May 21, 2024

What was the impact of colonisation on Indigenous

Peoples?
LO: To analyse and interpret primary and secondary sources detailing the
impact of colonisation

Starter
Activity
Work with a partner to Discuss
how we analyse a source:

Which questions do we use?

How close can we get to true knowledge about

the past?
To analyse a source we use questions such as

- What is it about?
- Who is involved?
- What happened?
- How might people involved have felt?
- What consequences might there have
been?
Write these notes

• Following Captain Cook’s ‘discovery’ of Australia in 1770, Britain claimed it and

decided to colonise here.
Key word:
• Terra nullius- a legal term that means ‘empty land’ or ‘land belonging to no
one’ (Latin). Britain declared Australia terra nullius to justify claiming and
occupying it.

The main reason for this colony was to hold convicts (a penal colony) because
gaols in Britain were full.

Other reasons for this colony included:

* A place for American colonists who had sided with England in the American War
of Independence to re-settle.
*A base for trade with Asia.
*Norfolk Island Pine could be harvested for ship masts and the island could also
be used to grow New Zealand Flax for rope and cloth making.
• The First Fleet carried 759 convicts and 206 soldiers with
Captain Arthur Phillip in charge.

• -The fleet planned to land at Botany Bay, but found the

harbour unsuitable.

• -They landed when they found Port Jackson (Sydney

Harbour) “The finest harbour in the world’ according to
Captain Phillip.

• This became the first British settlement 26/1/1788.

 Colonisation and Indigenous Peoples
The film we are going to watch focuses on the period of
colonisation. It looks at how the arrival of white settlers from
Britain affected the continent’s indigenous population.

While we are watching, use your sheet to make notes.

How did the colonisers interact with Note
indigenous peoples? down any
dates and
events which
https://youtu.be/IV0vjJkLJkQ are mentioned
 How significant were different events?
Go round the room and share your
timeline with at least three other people.
Decide if there is anything that should be
on your timeline which you have not
included. If there is, add it in.

Next, you need to write a detailed

assessment of the relative significance of
the various events on your timeline. You
should aim for at least four paragraphs in
which you explore the causes and
consequences of a variety of events
before coming to a conclusion.

Extension: What do we use to judge

whether an event is significant?
 Create-a-Timeline
Using your notes from the video and the worksheet provided,
create a timeline detailing the history of colonisation and the
impact this had on Aboriginal Peoples.

Include the events you think are significant. As well as the

date, you should give a summary of what happened and what
the consequences were.

Extension: Does every event have a cause and a consequence?