Spirituality

In the beginning…
General History of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Peoples
 Australian History
Stages of Australian History Lifestyle

Pre Contact (60,70, 80000+ Land

years) Language
Contact (1788) Culture
Post Contact (1800s-1970s)
Contemporary (1980s – 2000s)
The Present
 Pre Contact
(60, 70, 80000+ Years)
Land Language Culture

Hunting and Gathering Different language Traditional

Farming, Agriculture groups • Food
and Science 240 odd languages • Housing
Sacred Sites Over 700 different • Lore
Relationships dialects • Education
Kinship System • Health
• Art
Locally
 Contact (1788)
Land Language Culture

Invasion Confusion Disruption

Conflict Some language loss Fragmentation
Restricted Food Source
Changed Landscape
Reserves
 Post Contact
(1800s-
1970s)
Land Language Culture

Dispossession Use prohibited Assimilation

Removal Extensive Breakdown
Missions Loss Extensive
The Act Loss
 Locally
• Massacres:

• 1849–50: At Gin Gin, south of Bundaberg, two white shepherds were speared
by Taribelang Bunda men, and the white settler, Gregory Blaxland, (son of the
explorer Blaxland) organised a punitive party in which ‘scores of blacks’ were
killed at The Cedars. The Taribelang people responded by abducting and
killing Blaxland. Another punitive party was organised with squatters and
station hands taking part, and the Taribelang were found near the mouth of
the Burnett River on Paddy’s Island where a large-scale massacre occurred.
Though numbers are disputed, it appears that hundreds were killed.
• 1857: At Hornet Bank station near Taroom, members of the Fraser family
were killed in retaliation for the alleged sexual abuse of Jiman women and
girls, and for deaths caused by poisoned Christmas pudding the previous
year.
 Locally
• 1857: Mass killings of Aboriginal people by Native Police and white posses in retaliation
for the killing of settlers at Hornet Bank took place. The posses, who acted
independently, shot upwards of fifty Aboriginal men, women, and children, and the Native
Police over seventy people.
• 1861: Nineteen settlers and members of the Wills family at Cullin-la-Ringo station, near
Emerald in Central Queensland, were killed as retaliation for the shooting of local Gayiri
people by a station manager and Native Police. Native Police and settlers engaged in a
massive retribution for Cullin-la-Ringo, killing between three hundred and seventy
Aboriginal people in the Medway Ranges in the Central Highlands.
• 1862: Korah Wills, the future mayor of Bowen and Mackay, wrote in his memoir of
this time of ‘dispersing missions’ in which ‘hundreds if not thousands’ of Aboriginal
people were killed.
• 1865: Seven or eight Woppaburra people on Keppel Island (off the coast near Yeppoon)
were shot by Native Police.
• It was 1867 when a group of local Aboriginal people accused by settlers of either spearing
cattle or spearing a man named John Greenwood Barnes in the arm, were approached by
the state’s Native Police Force. The group fled, with one woman reputed to have been
called Kowaha, seeking refuge in caves at the top of nearby Mount Mandurana. As the
police closed in, Kowaha jumped off a cliff clutching her baby, who was said to be
wrapped in a shawl.
Contemporary (1980s – 2000s)
Land Language Culture

Land Rights Awareness Revival of traditional

Native Title Reclaiming ways
Land Use Agreements Revival Reconciliation
Recognition Self
Determination
Employment
Housing
Law (Western)
Education
Health
Art
 Locally
• Darumbal People Native Title Determination – 2016
• Port Curtis Coast Native Title Determination – 2017
• Yuwibara People Native Title – 2020
• Ghungalu Nation People – Determination happening at the moment
• Many other groups have different types of agreements
 The Present
Consistent Themes Throughout History

• Identity (Country, language, culture, story)

• Spirituality (Country, oneness, interconnectedness,
beliefs, lore (rules for living))
• Connection (Country, family, land)