In 2022, SBS released a fantastic documentary entitled “The Australian Wars” which told the story of Indigenous resistance to the British invasion of their land from 1788.
It was a significant work, as for more than 200 years than standard narrative has been that one of the reasons it was so easy to the pastoralists, colonists and invaders to settle in Australia was because the Indigenous Australians didn’t fight back. Some of the more sympathetic accounts of the time called them peaceful, while others derided them as cowards who would flee into the bush at the sight of a white man. This was often taken to be one of the reasons why Australia never created any formal agreement with the Indigenous people, in contrast to the treaties the British had with the Māori people of New Zealand and the many Indigenous tribes of North America.
Of course, these treaties never really meant much to the invaders – it should be pointed out – but it was more than was offered in Australia. It as claimed that because the Aboriginal people didn’t fight back, and it was easy to chase them off their lands, the British didn’t need the bother of creating a treaty with them (even one they intended to break at the first opportunity). Treaties were only needed by European invaders when they encountered warriors and had to deal with pitched battles or guerilla warfare, for which early settlements in the new land were ill-equipped.
Which is interesting, because, as is made plain during The Australian Wars, the Indigenous Australians put up fierce resistance to the encroachment of their land by colonists! The myth of the passive, shy, retiring Aboriginal is destroyed by the careful research of First Nations historians, and we hear, from their lips, the stories of their people and the importance of recognising these wars in our national dialogue.
I really can’t recommend this program enough, especially if (like me) you went to school in Australia before the sweeping changes to the curriculum were introduced and were taught the myth of passive settlement.