Aborigines and Settlers in Port Phillip- What was the relationship between the land, daily life, cultural and social practices of the Aboriginal communities across Port Phillip?

- What was the impact of European farming practices and attitudes to land ownership on cultural practices, traditional food sources and foot-gathering techniques of Aboriginal communities?

- In which ways did Aboriginal communities respond to the changes brought by the Europeans?

Date

- 33 Communities- 10 languages- numerous dialects

Highly ordered societies - Laws of kinship, ritual, social rules and customs

Knowledge held by elders Marriages arranged - Strengthen alliances,

access to food and resources Conflicts were mostly about people not

property - 4 loose ‘confederations’ - - Kulin - Mara- Kurnai - Wotjo

Population: 20,000 generally accepted as Indigenous populationof Port Phillip before european settlement.

However, it is widely accepted that the population would have dropped before settlement.

Influenza, measles, tuberculosis and venereal disease

By 1853 the population had declined by 80%

Population

Frontier Deaths

2000 Aboriginal deaths by frontier violence in the district 59 Europeans

Displacement caused Indigenous conflict with other tribes

Settler impact on the country

Establishing runs, building huts, shelterspolluting water sources

introducing cloved animals such as sheep, cattle and horses. New grasses

Plant life

Threatened traditional food sources Murrnong (yam daisy) - staple sources - Sheep eat, dig up roots

Burning off Number of possums declining: Traditional clothes

Murrnong (Yam Daisy)

Who knew you could eat a

pretty flower like me?

We are hoofed animals - Our hooves ruin the

ground and dig up rootsWe like to eat plants,

flowers and grass.

We don’t mean to ruin the environment but we can’t help it when

there’s 1000’s of us

What’s a pastoral economy again?

The Protectorate

1833 African Slave Trade Banned 1837: The Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate was set up

Chief Protector George Augustus Robinson 4 protectors: Job to make contact and persuade groups to abandon their

country and settle on reserves.

Badly funded from the start, protectors were ill-equipped and poorly resourced.

Failure blamed on the ‘failings of Aborigines’ rather than actions of Europeans

Resistance and Violence

Cultural Clashes

Broome describes the Aboriginal people not only as victims, but also as voyages in a new world, who responded in different ways

to the arrival and settlement of the strangers.

Revenge

Sorcery

Attacks on property

Native Police Formed in 1842 by Governor La Trobe

Aboriginal Workers

The Gold Rush

New Opportunities

Work

Attracted to the Gold Rush

Select Report into Aborigines

10 years after rate abandonment of the protectorate scheme -

1860 - Board of Aborigines

Aboriginal reserves set up and funded

By 1869 - quarter of Aborigines were living on mission stations

Christianity and Missions