tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post2512529594621038021..comments2024-03-25T19:48:24.624+11:00Comments on Oz Conservative: Battles of the Aborigines 1846Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-63628874428656833492010-11-24T08:08:27.780+11:002010-11-24T08:08:27.780+11:00Anon,
The point of blogging on this incident was ...Anon,<br /><br />The point of blogging on this incident was not to suggest that it encapsulates the colonial experience. It was to show how distorted the usual filtering of colonial history is. <br /><br />Colonial history is filtered so that we only learn about incidents in which whites are the aggressors and Aborigines the victims. This then creates a misleading impression of how things stood back then. <br /><br />So when you learn of an incident in which whites tried to prevent violence between blacks the filter is directly and starkly challenged.Mark Richardsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15961688379656119701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-79052479719328425912010-11-24T02:02:51.902+11:002010-11-24T02:02:51.902+11:00I dont think anyone with any common sense would ar...I dont think anyone with any common sense would argue that every human group hasnt at some point engaged in violence, and if anyone would seek to idealize cultures I would certainly disagree with them. Furthermore, I would argue that anyone who thought settlers were evil or bad is not just simplifying the issue but actually being stupidly naive. <br /><br />However, highlighting cases where someone acted decently does not justify colonialism and doing so serves to potray colonialism in a more favouable light that i believe falsifies what it was. Or perhaps it serves to alleviate guilt. The point is horrible acts were committed. Moreover, this example also highlights and could reinforce patriarchal attitudes - 'look at these primative natives engaging in violence while the good colonist prevents them'. This for me is a larger underlying problem with contemporary and colonial attitudes - that we could and should 'civilize' them. As pointed out in a previous comment this sounds remarkably similar to European warfare.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-23088004827910555722009-06-06T19:00:55.841+10:002009-06-06T19:00:55.841+10:00Mark that's an excellent article. Send it to S...Mark that's an excellent article. Send it to SBS.Matt Blackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05367318066516763070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-84549398109206867512009-05-10T08:24:00.000+10:002009-05-10T08:24:00.000+10:00Oh, good point. We never hear stories like this in...Oh, good point. We never hear stories like this in the media. It's quite refreshing to read even one story like this, as it reminds how much history has been forgotten, or ignored, in the service of present-day political agendas (ie, most of it.)TimThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333303180015967125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-77053197841953246472009-05-09T10:27:00.000+10:002009-05-09T10:27:00.000+10:00I think the significance of the 1846 report is tha...I think the significance of the 1846 report is that it challenges a left-wing view of race.<br /><br />The current left-wing view is that race was invented by Europeans in order to dominate, and gain unearned privilege over, other people - i.e. as part of the colonial enterprise.<br /><br />Therefore, the left will seek to find this theory proven within Australian colonial history - they will look for examples in which white settlers were racist oppressors of Aborigines.<br /><br />Over time, you get a distorted, filtered picture of the past - one in which the colonial settlers are always playing a cold, negative, violent, unsympathetic role.<br /><br />Which means that taking the time to read the original documents is an eye-opener. The gap between the modern portrayal of events, and how people of the time acted and thought, becomes very clear.<br /><br />The report of the Aboriginal battle is just one small example of this. In this case, it is the Aborigines who are engaging in a violent acts, with whites acting sympathetically out of concern for the welfare of the Aboriginal participants.Mark Richardsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15961688379656119701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-83231187084641657062009-05-09T10:16:00.000+10:002009-05-09T10:16:00.000+10:00Tim T, you're right that Western battles were orde...Tim T, you're right that Western battles were ordered along certain lines as well.Mark Richardsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15961688379656119701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-76644993038820669962009-05-08T14:30:00.000+10:002009-05-08T14:30:00.000+10:00Ah, but isn't war organised chaos anyway? Accounts...Ah, but isn't war organised chaos anyway? Accounts of many western European battles pre-19th century sound similar, with opponents lining up on opposite sides of the battlefield first thing in the morning and then charging murderously at one another. <br /><br />It seems contradictory, this having laws in the most lawless of situations, but perhaps there is a deeper reason for it.TimThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333303180015967125noreply@blogger.com