Thread: Warakurna, W.A.'s first indigenous run police station

Originally Posted by trout1105

The early convicts that survived the voyage to Australia faced the same conditions if not worse than the Aborigines and the ancestors of these people do not use this as an excuse for behaving badly

Sorry, but you are so wrong. You can not compare what happened to the convicts, to the massacres and maltreatment of the natives. And as whether the mistreatment is used as an excuse for " behaving badly ", I think is a sweeping statement with little basis in fact. I quote Evonne Cawley[ nee Goolagong]when she says the only thing she knew about her aboriginality was that she was a member of the Wiradjuri tribe. She was given a copy of Blood on the Wattle, and after reading page after page of massacres, she came to the chapter where the Wiradjuri tribe was all but wiped out. She had no idea. Also, if you read the history of the Kelly family, of Ned Kelly fame, they did indeed use the excuse of their treatment as a reason for their behaviour.

It is a sad fact of life that where ever Europeans colonised, the native populations were treated like animals, to be managed accordingly. In Australia, that meant pastoralists took over land that had been hunted on by natives for hundreds, if not thousands of years. When the natives speared a sheep or a bullock, they were hunted down and shot. Whites shot natives, and some natives murdered whites. The massacres started not long after 1788, and the last recorded massacre was , I believe , on Bentinck island, in the Gulf. in 1918. After some whites were arrested and put on trial in Qld ,for shooting a large group of blacks, more subtle methods were deemed necessary. So, the infamous Qld " death pudding " was invented, flour laced with strychnine or arsenic , from which the natives made damper. And died. Poisonings were recorded from such varied locations as Laidley, the upper pine river, along the Macintyre in the Warrego district, the Maryborough area, the Burnett district, Dawson river region, near Marlborough, in the Cardwell district, and in North Qld, poisonings were reported up until 1908.

In the Bulletin's first year of publication ,in 1880, it published an article about how the " aboriginal problem " could be solved.

" The Australian aborigine is a doomed man.....it is too late to talk of preserving the aboriginal race. It is and always was Utopian to try and Christianise it. Rum and European clothes have ruined the people who half a century ago were temperate and naked. The aboriginal race is moribund. All we can do now is to give an opiate to the dying man, and when he expires, bury him respectfully. " Bulletin, 1880.

From where I sit, not much seems to have changed.

ha!

I hear what your saying Bob, and don’t totally disagree,,, yep, there is one “BUT”,,, everyone is taught, or should be taught right from wrong, and should know what’s what probably before they are a teen. So who’s doing the teaching to these young kids that they should be scared??
they know nothing of history at this age, and I doubt anyone under what, maybe 20 or 30 hasn’t experienced that either.
All the old guys are really easy to deal with,, it’s the younger ones that seem to be the problem.

Originally Posted by Chops

I hear what your saying Bob, and don’t totally disagree,,, yep, there is one “BUT”,,, everyone is taught, or should be taught right from wrong, and should know what’s what probably before they are a teen. So who’s doing the teaching to these young kids that they should be scared??
they know nothing of history at this age, and I doubt anyone under what, maybe 20 or 30 hasn’t experienced that either.
All the old guys are really easy to deal with,, it’s the younger ones that seem to be the problem.

True, chops. But, go to any low socio-economic area, let's say, Logan, the old Inala, parts of Caboolture, you get exactly the same trend. Which indicates it is not totally an aboriginal society problem. It is an Australian society problem. Alcohol, drugs, doesn't matter if you are black, white or brindle, add those to boredom, unemployment, the feeling you are never going to get anywhere in life, some lose hope.

My mate was in charge of the settlement at Docker River, NT. Not sure of his title. This settlement was run under aboriginal law, for the most part. While he was there, the elders ordered a number of payback spearings, mainly youth who had abused young women, or stole from the community or bought drugs or alcohol in. The police were called in , of course, but had to come from WA or Alice springs. By the time they got there it was all over, and the miscreants were " out bush ". They had been bushed, either sent out with an elder, or moved to one of the outstations in the desert. My mate said the best thing he could do was let them get on with it, and as long as no one died, or a major fight didn't start between the different groups, everything settled down. Interestingly, the school at Docker River at that time had full attendance. It was/is a dry community, even the white staff had to go to Alice to get on the grog, it was instant dismissal to do otherwise. My mate said he dare not interfere with aboriginal justice, because the community was regulating itself, and to interfere would have bought the system down. Funny that, I served in the Navy with him, and didn't think he was that smart. I believe the aboriginal "problem " needs to be sorted by the people themselves, with oversight from some very smart people. Very smart people are short on the ground nowadays.

Originally Posted by Chops

I hear what your saying Bob, and don’t totally disagree,,, yep, there is one “BUT”,,, everyone is taught, or should be taught right from wrong, and should know what’s what probably before they are a teen. So who’s doing the teaching to these young kids that they should be scared??
they know nothing of history at this age, and I doubt anyone under what, maybe 20 or 30 hasn’t experienced that either.
All the old guys are really easy to deal with,, it’s the younger ones that seem to be the problem.

Despite the fact that ‘history’ is generally taught with a very strong colonial bias, the WA government is systematically closing schools in small communities. Modern dispossession and depopulation strategy. Youth of all cultural backgrounds living in low economic areas right across Australia face exactly the same challenges, poverty, drugs, alcohol, lack of employment opportunities. It’s a challenge for all of us and skin colour has nothing to do with it.

Originally Posted by bob10

In many cases the white man represents oppression, and in early Australia aboriginal interaction with police usually ended up with aboriginals in chains, taken away to places like Rottnest Island, not to be seen again. Yes, these stories would have been passed down , rightly or not, and mistrust of the police would have been ingrown. Read the article in this thread about NT police in Arnhem land, you'll get an idea. Respect needs to be earned, 200years of oppression can not be wiped away overnight. Read a book called " Blood on the Wattle", by Bruce Elder. It'll open your eyes.

Exactly Bob. Not to mention that Aboriginal deaths in custody continue at an alarming rate. There was one a few years ago in that very region. Explains a lot.

@Bob
The natives WERE treated verry badly back then and so were the convicts who were treated as nothing more than slave labour and whores.
But that was back then and it has absolutely NO reason why people can blame the past history for their own bad behavior NOW.
EVERYONE has a basic understanding of what is right and what is wrong and blaming the past history for their own bad behavior NOW is simply BS.

Originally Posted by trout1105

@Bob
The natives WERE treated verry badly back then and so were the convicts who were treated as nothing more than slave labour and whores.
But that was back then and it has absolutely NO reason why people can blame the past history for their own bad behavior NOW.
EVERYONE has a basic understanding of what is right and what is wrong and blaming the past history for their own bad behavior NOW is simply BS.

Ok, show me an example of where aboriginal people are blaming that long past history for their behaviour.