Faith

ABORIGINES IN AUSTRALIA : PARTICULAR STORY OR INEVITABLE DESTINY?

 Australia. Sea, sun and a wide savage landscape, enough to attract millions of tourists every year. Lost in the immense Pacific Ocean, this great island is the sixth biggest country in the world. The immense mysterious ocean and the thousands of kilometers of distance maintained the country safe and peaceful, until the seventeenth century. Until curiosity, lust for power and wealth drew the westerners to its shares. When men did not fear navigation anymore. Great Britain discovered the island and realized the many resources it offered and so it was that Australia became a colony. Australia became one more territory for the British Empire, and provided it with power, glory and pride. Should the Empire not have been grateful, respectful towards the country and its population? Domination is one of the man’s old vice…

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hen Australia was first colonized by the British Empire, the resources and wealth that the land offered were not immediately recognized as such. The Mortality rate was very high for the first settlers; they didn’t have necessary knowledge and material for agriculture. Australia was seen as a hot, arid and dry country, and starvation long threatened the colony. For Great Britain, Australia was at first a response to a preoccupying problem: the overcrowded prisons. Thus, Australia was first used as a place where the “surplus” of prisoners was sent. It was later, in the middle 19^th century that the English government really discovered the resources offered by the huge island and the profit they could make out of it. As soon as they discovered the gold and had realized they could boost their economy, the settlers pushed the aborigines away.

 The Colonial Society

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nitially, Great-Britain wanted to sign a treaty with the Indigenous authority, but it did not work out, because indeed, there was no Indigenous government or even authority in place. Aborigines lived in different separated tribes, and Great Britain could not possibly deal with every local inhabitant. As Great-Britain couldn't use in conventional communication, language and culture bbecame barriers and so the British government declared the continent as uninhabited: “Terra Nullius”.

From that moment on, a non-egalitarian society developed, based on force, European domination and firmly-rooted prejudices about race. It was foretaste of the colonial societies that developed a little later, all over in Africa as Europe launched the race for colonies. Powers proclaimed to fight slavery but they didn't give to the populations they colonized civic rights. Furthermore they did not ensure the development of people but force them to work for the wealth of their country.

Aborigines were not considered as potential owners; their lands were taken by force and given to the White settlers who had left England to do business in Australia. They were therefore not treated like they deserved. White settlers would despise their dedication to the land and nature. Europeans literally appropriated the land and used it for their own wealth, without caring about the consequences of their acts on the local populations and habits. They would destroy things that were worthy and vital to the population, degrading what had been fertile lands and engendering the extinction of some animals. The local economy was destroyed, and local inhabitants began to

work for the British industrial development. Aborigine’s lives rapidly became independent of the settlers. They soon were obliged to work for the settlers, and men woman and children were greatly sought and rarely paid. They would rather receive some food ration or some clothes.

White perception of Aborigines

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hey were considered as a lower race and it is fearsome to know that majority of people thought they would simply die out. Violence grew increasingly, native people were abused, murdered and their children were taken away. A little inside war began indigenous people would eat farmer’s sheep, while farmers went to kill the indigenous. Settlers did not want to deal with the native inhabitants, they probably did not want to face a problem, they tried to convince was not one. Aborigines were sent away from the European settlements. In 1901, Australia became a nation. Its native inhabitants, the ones who had discovered the island first, and who had lived peacefully during centuries, did evidently not benefit of the Australian identity. They did not have the right to vote and were not eligible. Settlers did not take the native population into consideration, they were nothing, savages who did not speak English and who prevent them from living happily as they would have always had. There it is, the well-known haughty despise of White Man towards the ones that are not of his kind. This despise might convey a certain fear of the other, of the unknown. And this fear, we all know it; it is a bad fear, a murderous and irrational fear.

The Stolen Generations

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he increasing number of mixed children became a very annoying topic and a big problem to which they had to find a solution. This solution gives birth to the Stolen Generations. Indigenous and mixed-race children are taken away, voluntarily in some cases by force in the others, and sent to orphanages, church or were even adopted by white families. They were at least one child taken away per Indigenous family. Aborigines are divided in the way they reacted to the White Racial supremacy. Some of them choose to abandon their culture which was partly destroyed and lost, and decided to integrate the White society and their way of living. Others, preferred to retire in the lands, and live separated from the rest of the island. The society that developed is clearly not that far from the one in the USA during Segregation, a century later. People are divided, separated, the White are persuaded of their higher value and cannot deal with idea of race mixed. A similar situation grew worst even later, and relating Nazism, Colonization and American Segregation is certainly not senseless. How could men repeat the same errors that led to terrible violence and to the deepest inhumanity finally making men lose their dignity and any ounce of humanity?

The 20^th century: a long period of fight for Aborigine’s rights

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hange mentality and be accepted in their own country, the Aborigines have fought and are still fighting for this ideal.

The Aboriginal activism increased in response to the obligation of taking away of reserve, land and the assimilation policy. Protest groups were formed. In 1962 the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 was amended so that all Aborigines could vote in Commonwealth elections. Equal pay for Aboriginal workers was finally granted in 1965. They seemed more accepted in the society with the referendum which changed the constitution, to allow people being counted in the census and the Commonwealth government could make laws for them. It was an important change, nevertheless discrimination had not disappeared. Instead of trying to destroy Aboriginal culture, the government finally encouraged people to accept it. It's the period where schools have begun teaching Aboriginal culture and history to both Indigenous and white children. Australia has already celebrated in 1988 the bicentennial anniversary since the arrival of the first European in this country. This day was characterized by Aboriginal protest movements at several places in Australia. Burnum Burnum an Australian Aborigine, symbolically plants a flag on Folkstone beach in Britain and claimed he had taken possession of Britain. Aborigines have acquired many rights they had lost with the imperialism of Europeans. Nevertheless Aborigines had still to fight to be representing in the government and to own a power in their country.

The Australian government has made an apology

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o remove a great stain from the nation's soul and in the true spirit of reconciliation to open a new chapter in the history of this great land Australia.''

“We apologize for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians,"
 Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, read.

The 13^th February 2008 is a historic day for the entire community living in Australia. But the first concerned by this apology are the indigenous Aboriginal population. During years and years they have suffered the exclusion and discrimination’s laws. Some years ago, in 1996, the government had refused while the United Church has already apologized. This symbolic act was essential for the reconstruction of a united country.

How does this dark period of history relate to the film Australia?

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az Luhrmann directed the film Australia and chose two well-known actors to play the main characters: Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

The story takes place in Australia and begins in 1939 when an English Aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley comes to the Australian outback to claim the cattle ranch called Faraway Downs, which belonged to her late husband. She meets the rugged outdoors man, known as 'the Drover'.

Lady Ashley must hide the young Nullah, a half aborigine, half white child, to the white authorities because they want to send him to the Catholic mission. Lady Ashley is going to love this child as her son. At this period of history, all the aborigines were gathered in these missions to be cured of their heathen ways. Of course a love story will appear between the Lady and the Australian cowboys despite all the pitfalls they will meet. 

This film, through a romantic love story, evokes a dark period of Australian history characterizes by the Stolen Generations and tribute to the Aborigine culture. The theme of the second war is also express through the film with the bombardments of Darwin caused by the Japanese.

In the last few years, many films showing Aborigines life have emerged. They allow the population to better understand the history of their country through realistic episodes of life. Little by little, they are integrated in the society even though any films or apologies could erase the dark past of the country.