I’m reading the Australian Wars which is about the century+ of fighting by Aboriginal people to avoid being dispossessed by settlers, and it’s really food for thought.
While my high school was progressive in that we expressly learned about the massacres, ethnic cleansing and genocide that occurred during colonisation (as well as the late 20th century ‘History Wars’ where conservative historians like Keith Windschuttle obfuscated these crimes and denied their intentional character), we never learned about organised resistance, or to conceptualise frontier violence as a ‘war’ between combatants. The history we learned was very much focused on the murder and subjugation of Aboriginal people and the occasional skirmish or guerilla attack.
So it’s really interesting to learn about several things so far: First, how Aboriginal people (often women) were engaged as spies or saboteurs when liaising with colonists. Secondly, how Aboriginal guerilla warfare led to the targeting of settler supply lines and livestock not out of anger that native fauna were being displaced (which is how it is usually presented), but strategically to drive colonists out. Thirdly, how between 1838-1844 there was a consistent front line, a complete and coordinated military front between Melbourne and Moreton Bay (near Brisbane), with Aboriginal tribes working together in lockstep and warriors supported by stockpiles of supplies. As the 1840s progressed and swathes of immigrants flocked into the interior for the Gold Rush, warfare like that became untenable, but I can’t believe it isn’t common knowledge that there was such extensive, organised resistance.
It just feels like leaving that bit out, that Aboriginal people fought tooth and nail for over a hundred years with all the means available to them, is a modern-day continuation of the racist ‘Protection Era’ assumption that Aboriginal people were a passive, dying race.
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