Custom «Australian Aborigines» Essay Paper Sample

Considering the year 1788, with the arrival of the first European settlers, it is quite apparent that the sole creatures that occupied Australia were the Aborigines. A hundred years down the line, Aborigines had become extinct and they no longer occupied much of the continent. It is notable that most of them by this time were just struggling for survival. White settlement had proved quite overpowering almost in all places. There existed no peaceful co-existence between the whites and the Aborigines. Actually the frontier between the two had long been marked in blood. Considering the places where the whites’ population was sparse, the long-established traditional Aboriginal society tended to get influenced by the arriving whites.

The visitors (white people) who claimed that they possessed greater natural abilities and were a bit civilized immediately justified the prevailing situation. After they scrutinized whatever had happened just for the shorter period they were in Australia, they began admiring the notable achievements by their fellow pioneering whites. The achievements that were associated with the Aborigines were rapidly forgotten and also stories regarding the relationship between the whites and Aborigines soon diminished and they were ignored.

According to the article, the whites alleged that there existed clashes simply because the Aborigines were frequently involving themselves in frequent fights and that they were naturally wicked. Apparently the claim lacks a sense of accuracy and was based on unreliable observations. As a matter of fact, the Aborigines were peaceful creatures. It was on rare occasions that they involved themselves into unnecessary fights and this would always stop immediately the first blood was drawn. Allegations that the Aborigines formed large scale combinations for fighting normally call for critics. The point is Aborigines could hardly get impressed by any actions by new arrivals, considering that the convict society always exposed deeds full of harshness and ill-treatment.

The article claims that the whites also claimed that issues pertaining to land ownership were not even known by the Aborigines. These were allegations meant to cover the fact that the white people could have been in one way dispossessing the Aborigines. The question in play was whether the Aborigines in any way resented the new arrivals. A portion of an answer to the same question was quite apparent to Governor King, Now South Wales’ government in 1800. According to him, loss of land was the cause of hitches. Besides all these, the whites still continued claiming that the Aborigines owned no land. He believed that the whites ought to have learned from Bennelong, the Aborigine they knew well. He repeatedly claimed that the island of Me-mul (Goat Island), which was situated near the Sydney Cove, belonged to him together with his family. Bennelong was just like any other Aborigine in that he was deeply fond of to his given piece of land. The act of forcing the Aborigines from the same land they had occupied for a long time meant that they had to leave their spiritual homes and also their source of food. It was really disheartening to see the whites occupy the Aborigines’ land, fouling he waterholes, destroying the vegetation and hey never showed respect to the Aborigines’ sacred places.

With regard to Professor Colin Tatz, a modern writer, to the Aborigines land was regarded in a spiritual perspective; a unique phenomenon whereby both culture and religion derive can never be either bought or sold. It was presumed that land belonged to no one and it had to be taken as collective property. Today’s famous notion to fence land so as to disintegrate it to various portions would appear strange to the Aborigines. The act of owning land and fully possessing it to a point of banning others to access it was an act that the Aborigines could never understand. This explains the bloody conflict as the Aborigines would never condone the whites’ actions, taking what the Aborigines comprehended that it can never be taken, nor can it be owned.