heart it comes. Now in their trucks the whiteman comes to squeeze my mother dry. They take our laws. They take our lives. and now they take her too ... The earth heaves. The skies' rain falls down. The old men sing their songs but my mother weeps rich black tears.

Archie Weller

ReconciliationReconciliationCouncil for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR)Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Commission (ATSIC)Mabo v. Queensland (1992)Commonwealth Native Title Act (1993)

Where today?reverse discriminationTourism industry (Art and sustainable

economy)Sport: the Sydney Olympic Games, footySBS, ABC; film (Yolngu Boy, Radiance,

Rabbit-Proof Fence), musicLiterature, identity issues: voice and

representation (Who is Aboriginal? Who has the right to speak?)

ReadingsSchaffer, Kay and Sidonie Smith,

“Introduction,” in Indigenous Australian Voices. Ed. Jennifer Sabbioni et al. (New Jersey: Rutgers, 1998)

Stokes, Geoffrey, “Citizenship and Aboriginality: Two Conceptions of Identity in Aboriginal Political Thought,” in The Politics of Identity in Australia. Ed. Geoffrey Stokes (Cambridge: CUP, 1997), 158-71.  

Race and ethnic relationsSocial paternalism: White Australia Policy

(1900’-60’)Anti-discrimination & integration (1960’-70’)Reconciliation & multiculturalism (1980’- )Republicanism (2000)

Developing a National Identity

to be continued in another ppt