Silence on the Australian Wars no longer an option

A groundbreaking new book that expands on Rachel Perkins’ acclaimed documentary confronts the reality of the Border Wars – the violence, resistance and silence that defined Australia’s colonial past, writes Dr David Stephens.

AUSTRALIAN WARS The long-awaited follow-up to SBS/NITV documentary 2022. Edited by the book. Stephen Gapps, Rachel Perkins (Arrernte-Kalkadoon), Henry Reynolds and Mina Murray (Wiradyuri), published by Allen and Unwin on 4 November in three parts: 1788-1830, 1830-60 and 1860-1930.

Perkins provides an introduction, Murray an opening chapter and a conclusion, and Reynolds a conclusion and three overviews. First Nations writers introduce ten geographic regions. Detailed descriptions of each field are included below, with previously published historians well represented. 1789 Sydney smallpox epidemic, Indigenous women, war of resistance, battles and massacres, and Native Police.

The maps are clear and the illustrations mix the familiar with the less familiar. There are almost 400 pages in a beautiful hardcover book with a surprising cover.

The book is full of passion and evidence. It is vital for a nation confronting its Black-White history.

The book has three main themes. First, the settler-invaders spread, stealing disease, weapons and livestock, cattle and sheep, First Nations lands, and eating the grass that fed the animals First Nations hunted.

Port Phillip District slum Niel Black It was summarized in 1839 as follows:

‘The best way is to go out and buy something new’ [squatting] Run on condition that the conscience of the party is pity enough for it to massacre natives left and right without remorse.’

Change came quickly. For example, in 1851 there were 77,345 Europeans, 391,000 cattle and 6,590,000 sheep in Victoria. By 1861 there were 540,000 Europeans in Victoria, while the Indigenous population had fallen from 15,000 to around 2,000 by 1851, with probably 60,000 before the Whites arrived.

Queensland’s ‘White usurpation and Aboriginal resistance’ it was, it says Raymond Evans, ‘Australia’s bloodiest’ And ‘One of the British crown’s biggest land grabs’ any place. Queensland witnessed widespread and brutal use of Native Police; White police officers, a former officer, joined the force in 1879. ‘He carries out his bloody will without the intervention of judge, jury or law’.

Whites as settlement in New South Wales expanded from Sydney ‘Terra nullius used’ says Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor (Gadigal/Bidjigal/Dharug/Yuin), ‘As a way to justify violence, murder, massacre and deportation of Aboriginal people so they can steal our lands’. Gapps describes the 50 years of First Nations resistance that followed.

The First Nations death toll was lower in Tasmania, but the colonial government’s strategy was arguably more brutal than elsewhere. Massacres and resistance occurred later in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, but the number killed among First Nations was generally higher than in the south. South Australia and the Torres Strait had their own unique stories.

Second theme: Blind eyes, euphemisms, and justifications that allow white people (though not all) to create what anthropologists create. WEH Stanner later famously “The Great Australian Silence”. ‘some are’ writes Gapps, ‘Few colonialists who admitted to killing Aboriginal people talked about the extent of the killings’.

Concealed deaths of First Nations were often greatly out of proportion to the revenge of a shepherd, squatter or sheep – evidence from Queensland in the second half of the 19th century suggests around 44:1. “Dispersion” was a common euphemism for murder.

After the Seven Whites were hanged Myall Creek Massacre In 1838, other Whites talked less about the murders they committed, which helped set a trend for the future. Reynolds and Chris Owen We assert that our Federation Fathers do not regret or mourn the deaths of First Nations people. They also did not understand the cultural loss these deaths created in Australia. First Nations, ‘After all, they were primitive people left behind by history…’ .

The third theme: whether what is happening is a “war” or not. To claim that the Australian Wars were not wars requires spurious comparisons with Gallipoli, D-Day and other events where masses of well-armed troops attacked foreign enemies.

Henry Reynolds’ response:

‘What needs to be compared is not the war as it was fought and understood in Europe, but the countless “little wars” fought by the British all over the colonial world.’

as Reynolds in question inside Australian Wars documentary:

“This was a war not because of the way it was fought, but because of the subject matter… It determined the ownership, the control, the sovereignty of an entire continent.”

Ray Kerkhove says, ‘All the elements of classic guerrilla warfare occurred in Australia. But there were also pitched battles.’. Murray describes the weapons used by the First Nations, and Gapps describes the strategy and coordination of resistance on tribal lands: ‘1838 signaled [in New South Wales and Port Phillip] “The beginning of arguably the largest military counter-offensive on Australian soil in Australian history.”. In Port Phillip in the 1840s, slum dweller Thomas Browne described native attacks on settlers as follows: ‘Battle of Eumeralla’ And ‘guerrilla war’.

What to do now about this war for our nation? Richard Frankland (Gunditjmara) writes: ‘The absolute necessity for institutions such as the Australian War Memorial to include the Border Wars as an important and integral part of the conflicts/wars in which Australians were involved.’. Only Tasmania’s dead, Greg Lehman (Trawulwuy) says, ‘Their story is at least as important as that of the survivors of other wars that define us, and must reach deep into the heart of our nation.’.

The number of deaths may never be known.

Perkins says:

‘For many Aboriginal and some non-Indigenous people who died during the Australian Wars, the dead will never be located. This outcome for the fallen Aborigines was very deliberate. The general approach to dealing with the bodies of the murdered was to dismember them, then burn the body parts in bonfires, and finally scatter the remaining small bone fragments into the wind…’

The First Nations death toll ranged from 20,000 (the War Memorial has acknowledged this figure for decades) to 100,000, including women, children and elderly men. Approximately 3,000 settlers, police and militia were killed.

Seeing Perkins’ flurry Australian Wars The documentary in August 2022, Dr. Brendan Nelsonchair at that time Australian War Memorial Council, to say:

‘The council decided that we should have a much broader, much deeper portrayal and presentation of the violence against Aboriginal people, first by the British, then by the pastoralists, then by the police and Aboriginal militia.’

The mostly male Anglo-Celtic mafia, plus the Nationals, the Murdoch press and SkyThen he said loudly:NO“To the Memorial in memory of all those who did not wear the Australian military uniform. The Memorial Council’s decision of 19 August 2022 was so qualified that it made little sense as a guide to action.

The Memorial has been striving to take a firm and bold position on the Australian Wars since 2022. encouraging voices From Nelson’s successor, the President of the Council, Kim Beazley. This book should help the Memorial and other commemorative bodies understand that there is no difference between the men and women who went abroad to defend Australia and the First Nations people who defended their own Country, Australia, at home.

At the beginning of this book is the famous quote “Let us not forget.” These words confront our common history. The Australian Wars were the foundation of modern Australia.

Dr David Stephens is the editor. Honest History website and a member Defending the Country Monument ProjectWe are campaigning for an Australian War Memorial to accurately recognize and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars.

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