Hi Rache,

Where do people get this stuff ?

".... it wasn't long before areas were fenced off with people excluded from tribal land and skirmishes began ...."

When squatters started moving their sheep and cattle out into the vast areas of open country, tolerating an animal killed here and there as a sort of tax, fences were a long way into the future. Pret6y quickly, they realised they would have to rely, at least in part, on local labour, just as many Aboriginal people also realised that access to all these new bright shiny things could be got by doing a bit of work for the newcomers.

Some pastoralists may have even built weirs on seasonal rivers in order to encourage Abori9gtjnal people to camp nearby, so that they could tap into the able-bodied labour available.

And once the pastoralists cottoned on to the ration system, i.e. rations to be provided to all NON-able-bodied people, which inevitably meant the able-bodied would camp with their more dependent relations, many were happy to provide store-rooms, transport etc. In SA, one pastoralist manager ran a ration depot for nearly forty years.

Savage droughts periodically ravaged inland Australia, when groups scattered to the four winds. What happened to older people, nursing mothers and their young children, in pre-Invasion times ? They died. What happened to them regardless of the weather conditions, with a ration system in place ? They survived.

What impact might that continuity have had on the transmission of traditional culture ? Perhaps they could discuss this at the Uni of NSW.

[TBC]

Rache, you note that:

" .... although aboriginal society had no hierarchy and no single representative who could sign a treaty on behalf of all their Nations, the real reason for no attempt at a treaty was the notion that the natives were not people."

A mighty leap into the hypothetical :) And quite a racist leap it is, equating foraging societies with the animal world. Is it possible that treaties were not signed here because ".... Aboriginal society had no hierarchy and no single representative who could sign a treaty on behalf of all their Nations" ?

And still don't, by the way: I don't think people in any one 'Nation' (clan/extended family), anywhere, would tolerate someone from another group purporting to sign any document on their behalf.

Of course, this begs the question: a treaty to recognise what ? What would be in one today ? What magic clauses ? What changes would those clauses, that are supposed to be so crucial, make to Indigenous lives, if we don't even have any idea what thy are ? Or is the notion of a Treaty just another Silver Bullet, another One True Sure-Fire Solution to All Ills, yet another Cargo Cult ?

Just asking :)

Joe

Cossomby,

I don't recall from history the British settlers storming the beaches, nor facing any resistance from the native population whatsoever. The only resistance came much later when the settlement expanded.

The definition of an invasion is:
An invasion is a military action consisting of armed forces of one geopolitical entity entering territory controlled by another such entity.

This never happened.

Look, the crux of the matter is the aborigines HAD to be jerked into
the modern world.
It was coming ready or not !

They could have done worse than have the British arrive.
The aboriginal culture had stabilised at somewhere around 30,000 years
ago or so and except in the NT had no knowledge of the rest of the world.

When Cook arrived the world was expanding at a never before seen rate
and the world map was being completed.
The world was on the cusp of the Industrial revolution.

How on earth could anyone expect to stay in the same
economic/cultural glass belljar in those circumstances ?

Isn't it time that aborigines accepted the world as it is and joined in ?

There is no direct translation but;

wú rén zhù yònɡ de tǔ dì, 无人无用的土地, Vacant Land. Don’t forget it’s written backwards.

Empty, 近义词： barren; blank; discharge; drain; eliminate; evacuate; hollow; let out; run out; vacant; void

Area, 近义词： district; expanse; extent; neighborhood; region; section; size; space; territory; zone

Vacant, 近义词： barren; desolate; empty; unoccupied; void

的. Empty sign. Note the empty block on the left & the Enclosure on the right with a small tick in the centre donating empty.

无人, The People signs. Note the 人 has no arms, 无 Has two sets of arms & the crooked bottom leg donates movement. So no people moving around.

无用, Area sign. So an area with no people moving around.

词, Also donates “Empty.”Note the open Enclosure with the empty Square in the centre.

Sorry for the numbers. Obviously the Chinese Characters didn't translate. NMF.