ABORIGINES

INTRODUCTION; (condensed from "Australia 2025.")

*******************************

Article written in his own words, by the Late Senator Neville Bonner

We are told by eminent anthropologists that to the land mass now known as Australia came the Australoids (Aborigines) some 30,000 years ago, by canoes in two waves (some say three waves) to dwell and expand gradually over our vast continent.  There is debate as to from whence we came, and to further complicate studious reasoning it has been speculated (I emphasise `speculated`) that Java Man did in fact arrive 70,000 years prior to my Aboriginal forefathers.

Aborigines of 1975 care very little for such theories.  By and large, we are content in the knowledge that our ancestors were here from the dreamtime (creation) snugly in tune with nature and gradually increasing in number, with a controlled birth system, to the accepted figure ... 300,000.  also, it is generally accepted that the 300,000 were divided into about 500 tribes, with as many languages or distinct dialects ...  500.  The membership of a tribe ranged from 100 t0 1,500, but averaged say, 600.

Since the term "tribe" has no fixed meaning in the Australian context, how then would one describe such a group?  Person fulfilling these five conditions:

1. A group of people who occupy a recognised territory and claim religious and hunting rights over it; and who acknowledge common rules which govern their behaviour;

2.  A group of people who share a common language or dialect, provided they themselves acknowledge this;

3. A group of people who assume they have more in common with one another that they have members of other groups, and in consequence may have a collective name for themselves;

4. A group of people large enough for marriage to take place within the group;

5. A group of people who regard one another as relatives.

An Aboriginal "tribe" lived as a type of one "family", but with and intricate system of relationship.  My ancestor's relationship with his environment was vastly different from the white man's.  He did not depend so much on technological skill to subjugate the environment, as he did on specialised knowledge and understanding.  At no  time did he disturb the balance of that of which he was a part ... nature.  those, who lived so, so long before me, did not plunder the  resources or wealth  of the land, the land, so much part of them, and consequently knew nothing of the types of territorial  jealousies and property madness as in our materialistic world of today.

One aspect of this non-technological society was that the concept of ownership had a different meaning for my Aboriginal fellows.  (Still does by and large).  They did possess items of personal property which were rarely, if ever, lent, but at the same time, had a complex system of communal property and reciprocal behaviour when it came to gifts.  this, I propose, sadly, is a source of considerable conflict with my present day race, in contrast with the more possessive white Australian society.

There was some trade, some barter between tribes, but no uniformity or warfare, and thus we fell easy prey to your ancestors, in spite of the courage of tribal elders (group leaders). The elders collectively, and by no means young men, were responsible for enforcing tribal group laws; handing on laws; the instruction in and supervision of custom, all of which were handed down to them ---- one family to another.  I suggest that today in our general Australian community, this social behaviour "counselling" is unmatched.  Yet my forebears were branded savages of the lowest order.

Within the tribes, division of labour was generally unsophisticated ---- each person was expected to master sufficient skills to keep himself alive, and no-one, no matter how skilled in a particular craft, could expect to live on the proceeds of his skill.  Nor was there a privileged class based on birth or wealth.  I suggest that this culture compared more than favourably with our so-called civilisation of today.

Here, then, in 1788 was Australia, inhabited by a unique race, the Australoids.  From the lush seaboard, through the arid desert dwelt my forefathers, happy in tune with the land --- the earth.

In 1788 the first fleet landed at Botany Bay, and took possession of Australia in the name of the Crown.  George III directed Governor Phillip: "To endeavour by every possible means to open intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all our subjects to live in amity and kindness with them.  And if any of our subjects shall wantonly destroy them or give them any unnecessary interruption in the exercise of their several occupations, it is our will and pleasure that you do cause such offenders to be brought to punishment according to the degree of offence".

Well, so much for the shooting expeditions, hanging, poisoned flour, etc ... ah, but merely history you say!  I say history has a shocking habit of living vividly on in the memory of the descendants of victims.  During the expansion of sheep farming into the outback, and in the consequent destruction of Aboriginal hunting ranges, Aborigines were regarded as pests and many were murdered merely to reduce the threat to stock.  Exotic diseases introduced by settlers also took their toll so that within 100 years the Aboriginal population was reduced from 300,000 to 75,000.  (Today it stands at 160,000, and I refuse as an Aborigine to break this figure into a "full" or "part --- a disgusting and dehumanising terminology).

More subtly, the fabric of Aboriginal society was also destroyed.  since the Aboriginal society was specialised and of nomadic-type it was deemed primitive by settlers, and the needs of the aborigines did not feature in their plans.  Land, the foundation of their being, was taken from them without knowledge of what effect this would have on the tribal structure, nor, I suggest, would it have been taken into account if it had been known.

I term this the awesome "barbed wire syndrome".

By the later half of the 19th century, the Aboriginal population had decreased so markedly that it was widely assumed my race was dying.  Missions and government reservations were seen as merely "smoothing the dying pillows" of my race.  The new theory of evolution justified this principle under the assumption that white Anglo-Saxons were the fittest race and were taking ascendant over the less well adapted Aborigines.

So now the sad 65,000 of "us" arrive at the turn of the century and branch roughly into three streams:

1. Tribal and semi-tribal.

2. Church missions and government reserves, communities or settlements.

3. The fringe dweller --- "legion of the lost".

Stream 1

Number depleted, my tribal/group ancestry whose land was not needed in the European scheme of things, continued life as before.  But down through the years up to the present time (1975) the tribal areas have diminished according to the discovery of mineral wealth and the growth of the mining industry without concern perhaps of the Aboriginal rights.

With the "white" world gradually closing in the authority of the elders has eroded and the "true" Aboriginal way of life is crumbling, till the time will arrive when "no more". "no more" --- and this nation will be sorrier for its passing.  I do not deliberately write less about stream1 than streams 2 and 3; it is just that a portion of what follows applies to some degree (according to the geographical area) to the first stream.

So ... Stream 2

  (Church missions and government reserves, communities and settlements.)

Forcibly removed from their sacred sites, the source of their spiritual energy, and bedrock of their philosophy, a section of Aborigines could not maintain their tribal structure.  Here then and subsequently, were a bewildered and huddled people (about one third of the Aboriginal population), not only on missions and reserves to "smooth the dying pillows", but there for administrative convenience. (I in no way mean to decry the magnificent work performed by the Church and missionaries.  I subscribe to the view, along with many Aboriginal associates, that were it not for the Church, the Aboriginal race could very well have been "extinct" rather than "near-extinct".)

One section, then, of the Aboriginal race, refugees in their own land, became institutionalised with the following consequences ...

1.   The breakdown of traditional methods of health and hygiene ... poor hygiene was no problem when Aborigines lived a "crop-rotation" existence.  But with the institutionalisation on settlements those who stayed housed in one place could no longer leave their unhygienic camp place and move to fresh unspoiled ground.  The change in living place and habit had not been accompanied by a change in hygienic practice.

2. Breakdown of traditional diet ... as nomadic-like Aborigines turned to "civilised" diet of flour, sugar and tea, with beef and mutton where these were produced and were freely available, both Aboriginal diet and dental health appeared to have suffered.  (Thus, malnutrition in tribal Aboriginal children today.)

3. Increased tensions ...  as a result of close living these tensions were aggravated by psychological pressures resulting from removal from the sources of their spiritual life and from the existence of two competing cultures.  Some manifestations of these tensions were, and are, depression, fatalism, passive hostility, absence of self-esteem, self-deprecation, lack of ambition, etc.  These are not inherent traits of the Aboriginal race, but have developed as a result of contact.  (Again, today's picture for many of stream 1.)

4. Breakdown of traditional methods of social control and socialisation ...  including traditional education processes, accompanied by delinquency, alcoholism, gambling, etc.  (Tribal/group Aborigines 1975.)

5. Dependency ... (the hand-out system) ... with the destruction of indigenous sources of food and materials and often virtual confinement of settlements, Aborigines lost their means of independence, and became almost totally reliant upon the European for food, clothing, employment, education, recreation, etc ... dependency is a prerequisite of settlement (institutional) living.  Again, applicable in some degree to tribal/group Aborigines 1975.)

So from being self-determining groups of individuals who reared their children to become self sustaining and independent persons with well defined roles as full members of society, as I outlined earlier, Aborigines became, in the main, unskilled, generally unemployed, degraded dependents.

What price nobility and dignity?  The crime of white Australia then and now is inescapable, and you cannot pay your way out with cash alone.

Let us turn now to the third stream of Aborigines, those I termed "the legion of the lost".

Stream 3

While stream 2 of the Aboriginal race was herded onto government reserves and church missions, stream 3 drifted into a more miserable situation though without the total reliance upon the supposedly superior whites, as was the lot of reserve and mission Aborigines.  their life in stream 3 was (and still is in many areas), inexplicably harsh as "refugees in their own land", with many of the same consequences as I've outlined for stream 2; breakdown of traditional diet and increased tensions.  It is under tensions where I particularly desire to stress ...

1. Psychological Pressures
   We learned far too few of the white man's virtues and far too many of his vices.   Psychological scars appeared and we walked, and still walk in two worlds, a part of us absolutely unable to cast off the "old" within us, and unable to accept totally the "new".  It is this condition that I maintain is our major inescapable problem.  Perhaps it is safe to say that 90 per cent of us ... the sons of the dreamtime ... suffer the pangs of psychological scars;
   and

2. Passive Hostility
   Valiantly attempting to "make-do", and adapt to a completely new set of circumstances ... circumstances cruelly beyond their control ... the roughly 21,700 (and ever-increasing) Aborigines in this stream were overwhelmed by passive hostility, equal to that felt by Aborigines on reserves and missions, etc.  Until the 1950's any Aborigine in the nation, who bravely raised his voice for his people and against "administration", was promptly whisked off elsewhere to alien territory, rendering him inoperable.  I emphasise this to counter attacks on a brave people that "they just sat back and took it".  when indeed they did not, for those courageous folk did speak up, and attempted to rally fellow-Aborigines, acted as "lone" gallant men; acted contrary to Aboriginal culture actually, since all decision making had been in the tribe/group time, a communal elder decision.  (I propose that in this time of so-called enlightened sophisticated 1975, you render a vocal Aborigine inoperable ever so much more subtly.
   However, back to the "fringe dwellers" ... and I apologise to my Aboriginal race that for the purposes of this article I resort to such terminology.  On the edges of cities and towns throughout Australia dwelt (and still dwell) a segment of the remnants of the former owners of the entire nation.  "Simmering silent sufferers" I call this stream of brave people into whose ranks I was born, at times semi-starving and shivering but with a type of togetherness --- happiness.  they eked out an existence in areas called "blacks" camps; "yumba (living space); "abos" area"; "the lane"; "the camp", etc. ... They dwelt in kerosene tin shanties, hessian bag huts, tents (if fortunate), bark or timber lean-tos, or huddled beneath lantana-like shrubs or trees.
   Their numbers swollen by Aborigines who, by various means, had managed to leave government reserves, church missions, tribes, the Aborigine began to partake of white Australia's quality of life.  the Aborigine arrived in a white community situation, accompanied by an adaption.  The ability of the Aboriginal culture to adapt to a changed environment has long been underestimated.  To some extent, this has stemmed from the attitude of the ignorant Europeans , that an Aboriginal culture was static.  Nothing could be more absurd.  Surely the best evidence of our culture's inherent ability to adapt is our perfect adaption to our environment for thousands of years before the white man came.
   Into your property-mad, materialistic, acquisitive community (tell me it is not!) arrived the brave descendents of the "conquered" ... and here in your midst today live about one-third (and growing) of the Aboriginal race numbering you'll recall I stated 160,000 (plus).  Already psychological scarred at the turn of the century, as I outlined earlier on, the present-day Aborigine is more so as a result of living a life of "less than the household pet" on the fringes of cities and towns.
   And though adapting, Aborigines in all three streams remain within themselves and away from the seemingly sneering eyes of the white man, just simply and wondrously that, Aborigines.  A great deal of more Aboriginal culture has been retained than my brothers and sisters ever admit, and for this retention I sincerely thank God.
   Overall, our Aboriginal lot is not a happy one in spite of this era of enlightenment as against the period of blackness through which we travelled.  There still exist grave injustices, grave discrimination, in spite of the present Australian Labor Part Government's progressive legislation in may areas of Aboriginal concern.  This Federal Government (as indeed have Federal and State Governments in the past) has broken promises to my race; retreated from true intent because of the fear of "white back lash".  And I propose that they have had need to fear since we the Aborigines are but 1 per cent of the nation's population, with three only Aborigines as legislators; one Federal senator in Queensland, one State member of the Legislative Assembly in Queensland; and one member of the Northern Territory Legislative Council.
   So, I reiterate one cannot legislate for the human attitudes of people --- white Australia must be prepared to be educated as to the potential contribution we could make to the Australian "quality of life".  Ours (the Aborigine)  is a truly tired and tested contribution:  it has managed to survive 30,000 years plus --- and by no means least --- the last 187.
    

Move over a little you newer Australians and give us all a "fair go".

 

Click on the Articles button to return to that menu
or to return to the Home Page, click the Home button