“In colonial Victoria, in 1834, Blacks were estimated between 5,000 and 10,000, but by 1886, only 806 of them survived (Kiernan, 2007). Tasmania’s Blacks were reduced from an estimated 4,000 or more to under 2,000 by 1818; “settlers would shoot on sight, killing the men and taking the children from the women”; the settlers would often “chase the mother through the bush until she had to leave her children, then make a selection” of child labor (Rowley, 1972, pp. 44, 120).”
“…shot down like dogs while sleeping round their fires, their women taken from them to gratify the lusts of white men, hunted and persecuted in all directions, and in fact looked upon as savage beasts of the forest, whom it was necessary to get rid of, no matter how.”(quoted in Kiernan, 2007, p. 278)
“Similarly, in the colony of Queensland, the settlers’ inroads were “marked with blood, the forests were ruthlessly seized, and the [Blacks] hunted down like their native dogs ” (quoted in Kiernan, 2007, p. 303). Between 1824 and 1908, the settlers killed approximately between 8,000 and 10,000 Blacks in Queensland (Kiernan, 2007).”
These Aborigines were nomads. That is, they roamed the earth to pick up food and fish. Thus, they were shot to death whenever they ventured into areas where the whites settled to find food. An Aborigine could be killed by a white man whenever he wanted!! It was the policy of the Colonial government, to rid the land of the black population by any means possible. For instance, the whites distributed poisoned flour to the Black people to kill them (Broome, 2002).
In New South Wales, the Aborigines (Black people) were intentionally infected with smallpox to quickly destroy them all (Jan Kouciambas, 2004). The bodies of these poor🥹 people, were found along the shore, dead. In Tasmania & mainland Australia, girls as young as eight and wives of Black men were seized and raped with no justice. If the men resist, they were tied and whipped, branded (their skins were burnt with a hot iron to make a mark on them), castrated, or shot.
“Dalaipi, a Queensland Black, in the late 19th century said:We were hunted from our ground, shot, poisoned, and had our daughters, sisters and wives taken from us. . .What a number were poisoned at Kilcoy. . . They stole our ground where we used to get food, and when we got hungry and took a bit of flour or killed a bullock to eat, they shot us or poisoned us. All they give us now for our land is blanket once a year.” (quoted in Broome, 2002, p. 55)
During the height of eugenics, the Aborigines were killed, cut into pieces, and their body parts sent to Europe to be used as specimens to study human anatomy and evolution. Their skulls and bones were used as evidence for evolution. And all these were sanctioned by the government! The churches in Australia were silent.
A community of local tribesmen from Asia is displayed as a specimen in a European zoo/fair as evidence of evolution and eugenics. Such human zoo fairs were common in Europe.
We shall now turn our attention to Apartheid South Africa and see how eugenics played a role in racial segregation and oppression there. May the Lord forgive us for our sins.
Further reading: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/215824401349914
