The Legacy of History

Abstract

It is important that we understand the legacy of Australia' s history, us it helps to explain the deep sense of injustice felt by Aboriginal people, their disadvantaged status today and their current attitudes towards non-Aboriginal people and society. In this way, it is one of the important underlying issues that assists us to understand the disproportionate detention rates of Aboriginal people. While it is difficult to do justice to the breadth and complexity of the subject, I canvas here some key historical themes. Aboriginal society prior to the arrival of the British is described, along with the early establishment of the policy that Aboriginal people had no rights to their land: the terra nullius doctrine. The chapter discusses the frontier period of colonial settlement, during which Aboriginal people were dispossessed of their lands through colonial policies, violence and disease. The central roles of the police as, firstly, the instrument of the State through which Aboriginal resistance to colonial expansion was overcome, and later as 'protectors', are discussed. The Aboriginal experience of policing undoubtedly influences their attitudes today. In the latter part of the chapter I point to the oppressive and discriminatory systems of law established in this country, the increasing levels of imprisonment of Aboriginal people since the 1950s, and the role of labour and employment policies as instruments for the domination and suppression of Aboriginal people by the colonial and post-colonial societies. This chapter draws heavily on the work of Dr Ann McGrath who was consulted by the Commission and whose contribution is substantially reflected in this chapter, although I have drawn on other sources also. Different aspects of the historical experience are dealt with in other chapters throughout this report - http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol2/4.html