"In less than twenty years we have nearly swept them off the face of the earth. We have shot them down like dogs. In the guise of friendship we have issued corrosive sublimate in their damper and consigned whole tribes to the agonies of an excruciating death. We have made them drunkards, and infected them with diseases which have rotted the bones of their adults, and made such few children as are born amongst them a sorrow and a torture from the very instant of their birth. We have made them outcasts on their own land, and are rapidly consigning them to entire annihilation."
~Edward Wilson, Argus, 17th March 1856 (7)
Myall Creek Massacre
On Sunday 10th, June 1838 a gang of ten white Europeans and one black African convicts brutally slaughtered a group of twenty eight aboriginals, old men, women and children. The leader of the Gang, John Fleming, ordered his men to tie up a group of 28 Aboriginals that had been living in huts near a European Station. The convicts led their captives to a ridge west of the huts. There, they beheaded all the children and slaughtered the men and women, hacking them to pieces with swords. The men allowed only two women to live who they brutally raped until their deaths. Two days after the massacre, the group returned and proceeded to behead the bodies of the men and women, throwing their severed heads carelessly behind them. They burnt the remaining bodies.
There were two trials held. The first trial, the judge deliberated on the decision for only 20 minutes before he found the men not guilty, but during the second trial seven men were convicted for the death of an Aboriginal child. The seven men were later hanged. There have been many recorded massacres against Aboriginal people, however Myall Creek Massacre was the only time in Australian history that the European perpetrators were trialed and found guilty.
During the first trial, one of the jurors was said to have privately admitted that, although he considered the men to be guilty, "he could not convict a white man of killing an Aboriginal person." This highlights the bias within the white community that was common at this time.
There were two trials held. The first trial, the judge deliberated on the decision for only 20 minutes before he found the men not guilty, but during the second trial seven men were convicted for the death of an Aboriginal child. The seven men were later hanged. There have been many recorded massacres against Aboriginal people, however Myall Creek Massacre was the only time in Australian history that the European perpetrators were trialed and found guilty.
During the first trial, one of the jurors was said to have privately admitted that, although he considered the men to be guilty, "he could not convict a white man of killing an Aboriginal person." This highlights the bias within the white community that was common at this time.
Myall Creek was the tip of the iceberg of frontier violence against Aboriginal people.
— Prof. Rhonda Craven, Centre for Educational Research, University of Western Sydney
Treated as Second Class Citizens
Aboriginal lifestyles were thought of to be inferior to that of a European lifestyle. However, even when Aboriginals eventually started replicating European ways of life, they were treated as lesser people (less intelligence, and less important). Aboriginal people were paid a lower wage than that of a European for the same quality of work. Indigenous people were refused the right to vote and court cases and trials were often unfairly bias towards the white men. The convicts sometimes kidnapped Aboriginal women and girls who were then sexually abused by them.
The European settlers also created unfair rules that the Aboriginals had to adhere to. For example, Aboriginal people were made to ask permission before marrying, and if a child had both European and Aboriginal parents, the child was sometimes taken from the family and placed within a European family or the European parent had full custody. These children then grew up and were not taught of their culture, language or introduced to their real family.
Most European settlers believed that the Aboriginals were a doomed race and only remarrying with white people would save their race. They believed that if enough Aboriginals married into the European line, their Aboriginal ancestry would eventually fade and they would be saved.
The European settlers also created unfair rules that the Aboriginals had to adhere to. For example, Aboriginal people were made to ask permission before marrying, and if a child had both European and Aboriginal parents, the child was sometimes taken from the family and placed within a European family or the European parent had full custody. These children then grew up and were not taught of their culture, language or introduced to their real family.
Most European settlers believed that the Aboriginals were a doomed race and only remarrying with white people would save their race. They believed that if enough Aboriginals married into the European line, their Aboriginal ancestry would eventually fade and they would be saved.
The Stolen Generations
The 'Stolen Generation' refers to the Aboriginal children that were forcefully abducted from their families and placed within institutions or fostered to white families. This practise is widely considered to be one of the most disturbing crimes against the Aboriginal people by the European settlers. This practise was sanctioned by the government and perfectly legal. The first institute was built in 1814, and the government policy was only removed in 1969. Until then, the taking of children was common practise, and Aboriginal girls were particularly targeted in order to be trained for a life of domestic service. This had lasting psychological effects on all Indigenous people involved, including loss of self esteem, trust issues, and depression.