Industrialisation, Colonisation and Aboriginal Society
This section asks you to think about two things;
Then you need to link these issues with specific policies and ideas about Aboriginals - the reasons why Europeans thought it was okay to take land away from Aboriginals and destroy their traditional culture.
- the fact that Industrialisation led to increasing numbers of people looking for a new life in places like Australia, which brought them into conflict with the traditional owners of the land
- the fact that new technologies such as railways and special sheep and cattle breeding programmes meant that European settlers kept moving further and further into Aboriginal lands.
Then you need to link these issues with specific policies and ideas about Aboriginals - the reasons why Europeans thought it was okay to take land away from Aboriginals and destroy their traditional culture.
Industrialisation in Australia
The first effect of industrialisation on Australian Aboriginals was the arrival of migrants from Europe. William Bradley's diary [http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/terra_australis/journals/bradley/index.html] shows the changing reactions of aboriginals to the arrival of the first fleet in Botany Bay, Sydney.
The industrialisation of communication and transport had a major impact on Aboriginals, because it brought them into conflict with the expanding European settlement. This map from ABC Indigenous [http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/] shows all the different language (and thus cultural) groups in Aboriginal Australia before European settlement. Creative Spirit's Timeline [http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/history/aboriginal-history-timeline-1770-1899] gives an overview of this process.
Look at the beginning Railways in Australia for the development of trainlines [http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/railways-in-australia]. At Visons of Early Australia [http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/1758.php], the third image down shows a map of railways in 1917. You can see the way they sprawl out from the capital cities into what was once Aboriginal territory. This lead to increasing dispossession of Aboriginals.
As a result of rail development, farmers moved further inland to grow wheat (to make flour) or sheep (for wool). Visons of Early Australia [http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/1758.php] shows two postcards of farms, demonstrating that there were indeed more sheep than Europeans in Australia! this meant that more land was needed to farm all these sheep. Sheep breeding was thererfore an important part of industrialisation in Australia which had a negative impact on Aboriginals. to see more about life on a sheep station in 1860 (mostly from a while perspective, but pay attention to the jobs done by Aboriginals) watch these videos [http://splash.abc.net.au/digibook/-/c/618324/1860s-colonial-life].
OTEN's agriculture unit [https://yourdecision.oten.tafensw.edu.au/pluginfile.php/138/mod_resource/content/2/AHCLSK205A/sheep_breeds.html tells us ] "The first sheep to arrive in Australia were a hairy, fat tailed flock of 29 sheep brought by the First Fleet for their meat. John Macarthur requested that fine wool sheep be purchased in the Cape when a ship was sent for supplies for the struggling colony. A small flock of 26 Spanish Merinos were shipped back to Sydney where John and his wife, Elizabeth, crossed the Merinos with their own sheep to start Australia's first wool flock. During the 1800s, thousands of Merinos were imported from Saxony, France and England. The sheep were selected and bred for their environmental suitability, frame size, fleece weight and fibre characteristics. The Saxon Merino was developed in Tasmania, the Peppin Merino in southern New South Wales and the South Australian Merino in that state to cope with the arid pastoral conditions." The University of Tasmania [http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/S/Sheep%20farmers.htm] has more detail about sheep breeding in Australia.
Dr Robert Lee of UWS, has written an excellent academic article [http://www.environment.gov.au/resource/linking-nation-australias-transport-and-communications-1788-1970-0] which links developments in transport and communications with Australia's position as a leading of producer of wool and coal (because ships and trains worked on steam which was produced by burning coal)
The industrialisation of communication and transport had a major impact on Aboriginals, because it brought them into conflict with the expanding European settlement. This map from ABC Indigenous [http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/] shows all the different language (and thus cultural) groups in Aboriginal Australia before European settlement. Creative Spirit's Timeline [http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/history/aboriginal-history-timeline-1770-1899] gives an overview of this process.
Look at the beginning Railways in Australia for the development of trainlines [http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/railways-in-australia]. At Visons of Early Australia [http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/1758.php], the third image down shows a map of railways in 1917. You can see the way they sprawl out from the capital cities into what was once Aboriginal territory. This lead to increasing dispossession of Aboriginals.
As a result of rail development, farmers moved further inland to grow wheat (to make flour) or sheep (for wool). Visons of Early Australia [http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/1758.php] shows two postcards of farms, demonstrating that there were indeed more sheep than Europeans in Australia! this meant that more land was needed to farm all these sheep. Sheep breeding was thererfore an important part of industrialisation in Australia which had a negative impact on Aboriginals. to see more about life on a sheep station in 1860 (mostly from a while perspective, but pay attention to the jobs done by Aboriginals) watch these videos [http://splash.abc.net.au/digibook/-/c/618324/1860s-colonial-life].
OTEN's agriculture unit [https://yourdecision.oten.tafensw.edu.au/pluginfile.php/138/mod_resource/content/2/AHCLSK205A/sheep_breeds.html tells us ] "The first sheep to arrive in Australia were a hairy, fat tailed flock of 29 sheep brought by the First Fleet for their meat. John Macarthur requested that fine wool sheep be purchased in the Cape when a ship was sent for supplies for the struggling colony. A small flock of 26 Spanish Merinos were shipped back to Sydney where John and his wife, Elizabeth, crossed the Merinos with their own sheep to start Australia's first wool flock. During the 1800s, thousands of Merinos were imported from Saxony, France and England. The sheep were selected and bred for their environmental suitability, frame size, fleece weight and fibre characteristics. The Saxon Merino was developed in Tasmania, the Peppin Merino in southern New South Wales and the South Australian Merino in that state to cope with the arid pastoral conditions." The University of Tasmania [http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/S/Sheep%20farmers.htm] has more detail about sheep breeding in Australia.
Dr Robert Lee of UWS, has written an excellent academic article [http://www.environment.gov.au/resource/linking-nation-australias-transport-and-communications-1788-1970-0] which links developments in transport and communications with Australia's position as a leading of producer of wool and coal (because ships and trains worked on steam which was produced by burning coal)
Attitudes toward Aboriginals
By the time Europeans arrived in Australia, many people belived in "cultural evolution". This was an extrememely racist theory that the human race developed from primitive "black" people to civilised "white" Europeans. European people were seen as having bigger and better brains (leading to better technology), more sophisiticated language and culture, and the right to colonise 'black' cultures and lands. Many Europeans thought that "primitive people" and customs would die out and European people culture would dominate the world. Australian Aboriginals were seen as the most primitive of all people, and as closer to animals than to Europeans. This is one of the reasons the English colonists used the concept of "Terra Nullius" (latin for "empty land", free for anyone to take) to invade Australia. You can see some illustrations of traditional life for Aborigines in the Sydney area before and after colonisation at Splash [http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/media/154420/eora-mapping-aboriginal-sydney-1770-1850]. This early painting of the arrival of the first fleet [http://www.achistoryunits.edu.au/verve/_resources/Htaa_first_fleet_first_Australians_2.pdf] has some excellent questions about the portrayal of this event. You can find similar sources at the History Teacher's Association [http://www.achistoryunits.edu.au/year-4/learning-sequence-5-8/tabs/y4-first-fleet-l7-1.html] website.
The level of racism against Aboriginal australians was extreme. You can get a good impression of this from the quotes (in blue) on this Aboriginal Heritage Office webpage [http://www.aboriginalheritage.org/history/history/ website [http://www.aboriginalheritage.org/history/history/].
If you'd like to try reading a univeristy-standard essay about these attitudes, try Russel MacGregor's essay, The Doomed Race [http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/10653/1/doomed_race_axiom.pdf] or the articles at the Stolen Generations, eg Breeding out the Colour [http://www.stolengenerations.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140&Itemid=109 ]. One way to access such difficult texts is to focus on the quotes from primary sources and the parts of the essays that interpret them.
The level of racism against Aboriginal australians was extreme. You can get a good impression of this from the quotes (in blue) on this Aboriginal Heritage Office webpage [http://www.aboriginalheritage.org/history/history/ website [http://www.aboriginalheritage.org/history/history/].
If you'd like to try reading a univeristy-standard essay about these attitudes, try Russel MacGregor's essay, The Doomed Race [http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/10653/1/doomed_race_axiom.pdf] or the articles at the Stolen Generations, eg Breeding out the Colour [http://www.stolengenerations.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140&Itemid=109 ]. One way to access such difficult texts is to focus on the quotes from primary sources and the parts of the essays that interpret them.
Impact on Aboriginals
Racism No Way's factsheet [http://www.racismnoway.com.au/teaching-resources/factsheets/52.html] outlines some important policies and their long term effects on Australian Aborigines, and their timeline [http://www.racismnoway.com.au/about-racism/timeline/index-1900s.html] contains links to quick information, such as the police officers who were brought to Queensland to kill Aborigines so that Europeans could settle their land and build farms or mines, or the Battle of One Tree Hill shown in this drawing at the National Library of Australia [https://www.nla.gov.au/pub/nlanews/2011/jun11/a-picture-asks-a-thousand-questions.pdf]. Another example of Aboriginals being hunted like animals is NSW's Myall Creek Massacre in 1838 [http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/history/myall-creek-massacre-1838].
The Central Australian Aboriginal Congress [http://www.caac.org.au/aboriginal-health/aboriginal-health-through-time/] outlines some of the impacts of colonisation on Aboriginals, including health, lifestyle, employment and political representation. Even after missions (mostly run by Catholic priests and Lutheren (German) missionaries) and the Aborigines Protection Act [http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/nsw/NE00010], were officially "taking care" of Aborigines, the amount of food, clothing and housing given to Aboriginals was frequently inadequate because of limited funding or decisions to save money . You can read about this in this account of the decisions made about clothing Aboriginals [http://www.kooriweb.org/cland/missions.html].
This page from Muswellbrook Shire council and the Reconciliation Committee [http://www.workingwithatsi.info/content/history2.htm], give an overview of colonisation from an Aboriginal perspective [http://www.workingwithatsi.info/content/history2.htm], while the Australian Government [http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/sorry-day-stolen-generations[http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/sorry-day-stolen-generations] outlines the key policies used to control where Aboriginals went, who they married and what jobs they qualiifed for [http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/3.%20Aboriginal%20Societies%3A%20The%20Experience%20of%20Contact/changing-policies-towards-aboriginal].
You will need to think carefully about these policies to decide what impact each policy had on the rights and freedoms of Aboriginals - eg, who they could live with, where they could live, what language and religion they were allowed to have, what access they had to a safe home, health care, education and a 'good' job.
Did Australian Aborigines have more or less freedom than US slaves? Was their life any better? Why or why not? These questions are especially important if you are answering question 3.
The Central Australian Aboriginal Congress [http://www.caac.org.au/aboriginal-health/aboriginal-health-through-time/] outlines some of the impacts of colonisation on Aboriginals, including health, lifestyle, employment and political representation. Even after missions (mostly run by Catholic priests and Lutheren (German) missionaries) and the Aborigines Protection Act [http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/nsw/NE00010], were officially "taking care" of Aborigines, the amount of food, clothing and housing given to Aboriginals was frequently inadequate because of limited funding or decisions to save money . You can read about this in this account of the decisions made about clothing Aboriginals [http://www.kooriweb.org/cland/missions.html].
This page from Muswellbrook Shire council and the Reconciliation Committee [http://www.workingwithatsi.info/content/history2.htm], give an overview of colonisation from an Aboriginal perspective [http://www.workingwithatsi.info/content/history2.htm], while the Australian Government [http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/sorry-day-stolen-generations[http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/sorry-day-stolen-generations] outlines the key policies used to control where Aboriginals went, who they married and what jobs they qualiifed for [http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/3.%20Aboriginal%20Societies%3A%20The%20Experience%20of%20Contact/changing-policies-towards-aboriginal].
You will need to think carefully about these policies to decide what impact each policy had on the rights and freedoms of Aboriginals - eg, who they could live with, where they could live, what language and religion they were allowed to have, what access they had to a safe home, health care, education and a 'good' job.
Did Australian Aborigines have more or less freedom than US slaves? Was their life any better? Why or why not? These questions are especially important if you are answering question 3.
Longterm effects on Aboriginals
Some policies, such as the Stolen Generation, have not really gone away. Creative spirit [http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/politics/a-guide-to-australias-stolen-generations] has an excellent analysis of the impact of this policy from the C19th till the C21st. The economic Impact of colonisation today is summarised at Creative Spirit [http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/economy/], as is the impact of colonisation on aboriginal health [http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/] and education [http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/education/] |