Aboriginal Archives

‘Habits of civilised life’: how one Australian State forced Indigenous people to meet onerous conditions to obtain citizenship

by History Guild | Apr 17, 2024 | Advocacy, Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
In the breakthrough High Court case Love and Thoms vs Commonwealth in 2020, the court ruled that First Nations people could not be considered aliens in Australia. As Justice James Edelman noted in the decision, whatever the other manners in which they were treated […] Aboriginal people were not ‘considered as foreigners in a kingdom which is their own’.

Traps, rites and kurrajong twine – the incredible ingenuity of Indigenous fishing knowledge

by History Guild | Apr 8, 2024 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 20 minutes
Some forms of Indigenous fishing inevitably became lost as Traditional Owners were dispossessed and disenfranchised of their lands and fisheries following the expansion of the colonial frontier post-1788.

In The Australian Wars, Rachel Perkins dispenses with the myth Aboriginal people didn’t fight back

by History Guild | Mar 18, 2024 | Military History, Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
The Australian Wars is a new three-part TV series directed and produced by Arrernte and Kalkadoon nations filmmaker Rachel Perkins. Perkins travels across vast territory to capture key aspects of a war that lasted more than 100 years, from the landing of the First Fleet in 1788 until the 1920s.

The series traces some of the key phases, sites and underlying features of frontier wars here on home soil.

Why Aboriginal Australian ‘Ununiformed Warriors’ Qualify for the Australian War Memorial

by History Guild | Mar 6, 2024 | Military History, Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
Last year, chair of the Australian War Memorial Kim Beazley called for First Nations “guerilla campaigns” of the Frontier Wars to be included in the Australian War Memorial. His bid was criticised by the RSL Australia’s president Major General Greg Melick.
Melick argued Indigenous casualties of the Frontier Wars could not be honoured at the War Memorial because they did not fight “in uniform”. But the Australian War Memorial already honours “ununiformed” First Nations soldiers – namely Dayak people who assisted in Borneo during World War 2.

How They Fought: Indigenous Tactics and Weaponry of Australia’s Frontier Wars – Book Review

by History Guild | Feb 7, 2024 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 3 minutes
This is an excellent and much needed book. It examines the military aspects of the Australian Frontier Wars from an Aboriginal perspective, detailing the tactics, strategy, logistics and weapons Aboriginal people employed to resist European encroachment on their land. Covering several campaigns across different areas and time periods, it details both successes and failures of the Aboriginal military forces. Some of its most interesting conclusions reflect the extent to which Aboriginal resistance slowed and impeded the encroachment of European settlement across Australia.

In a first discovery of its kind, researchers have uncovered an ancient Aboriginal archaeological site preserved on the seabed

by History Guild | Feb 5, 2024 | Historical Sites, History News, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
For most of the human history of Australia, sea levels were much lower than they are today, and there was extra dry land where people lived. When people first arrived in Australia as early as 65,000 years ago, sea levels were around 80m lower than today.

The Mabo decision and native title

by History Guild | Jan 23, 2024 | Advocacy, Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 4 minutes
On June 3 1992, the High Court of Australia handed down its decision in the long-running case of Eddie Koiki Mabo and his compatriots from the Torres Strait island of Mer. Together they challenged the authority of the Queensland government to claim not just sovereignty but also ownership of the land comprising their ancestral home.

An incredible journey: the first people to arrive in Australia came in large numbers, and on purpose

by History Guild | Dec 27, 2023 | Historical Sites, History News | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
The size of the first population of people needed to arrive, survive, and thrive in what is now Australia is revealed in two studies published today. It took more than 1,000 people to form a viable population. But this was no accidental migration, as our work shows the first arrivals must have been planned.

How unearthing Queensland’s ‘native police’ camps gives us a window onto colonial violence

by History Guild | Dec 4, 2023 | Advocacy, Historical Sites, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
This government-funded paramilitary force operated from 1849 (prior to Queensland’s separation from New South Wales) until 1904. It grew to have an expansive reach throughout the state, with camps established in strategic locations along the ever-expanding frontier, first in the southeast and then west and north. While staffed with non-Indigenous senior officers, the bulk of the force was made up of Aboriginal men and, sometimes, boys.

A short history of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy – an indelible reminder of unceded sovereignty

by History Guild | Jul 19, 2023 | Historical Sites, Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
Often people think about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy as something historic, dating back to the 1970s. But it should also be thought of as a site of the longest protest for Indigenous land rights, sovereignty and self-determination in the world.

After 140 years, researchers have rediscovered an important Aboriginal ceremonial ground in East Gippsland

by History Guild | Apr 13, 2023 | Historical Sites | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
After 140 years, researchers have rediscovered an Aboriginal ceremonial ground in Victoria’s East Gippsland. The site was host to the last young men’s initiation ceremony of the Gunaikurnai back in 1884, witnessed by the anthropologist A.W. Howitt.

Howitt’s field notes, combined with contemporary Gunaikurnai knowledge of their country, has led to the rediscovery. The site is located on public land, on the edge of the small fishing village of Seacombe. Its precise location had been lost following decades of colonial suppression of Gunaikurnai ritual and religious practices.

90 years ago, Yorta Yorta leader William Cooper petitioned the king for Aboriginal representation in parliament

by History Guild | Apr 12, 2023 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 4 minutes
Ninety years ago, Yorta Yorta leader William Cooper dreamed of Aboriginal people being represented in the Commonwealth parliament. In August 1933, he set about petitioning the British king, George V. The key demand was for: a member of parliament, of our own blood or white men known to have studied our needs and to be in sympathy with our race, to represent us in the Federal Parliament.

Tag: Aboriginal