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I acknowledge the Traditional Owners' ongoing connection to Country.
I acknowledge the Traditional Owners' ongoing connection to Country.
Terra nullius in Australia
Terra nullius in Australia
Terra nullius, meaning land belonging to no-one, was the legal concept used by the British government to justify the settlement of Australia. While historians debate how and when the terra nullius legal concept was used to justify the colonisation of Australia, it is likely that Cook considered that the land belonged to no-one. To Cook, Aboriginal people were ‘uncivilised’ hunters and gatherers—he did not see evidence of settlement and farming in a form he recognised.
Why didn't Cook recognise First Nations agricultural practices?
Why didn't Cook recognise First Nations agricultural practices?
List reasons why Cook, and the subsequent colonists, may not have recognised and/or acknowledged Indigenous agricultural practices.
Sir George Grey in 1861
Sir George Grey in 1861
Stooks
Stooks
Walked through '9 miles of stooked grain'.
About 15 kms
Terraced hills
Terraced hills
Why would terraced hills have been used?
Charles Napier Sturt in 1853.
Charles Napier Sturt in 1853.
Sturt was searching to prove his own passionately held belief that an "inland sea" was located at the centre of the continent.
His team carried a 25-foot (7.6-meter) whaleboat into the interior of the continent.
How do you think that workout?
Roast duck & cakes
Roast duck & cakes
"They are the natural, and in the strictest sense of the word, the legal possessors of the several Regions they inhabit.
No European Nation has a right to occupy any part of their country, or settle among them without their voluntary consent. Conquest over such people can give no just title; because they could never be the Aggressors." --Earl of Morton directing Cook
Who writes history?
Who writes history?
John Webber & Philippe Jacques de. Loutherbourg, The apotheosis of Captain Cook, 1794, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135692347
In this engraving, Cook ascends to heaven from Kealakekua Bay while his companions fire at the people on the shore.
Joseph Lycett, Aborigines resting by camp fire, near the mouth of the Hunter River, Newcastle, New South Wales, 1817, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138500420
The concept of terra nullius, or land belonging to no-one, remained the legal principle on which British colonisation rested until 1992, when the High Court brought down its finding in the Mabo vs Queensland (No. 2) case. It ruled that the lands of the continent were not terra nullius at the time of settlement, just as Pascoe’s evidence suggests.
Dark Emu
Dark Emu
Read this book by Bruce Pascoe.
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