The Europeans did not understand the use of land by the Aboriginals. They did not seem to be “farming” the land but that does not mean the Europeans were allowed to invade the land. Europeans built fences and introduced non-native animals to the land, which Aborigines found strange.
The Aboriginals mistakenly thought the white people would not be staying long. Some believed the white skins represented returned spirits of the dead so the white people were welcomed, shown watercourses and given food because they thought the white people would leave soon. When the Aboriginals realized the Europeans were not leaving, they were agitated and warfare came between the two races. Since this didn't start the moment the Europeans arrived and because there were few pitched battles, the nature of the warfare was misunderstood. There were hundreds of small-scale conflicts, shootings and poisonings that were seldom reported.
The Europeans also brought many diseases from Britain but the main disease was smallpox. Within two years this disease had wiped half of the Aboriginal population in Sydney.
A West Australian settler wrote, "We are at war with the original owners; we have never known them in any capacity but as enemies." A Naval Officer visiting the Swan River in 1832 noted "amost awful warfare". Many people were declared “outlaws” and were shot or hung without a trial. The Australian was disgusted at the way they were treating Aboriginals when the Aboriginals tried to be nice to the settlers but were treated badly and punished harshly.
There were clear instructions that the Aboriginal people were protected by the King’s law and could not be treated as enemies of the state. Only a few people took this seriously but the Aboriginals had been hunting the settlers’ sheep and cattle just as they have been hunting native kangaroos and emus for thousands of years. Not realizing what they were doing wrong, the Aboriginals kept sneaking into the settlers land and stealing whatever they could find while expecting the Europeans to do the same. The Europeans retaliated and thought of the Aboriginals as savages, criminals, and less than human. They were shot, whipped, poisoned, arrested, chained, transported jailed, tortured and executed. The Europeans lacked total respect for the Aboriginal people, their beliefs, their culture and their traditions.
The Aboriginals were pushed further away from there traditional lands and the Europeans taking more land. Aboriginal families were separated and children were taken away from there parents because they were ‘uncivilized’, which gave rise to the so-called ‘Stolen Generation’. The settlers destroyed the Aboriginals’ sacred sites and hunted their wild animals. The Aboriginals were mistreated and killed even into the twentieth century. The population of Aboriginals decreased from three hundred thousand from when the Europeans first came to Australia, down to sixty thousand Aboriginals. The Europeans were put before the Aboriginals in priority and were thought of as second class people of their own land which they have owned for over forty thousand years.
The Aboriginals were the original owners of Australia but the Europeans took over the land and called it theirs. The Aboriginals were mistreated and executed in their own land. They had no rights over the invaders. The Aboriginals shared their resources but the settlers had no intention of sharing. Diseases were brought into the land and Aboriginals were driven away from there homes. If the Aboriginals tried to retaliate they would be killed. It is evident from the historical account presented that Australia was the native land of the Aborigines and Europeans unlawfully and forcedly invaded it.
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