Mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians

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Mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians
Aboriginal boys - NTL 39854.jpg
Abandoned Aboriginal boys standing near a livestock dam. William Best alleged that large scale deliberate poisonings of local Wiradjuri occurred from poisoned waterholes.
DateMid-1800s, irregular occurrences since then
Attack type
Poisoning
Perpetrator British colonisation of Australia, Settlers
John Arthur Macartney, allegedly involved in the poisoning of Aboriginal Australians StateLibQld 1 119840 John Arthur Macartney.jpg
John Arthur Macartney, allegedly involved in the poisoning of Aboriginal Australians

Several recorded instances of mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians occurred during the British colonisation of Australia. Aboriginal resistance to colonisation led settlers to look for ways to kill or drive them off their land. While the settlers would typically attempt to eliminate Aboriginal resistance through massacres, occasionally they would attempt to secretly poison them as well. Typically, poisoned food and drink would be given to Aboriginal people or left out in the open where they could find it.

Contents

Whilst Aboriginal raids on new settlers' homes may have led to the consumption of poisonous products which had been mistaken for food, there is some evidence that tainted consumables may have either been knowingly given out to groups of Aboriginal people, or purposely left in accessible places where they were taken away and eaten collectively by the local clans. As a result, numerous incidents of deaths of Aboriginal people due to the consumption of poisonous substances occurred throughout the decades, and in many different locations. [1] [2]

There are many documented cases of poisonings, with some involving investigations by police and government. There are no cases of convictions being reported against anyone for deliberate poisoning. [1] [2]

Examples


The Secret River , a 2005 Fiction Novel by Kate Grenville, graphically depicts a Fictional account of a deliberate mass poisoning of Indigenous Australians camped along the Hawkesbury River. [31] The novel was later adapted into a stage play [32] and also a television mini-series. [33]

Twelve Canoes , a 2008 documentary project and series about the culture and history of the Yolŋu people directed by Rolf de Heer, relates details of the Florida Station poisoning that allegedly occurred in Arnhem Land in 1885. [34]

Edenglassie , the multi-award winning 2023 historical novel by Melissa Lucashenko, details Aboriginal groups' fear and trauma of mass murder by poisoning in the 19th century. Characters refer to poisoned flour as 'muckenzie' flour. In an author's note at the conclusion of the book, Lucashenko writes that "the campaign of sustained attacks across the Australian continent from the late 1700s can only be viewed as constituting either war crimes, or as terrorism."

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Elder, Bruce (2003). Blood on the Wattle (3rd ed.). London: New Holland. ISBN   9781741100082.[ page needed ]
  2. 1 2 Kiernan, Ben (2007). Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur . Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-10098-3.[ page needed ]
  3. "The Aboriginal Natives". The Australian . 20 June 1827. p. 3. Retrieved 4 May 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  4. Blomfield, Geoffrey (1992), Baal Belbora: the end of the dancing (Rev. ed. [ie. 3rd ed.] ed.), Colonial Research Society, ISBN   978-0-909188-90-0
  5. "The Story of the Blacks". The Kiama Reporter And Illawarra Journal . Vol. 26, no. 2788. New South Wales, Australia. 3 December 1904. p. 3. Retrieved 4 May 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  6. "The Late William Best". The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers' Advocate . Vol. XVI, no. 1002. New South Wales, Australia. 11 October 1902. p. 7. Retrieved 7 March 2021 via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Now and Then in Station Life, and its Surroundings". Australian Town and Country Journal . Vol. XIV, no. 361. New South Wales, Australia. 2 December 1876. p. 21. Retrieved 7 March 2021 via National Library of Australia.
  8. Gilmore, Mary (1986). Old Days, Old Ways: A Book of Recollections. Angus & Robertson. ISBN   978-0-207-15016-6.
  9. Gilmore, Mary (1935). More Recollections. Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  10. Threlkeld, L. E. (Lancelot Edward); Gunson, Niel (1974), Australian reminiscences & papers of L. E. Threlkeld, missionary to the Aborigines, 1824–1859, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, ISBN   978-0-85575-031-2
  11. 1 2 Clark, Ian (1995). Scars in the Landscape. Canberra: AIATSIS. ISBN   0855752815.
  12. Tony Barta, «Relations of Genocide : Land and Lives in the Colonization of Australia», Genocide/ ed. by Adam Jones, ISBN   9781847870223, 2008, Sage, Los Angeles, pp .237–251
  13. Petrie, C.C. (1904). Tom Petrie's reminiscences of early Queensland. Brisbane: Watson, Ferguson and Co.
  14. "German Mission to the Aborigines at Moreton Bay". The Colonial Observer . Vol. II, no. 82. New South Wales, Australia. 3 December 1842. p. 3. Retrieved 4 May 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  15. Kerkhove, Ray; Uhr, Frank (2019). One Tree Hill. Tingalpa: Boolarong. ISBN   9781925877304.
  16. Cannon, Michael (1993). Black Land, White Land. Melbourne: Minerva. pp. 230–231.
  17. Bottoms, Timothy (2013). Conspiracy of Silence. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN   9781743313824.
  18. Lydon, Jane. "'no moral doubt': Aboriginal evidence and the Kangaroo Creek poisoning, 1847–1849" (PDF). Retrieved 4 April 2019.
  19. Tolmer, Alexander (1882). Reminiscences of an adventurous and chequered career at home and at the Antipodes Vol.2. London: Sampson Low. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  20. Reid, Gordon (1982), A nest of hornets: the massacre of the Fraser family at Hornet Bank Station, Central Queensland, 1857., Oxford University Press, ISBN   978-0-19-554358-2
  21. "Florida Station poisoning". Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia. The Centre for 21st Century Humanities. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  22. "The Poisoning of Blacks". Goulburn Evening Penny Post . New South Wales, Australia. 4 July 1895. p. 1. Retrieved 4 May 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  23. "The Poisoned Blacks". National Advocate . Vol. 6, no. 228. New South Wales, Australia. 5 August 1895. p. 3. Retrieved 4 May 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  24. "Murder and Poison". Darling Downs Gazette . Vol. XXXVIII, no. 9, 033. Queensland, Australia. 6 June 1896. p. 5. Retrieved 5 May 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  25. "Put Poison in Food After Being Speared". The Chronicle . Vol. LXXVIII, no. 4, 152. South Australia. 11 June 1936. p. 41. Retrieved 4 May 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  26. "Poison in Food". Argus. 9 June 1936.
  27. "Police tracing source of wine poison". The Canberra Times . Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 1 April 1981. p. 9. Retrieved 23 December 2019 via Trove.
  28. "Man is sought over poisoning". The Canberra Times . Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 2 April 1981. p. 7. Retrieved 23 December 2019 via Trove.
  29. "Police fly to station". The Canberra Times . Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 3 April 1981. p. 7. Retrieved 23 December 2019 via Trove.
  30. "Poison-wine murder". The Canberra Times . Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 17 October 1981. p. 8. Retrieved 23 December 2019 via Trove.
  31. Grenville, Kate (2006). The Secret River . Text Publishing. ISBN   978-1-921145-25-4.
  32. Bovell, Andrew; Grenville, Kate (2013). The Secret River. Currency Press. ISBN   978-1-925005-00-4.
  33. "The Secret River". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  34. "Twelve Canoes". vimeo.com. 18 October 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2021.