A dispossession primer.(History)

HARDLY A DAY goes by without a reference somewhere in public discourse to Aboriginal "dispossession", so it seems time to attempt a summary--a primer--of what actually happened. It is not intended to be the last word, and criticism is invited.

The biggest problem--as it has long been--is lack of precise and dependable information. A second problem is that there is, nevertheless, so much information that it cannot be easily summarised. The third is the inadequacy of language for dealing with it--the emotive but imprecise nature of "dispossession" itself is an example. Nevertheless, there is enough information and enough words to give us a good idea.

BEFORE THE WHITES

THE SIZE OF--and rapid decline in--the Aboriginal population is critical to an understanding. Estimates now put the Aboriginal population of all Australia in 1780 at between three quarters of a million and one million. By 1933 the recorded number had fallen to 73,000, though they have recovered since to approaching half a million. If all part-Europeans had been counted as Aborigines, however, the lower numbers would probably be considerably larger. Nevertheless, as indigenous numbers fell, public concern about them also lagged. Reasons for the population decline, in as far as they are known, are discussed below.

The pre-white Aborigines were spread across the continent, typically living in self-governing bands or communities of fifty or so people, related on the male side. They lived semi-nomadically over areas roughly equal to a modern local government area, reserved to them by age-old custom.

They gathered occasionally for ceremonial, social and other purposes in wider groups linked by language, numbering perhaps 1000. Old Australia had about 600 different languages, some of which were related and others very different. Neither the local communities nor the language groups had government, other than a strict framework of religiously enforced rules and traditions and the discussions of the most forceful older men.

None farmed or developed the land, except for the use of fire to encourage green gowth and move animal game, and local variations such as the fish traps in south western Victoria. While they had deep knowledge of and attachment to their "country" and communicated and traded with quite large areas of Australia, they had virtually no knowledge of the outside world. By ancient tradition they assumed that magic and sorcery governed most of life and death. All this was typical of "hunter-gatherer" societies anywhere. Once the whole world was like it, but less isolated societies intensified and developed much more over the millennia.