Aborigines Post-Contact
Captain Arthur Phillip was placed in charge of the First Fleet, which arrived at Botany Bay between the 18th and 20th of January, 1788. Finding no fresh water, he moved the eleven ships to Port Jackson, now Sydney. Between 1788 and 1868, 160,000 convicts (men and women) were transported to Australia. Although the local tribe had greeted the First Fleet in a friendly manner, hostilities soon broke out. Trying to avoid any tribal warfare, Governor Phillip's instructions stated that they should "conciliate their affections, enjoining all our subjects to live in amity and kindness with them." The governor stated that anyone who harmed the natives would be punished. As the settlers began to move inland, resistance increased, even as cholera, influenza, and smallpox germs from the ships began to take their toll on the Australians.
The unfavorable account of the aborigines given in the first British descriptions of them was strengthened by the reports of the settlers in Australia. They were not brought into very close relations with the aborigines, and naturally formed a low opinion of them. The aborigines appeared to have no personal property, or houses, to live in small family groups which had few dealings with outsiders, and to indulge in the wildest sexual license amongst themselves. They lived solely on wild game or fruits, for they had no domestic animals and never tilled the soil. They would eat anything they could find. They had no chiefs, as in the organised despotisms of the South Sea Islands. They had no images which they appeared to worship. Their weapons were made solely of wood, bone, and stone, and were of the simplest types.
As new colonies, sheep stations, and farms developed, colonists urged the governor to drive out the Aborigines. Only one treaty was ever signed with the natives. It was in Melbourne in 1835, purchasing 600,000 acres of land with blankets, knives, and tomahawks. This "treaty" was never recognized by the British government. By 1838, Robert Hughes, in The Fatal Shore, reports that "probably between 2,000 and 2,500 European settlers were killed, and upwards of 20,000 Aborigines."(5. ibid. p.85) The native population dropped to about 70,000 by 1900, and some thought that the race might die out. However, over the years, with increased medical care, food, and shelter at church missions and government settlements, the population began to increase, especially in the Northern Territory.
In 1931, as in the United States, native children were taken to settlements, with schools, where they were forbidden to speak their native language, forced to abandon their heritage, and taught to be culturally white.
During the 1970s, many Aborigines in northern Australia moved off the large reserves which had housed mixed tribal groups and established communities away from the white influences. Now there are about 500 of these outstations. Each works to re-establish the values and culture of its tribe. Most have about 30 to 50 people at each outstation. Here, they are able to enjoy their music with clapsticks and didjeridoos, hold private, secret ceremonies to initiate young men into adulthood, and attend a corroboree, an evening of singing and dancing.
Also in the 1970s, there was a new artistic development in the Northern Territory. Students at the Papunya School, as well as seniors, were encouraged to paint their tribe's traditional Dreamtime designs on wall murals, using acrylic paints, which were ideal for the desert conditions. Soon many artists were painting their Dreamings on portable canvases, bark and wood. Being easy to transport, the paintings sold well and brought a new source of income to the people.
Expressing their relationship to nature, as well as the creation stories, the dots and the x-ray style of images, with a bold use of color, became popular with Australians and tourists. In 2003, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, working with Sotheby's auction firm, held a sale of Aboriginal art, bringing in $7,000,000.00. The ancient cave paintings and rock carvings of 30,000 years ago had entered the modern era.
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