Aboriginal Australians

“ The natural, the inevitable, but the no less melancholy result must be, that in the course of a few years more, if nothing be done to check it, the whole of the aboriginal tribes of Australia will be swept away from the face of the earth. A people who, by their numbers, have spread around the whole of this immense continent, and have probably penetrated into and occupied its inmost recesses, will become quite extinct, their name forgotten, their very existence but a record of history. ”

“ But the frequent conflicts that have occurred between the colonists and the Aborigines within the limits of the colony of New South Wales, make it, I think, sufficiently manifest that the Aboriginal tribes are neither a conquered people, nor have tacitly acquiesced in the supremacy of the settlers. The rights of the Aborigines of this district if the testimony which has been adduced as to the civilization and capacity be true, cannot, I should imagine, differ from those of other Aboriginal tribes within the limits of the same government. ”

“ In Western Australia the problem of the aborigines has three phases. In the far—north there are between 7,000 and 8,000 pure-blooded aborigines; in the middle-north the number of half-castes is increasing, and the full-blooded aborigines are becoming detribalized, and in the south-west there are about 5,000 coloured people. ”

“ Here, in the case of this young Aboriginal, an opportunity seemed to be presented to the Board of proving to the world that the Aborigines of Australia are degraded rather by their habits than in consequence of the want of mental capacity, and though the boy showed only an average ability, it was thought that, by careful education and instruction, he would probably become a good citizen, and of the highest usefulness as an agent in dealing with the Aboriginal race. ”

“ These assertions might be fully justified by the accounts of explorers, the records of the law courts, the reports of the Protectors of Aborigines, and the results of the Benedictine Mission at New Norcia, and the other native institutions at Fremantle, at Perth, and its neighborhood, and at Annesfield, and Albany. Yet, nevertheless, the aboriginal inhabitants are decreasing in number, and deteriorating in character, unless in the northern districts, before the advance of settlement. ”

“ They are still infinitely superior in knowledge and intellect to any other aboriginal race that I know, but they have been degenerating slowly these last many centuries, ever since the upheaval, I should imagine, which altered the aspect of Central Australia, and separated it from Polynesia. Their environment has protected them to an enormous degree, for their home in this natural paradise is surely all that could be desired, but, from what I have been able to gather from the king, they have inherited a policy of isolation, which is now almost a part of their creed. ”

“ The Australian aboriginal is indeed a puzzle: he lives like a beast of the field, using neither clothes nor house, and to the casual observer is a savage of the lowest type, without brains, or any senses other than those possessed by animals ”

“ It seems, therefore, that the physical character of the country is as influential in Australia in modifying the habits of the people as in Europe and Asia; but in stating this, one must not lose sight of the fact that, whereas in Asia the hill tribes, as a rule, are the remnants of the Aboriginal inhabitants who have been driven by intruding races to remote retreats, they are in Australia members of the same great family—similar in speech, of like physique, and possessing habits and traditions identical with those of the tribes dwelling on the coast. ”

“ And so the life of the Australian aboriginal is lived, and so their condition was when the colony was proclaimed. It is impossible to estimate the number of Western Australian natives at that time, but it must have been more than 50,000 souls. When the white men came and seized the territories of the different black tribes, and killed their kangaroos and other live stock, they also sowed the germs of an insidious and deadly Exterminator, which slowly ate into the life of these light-hearted, simple, ignorant, active people. ”

“ Stripped of all exaggeration, the story of what is happening in the remote districts of the neighbouring Colony has a horrible sound to Southerners who have no environment of savagery, and to whom peace and plenty have become monotonous and undervalued privileges. Yet the far north of Queensland is not being stained more terribly with aboriginal blood than has been our fair New South Wales. ”

“ The aboriginal races of Australia have hitherto been much misrepresented and misunderstood, and have too often been depicted as the lowest and most degraded of mankind; forming, as it has been asserted, only a connecting link between the human family and the lower orders of the creation. This opinion is, however, as unjust as it is unfounded; for though the natives of Australia are not advanced in the scale of civilisation, they have as great natural intelligence as, and an equal capacity for improvement with, other races. ”

“ And so in modern-day Australia, that applies to, I guess it's a modernization of those permissions that were required back before invasion, in that we acknowledge that we are on our land, on Aboriginal land, no matter where we are. So Aboriginal people do a Welcome to country, welcome to Aboriginal land. ”

“ Where white men and aboriginals have come in contact, the latter have suffered all over Australia; their relations have not changed in New Zealand and Tasmania, and this is especially the case in the last-named colony. Not a single aboriginal Tasmanian is now alive, the last one having died in 1876. When the island was first occupied by the English, the number of aboriginals was estimated at four or five thousand. ”

“ At that time the population was largely full-blooded aborigines. To-day the population is practically all half-caste. On one station we have only six full-bloods and on the other only 26. It appears essential to merge these people into the white race, and a start should be made without any great delay. Most people, I think, are of the opinion that the half-castes and those of lesser degree of aboriginal blood should ultimately be absorbed. People of other races are being absorbed in Australia to-day and are becoming part and parcel of our general community. ”

“ NEVILLE.—Dr. Cook referred to the problem of preserving the full-blooded aborigine, and I agree largely with what he said. In my opinion, however, the problem is one which will eventually solve itself. There are a great many full-blooded aborigines in Western Australia living their own natural lives. They are not, for the most part, getting enough food, and they are, in fact, being decimated by their own tribal practices. In my opinion, no matter what we do, they will die out. ”

“ When I look back to the time of my first meeting with the tribes of central Australia, just twenty years ago, and compare the conditions of then and now, I shudder to think how quickly the romance of aboriginal affairs, together with all the scientific treasures it encompassed, has vanished, and is now irretrievably lost to the world. The rising generation will not have the advantage of men of even our time. Bones, stone artefacts, and wooden implements will remain in our museums for ever, but the habits, laws, beliefs, and legends are doomed to rapid extinction. ”

“ This indifference to the acquisition of knowledge which does not seem at the moment to be of use or profit is as clearly apparent in the Aboriginal mind as in that of an ordinary European, and is shown not more in these papers, contributed by the Superintendents of Stations, than in the statements generally in this work. In this respect the ordinary European is in no way better than the Australian black. ”

“ The different States are creating institutions for the welfare of the native race, and, as the result of this policy, the native population is increasing. What is to be the limit? Are we going to have a population of 1,000,000 blacks in the Commonwealth or are we going to merge them into our white community and eventually forget that there ever were any aborigines in Australia? There are not many now, whereas not so many generations ago there were a great many. When Western Australia was first settled in 1829 it is alleged that there was a population within the State of 55,000 natives. ”

“ Nay, as the European regards the intrusion of any other white man upon the CATTLE-RUN, of which European law and usage have made him the possessor, and gets it punished as a trespass, the Aborigines of the particular tribe inhabiting a particular district, regard the intrusion of any other tribe of Aborigines upon that district, for the purposes of kangaroo hunting, etc. as an intrusion, to be resisted and punished by force of arms. In short, this is the frequent cause of Aboriginal, as it is of European wars ”

“ Even in Australia, although there remain one or two areas where comparatively little havoc has been wrought among the primitive institutions of the indigenous man, yet the influence of civilization is slowly, but very surely, encroaching indirectly upon his ancient cults by such means as inter-tribal barter, if not actually by the hand of the white intruder. ”

“ But the kangaroo, wallaby, and emu are not branded, and are somewhat wilder than the sheep and cattle of the white man. And as the European resents a neighbour killing his stocks so does the native object to another tribe encroaching on his domains. This is the cause of aboriginal wars, and the native may resent with some justification the white man's taking away his freehold and despoiling his stock. A district is partly vested in the male, who, if he pleases, may sub-divide it among his sons and heirs. But if there be no male children, the sons of his daughters succeed to the land. ”

“ The British communities in Australia bred and exhibited the usual Saxon sense of race discrimination; almost from the first they drew a racial frontier between themselves and the native blacks, and so strictly has this frontier been maintained that there is no trace of the vanishing aboriginal blood in the veins of the new nationality. The 50,000 survivors of the original owners of the continent now present a philanthropic rather than a racial problem. ”

“ The English Government had decided to inaugurate a new system for the civilisation of the natives, with the object of preserving the aboriginal races, and preventing oppression on the part of colonists. Much capital had been made out of the frays which had taken place with the blacks all over Australia, and those who did not understand the circumstances spoke and wrote trenchantly of the cruelty of the white men. ”

“ Some adequate provision for their civilisation and maintenance is due on our part to this race of men, were it only in return for the means of existence of which we are depriving them. The bad example of the class of persons sent to Australia should be counteracted by some serious efforts to civilise and instruct these aboriginal inhabitants. That they are capable of civilisation and instruction has been proved recently in the case of a number who were sentenced for some offence to be confined with a chaingang on Goat Island in Sydney harbour. ”

“ If the mother-in-law is near other members of her tribe at such a time, they endeavour to conceal her, but they are not at liberty to say that her son-in-law is approaching, nor may they mention his name. Even at the Aboriginal Stations, where the Aboriginals are, one may say, civilized, and to some extent weaned from their prejudices, and where nearly all their ancient customs are in disuse or forgotten, this one lingers; and a woman will for some reason always avoid the sight of a certain man of the tribe. ”

“ A Glance at the Manners and Language of the Aboriginal inhabitants of Western Australia—a paper which appeared in The Gazette of the colony in 1833.
The Aboriginal inhabitants of this country are a harmless, liberal, kind hearted race ”

“ Although under ordinary circumstances the aboriginal of Australia is a peaceable, placid individual, who prefers to talk of what he could do to his enemy rather than look for trouble in a hostile camp, yet, being human, there are naturally extenuating circumstances, which might thrust the obligation upon his shoulders to pick up arms and fight for the sake of his individual honour or of his tribe’s safety. ”

“ There is a half-caste man and a half-caste woman married, and they have one child. There are three half-caste women on the station who have had children to white men, but they were not married. The children of the latter have the complexion of Europeans, and have but little of the Aboriginal caste in the face. Only those who are well acquainted with the peculiar features of the Aborigines would suspect that these children had Aboriginal blood in their veins. ”

“ In an official account of the blacks of Australia published by the government of Victoria, one reads that the aboriginal not only notices the faint marks left on the bark of a tree by the claws of a climbing opossum, but knows in some way or other whether the marks were made to-day or yesterday.
And there is the case, on records where A., a settler, makes a bet with B., that B. may lose a cow as effectually as he can, and A. will produce an aboriginal who will find her. ”

“ Thus the aboriginal natives melted away like snow before the sun; from no congenial heat, but from the practices of inhuman selfishness.
What a contrast the European settlement in 1858! Scarce a black in existence for 3 miles, while the white population numbered 488,769 souls, with 4,000,000 sheep, 400,000 head of cattle, 184,000 horses, with imports and exports of £14,000,000 and £13,000,000 respectively, on the graveyard of the aborigines.
The earth was never intended to be kept waste, but the evil is as to the way of settling it—this is the perplexing question. ”