June 17.

Artwork by Glenn Loughrey

Might against Right

Religious reflections on colonization.

The pious rhetoric of churchmen contrasted sharply with more pragmatic attitudes on the frontier. Frederic de Brebant Cooper, after visiting Queensland, described colonization as "an unholy war – the war of might against right". [1]  The editor of the Port Denison Times in 1871 was even less enthusiastic. Reviewing an article published in the Christian Review favourable to racial conquest, he commented ironically, "We have been accustomed to regard these things as a blot upon our Christianity. We learn with gratitude now that in our murders we were but executing the will of Heaven." [2]

1. de Brebant Cooper, Wild Adventures in Australia [Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1857] p.67  – cited by Henry, “Progress, Morality and the Dispossession of the Aboriginals”, Meanjin, 33, no. 3 (Sept. 1974), p.306.

2. N. A. Loos, "Aboriginal-European Relations in North Queensland, 1861-1897" (PhD thesis, James Cook University, 1976) pp. 137-138 (quoting Port Denison Times, 17 June, 1871).

Acknowledgment: Ross Fitzgerald, From the Dreaming to 1915 – A History of Queensland, pp.204, 257 n.2, n.3.

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Genocide debate in Tasmania

Genocide occupied the attention of the Tasmanian parliament over several days in June 1993. The Liberal premier, Ray Groom, declared that genocide had never taken place in the history of the State. [1] His views were supported by the Hobart Mercury, where an editorial asserted that there was 'certainly no policy of deliberate extermination of the Aboriginal people'. [2]

Groom was attacked by the Greens member and spokesperson on Aboriginal affairs, the Rev. Lance Armstrong, for attempting to rewrite history. The premier's statement was the 'most incredibly inaccurate and offensive speech' that Armstrong had ever heard. He countered by saying that while the policy of genocide 'was never openly admitted', the reality was there to be discovered by any reasonable student of history. 'Attempted genocide', he declared,

was the reality at every step. Aboriginal people were killed; Aboriginal people were dispossessed of their land; Aboriginal people were denied the whole range of human rights...the point is that Aboriginal people were massacred and the authorities did nothing about it. Genocide was the policy. [3]

Armstrong had the local historians on his side. In his History of Tasmania, published ten years earlier, L. L. Robinson argued that the colony's story represented 'an impressive example of extermination'. [4] Australia's leading economic historian, N. G. Butlin, agreed, asserting that after 1825 'genocide directed and organised by the governor substantially eliminated the indigenous population'. [5]

1. Tasmania, House of Assembly, 1993, Parliamentary Debates, no. 11, 15-17 June, p. 3175.

2. 18 June 1993.

3. Tasmania, Parliamentary Debates, op. Cit., pp. 3421-2.

4. L. L. Robson, A History of Tasmania, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1983, vol. p. vii

5. N. G. Butlin, Economics and the Dreamtime, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1993 p. 134. [The subtitle of Henry Reynolds' book An Indelible Stain is The question of  genocide in Australia's history.]

Acknowledgment: Henry Reynolds, An Indelible Stain, Viking, Ringwood, 2001, pp. 49-50, 184 n.1, n.2, n.3, n.4, n.5.