The Charlotte at Portsmouth before departure in May 1787

The First Fleet is the name given to the eleven ships that sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 consisting of 10 civil officers, 212 Royal Marines, including officers, 28 wives and 17 children of the marines, 81 free persons, 504 male convicts and 192 female convicts. Total free persons, 348; prisoners, 696. total 1044,^[1] to establish the first European colony in Australia, in the region which Captain Cook had named New South Wales. Orders-in-Council for establishing the colony were Issued in London on 6 December 1785.^[2] The fleet was led by Captain (later Admiral) Arthur Phillip. The ships arrived at Botany Bay between 18 and 20 January 1788.^[3] HMS Supply arrived on 18 January; Alexander, Scarborough and Friendship arrived on 19 January, and the remaining ships on 20 January. On 7 February 1788, after his commission as Governor was read, Phillip addressed some words to the first settlers.^[4]

"What Frobisher, Raleigh, Delaware, and Gates did for America, that, we are this day met to do for Australia, but under happier auspices. Our enterprise was wisely conceived, deliberately devised, and efficiently organised, the Sovereign, the Parliament, and the people united to give it their authority, sanction, and encouragement. We are here to take possession of this fifth division of the globe on behalf of the British people, and to found a State which, we hope, will not only occupy and rule this great country, but will also be the beneficent patroness of the entire southern hemisphere. How grand is the prospect which lies before this youthful nation!"

According to the first census of 1788 as reported by Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, the colony consisted of^[5]

7 horses, 29 sheep, 74 swine, 6 rabbits, 7 cattle: and the white population of the whole country was 1030.

The following statistics were provided by Governor Phillip ^[6]

David Collins gave the following details in his book^[7]

The Alexander, of 453 tons, had on board 192 male convicts; 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 29 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.

The Scarborough, of 418 tons, had on board 205 male convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 26 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.

The Charlotte, of 346 tons, had on board 89 male and 20 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 35 privates, with the principal surgeon of the colony.

The Lady Penrhyn, of 338 tons, had on board 101 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, and 3 privates, with a person acting as a surgeon's mate.

The Prince of Wales, of 334 tons, had on board 2 male and 50 female convicts; 2 lieutenants, 3 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 24 privates, with the surveyor-general of the colony.

The Friendship, (snow,) of 228 tons, had on board 76 male and 21 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 36 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.

There were on board, beside these, 28 women, 8 male and 6 female children, belonging to the soldiers of the detachment, together with 6 male and 7 female children belonging to the convicts.

The Fishbourn store-ship was of 378 tons; the Borrowdale of 272 tons; and the Golden Grove of 331 tons. On board this last ship was embarked the chaplain of the colony, with his wife and a servant.

Not only these as store-ships, but the men of war and transports, were stored in every part with provisions, implements of agriculture, camp equipage, clothing for the convicts, baggage, etc.

On board of the Sirius were taken, as supernumeraries, the major commandant of the corps of marines embarked in the transports*, the adjutant and quarter-master, the judge-advocate of the settlement, and the commissary; with 1 sergeant, 3 drummers, 7 privates, 4 women, and a few artificers.

The Surgeon John White reported a total of 48 deaths and 28 births during the voyage.

Ships of the First Fleet[link]

First Fleet Memorial at Portsmouth, UK. Its twin is located at Sydney Cove, NSW.

Governor Phillip in his book "The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay" gives the follow statistics

Naval escorts:

Convict transports:

Food and Supply Transports:

Scale models of all the ships are on display at the Museum of Sydney.

Nine Sydney harbour ferries in current service were named after these First Fleet vessels (the unused names are Lady Penrhyn and Prince Of Wales).

People of the First Fleet[link]

The number of people directly associated with the First Fleet will probably never be exactly established, and all accounts of the event vary slightly. Mollie Gillen ^[8] gives the following statistics:

A total of 1420 persons have been identified as embarking on the First Fleet in 1787. 1373 are believed to have landed at Sydney Cove in January 1788. While the names of all crew members of Sirus and Supply are known, the six transports and three storeships may have carried as many as 110 more seamen than have been identified (no complete musters have survived for these ships). The total number of persons embarking on the First Fleet would, therefore be approximately 1530 with about 1483 reaching Sydney Cove

Ropes, crockery, glass panes for the governor's windows, ready-cut wood, cooking equipment (including some complete cast-iron stoves), and a miscellany of weapons were needed. Other items included tools, agricultural implements, seeds, spirits, medical supplies, bandages, surgical instruments, handcuffs, leg irons and chains. A prefabricated house for the governor was constructed and packed flat. 5,000 bricks for construction and thousands of nails were loaded. The party had to rely on only its provisions to survive until it could make use of local materials, assuming suitable supplies existed, and could grow its own food and raise livestock.

The voyages[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011)

With fine weather the convicts were allowed on deck, and on 3 June 1787 the fleet anchored at Santa Cruz at Tenerife. Here fresh water, vegetables and meat were taken on board. Phillip and the chief officers were entertained by the local governor, while one convict tried unsuccessfully to escape. On 10 June they set sail to cross the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, taking advantage of favourable trade winds and ocean currents.

The weather became increasingly hot and humid as the fleet sailed through the tropics. Vermin, such as rats, and parasites such as bedbugs, lice, cockroaches and fleas, tormented the convicts, officers and marines. Bilges became foul and the smell, especially below the closed hatches, was over-powering. On Alexander a number of convicts fell sick and died. Tropical rainstorms meant that the convicts could not exercise on deck, and were kept below in the foul, cramped holds. On the female transports, promiscuity between the convicts and the crew and marines was rampant. In the doldrums, Phillip was forced to ration the water to three pints a day.

The fleet reached Rio de Janeiro on 5 August and stayed a month. The ships were cleaned and water taken on board, repairs were made, and Phillip ordered large quantities of food for the fleet. The women convicts' clothing had become infested with lice and were burnt. They were issued with new clothes made from rice sacks. While the convicts remained below deck, the officers explored the city and were entertained by its inhabitants. A convict and kohi marine were punished for passing forged quarter-dollars made from old buckles and pewter spoons.

The fleet left Rio de Janeiro on 4 September to run before the westerlies to the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, which it reached on 13 October.^[9] This was the last port of call, so the main task was to stock up on plants, seeds and livestock for their arrival in Australia. The livestock taken on board from the Cape of Good Hope destined for the colony of NSW included: two bulls, seven cows, one stallion, three mares, 44 sheep, 32 pigs, four goats and "a very large quantity of poultry of every kind".^[10] Women convicts on the Friendship were moved to other transports to make room for livestock purchased there. The convicts were provided with fresh beef and mutton, bread and vegetables, to build up their strength for the journey. The Dutch colony of Cape Town was the last outpost of European settlement which the fleet members would see for years, perhaps for the rest of their lives. "Before them stretched the awesome, lonely void of the Indian and Southern Oceans, and beyond that lay nothing they could imagine."^[11]

Assisted by the gales of the latitudes below the 40th parallel, the heavily-laden transports surged through the violent seas. A freak storm struck as they began to head north around Van Diemen's Land, damaging the sails and masts of some of the ships.

In November, Phillip transferred to Supply. With Alexander, Friendship and Scarborough, the fastest ships in the Fleet and carrying most of the male convicts, Supply hastened ahead to prepare for the arrival of the rest. Phillip intended to select a suitable location, find good water, clear the ground, and perhaps even have some huts and other structures built before the others arrived. However, this "flying squadron" reached Botany Bay only hours before the rest of the Fleet, so no preparatory work was possible. Supply reached Botany Bay on 18 January 1788; the three fastest transports in the advance group arrived on 19 January; slower ships, including Sirius, arrived on 20 January.^[12]

This was one of the world's greatest sea voyages — eleven vessels carrying about 1,487 people and stores^[10] had travelled for 252 days for more than 15,000 miles (24,000 km) without losing a ship. Forty-eight people had died on the journey, a death rate of just over three per cent. Given the rigours of the voyage, the navigational problems, the poor condition and sea-faring inexperience of the convicts, the primitive medical knowledge, the lack of precautions against scurvy, the crammed and foul conditions of the ships, poor planning and inadequate equipment, this was a remarkable achievement.

It was soon realised that Botany Bay did not live up to the glowing account that the explorer Captain James Cook had provided. The bay was open and unprotected, fresh water was scarce, and the soil was poor. First contacts were made with the local indigenous people, the Eora, who seemed curious but suspicious of the newcomers. The area was studded with enormously strong trees. When the convicts tried to cut them down, their tools broke and the tree trunks had to be blasted out of the ground with gunpowder. The primitive huts built for the officers and officials quickly collapsed in rainstorms. The marines had a habit of getting drunk and not guarding the convicts properly, whilst their commander, Major Robert Ross, drove Phillip to despair with his arrogant and lazy attitude. Crucially, Phillip worried that his fledgling colony was exposed to attack from the Aborigines or foreign powers.

On 21 January, Phillip and a party which included John Hunter, departed the Bay in three small boats to explore other bays to the north. Phillip discovered that Port Jackson, about 12 kilometres to the north, was an excellent site for a colony with sheltered anchorages, fresh water and fertile soil. Cook had seen and named the harbour, but had not entered. Phillip's impressions of the harbour were recorded in a letter he sent to England later; "the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security ...". The party returned on 23 January.

On the morning of 24 January the party was startled when two French ships were seen just outside Botany Bay. This turned out to be a scientific expedition led by Jean-François de La Pérouse. The French had expected to find a thriving colony where they could repair ships and restock supplies, not a newly arrived fleet of convicts considerably more poorly provisioned than themselves. There was some cordial contact between the French and British officers, but Phillip and La Pérouse never met. The French ships remained until 10 March, but never returned to France, being wrecked with the loss of nearly all lives near Vanikoro Island in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu).^[13]

On 26 January 1788, the fleet weighed anchor and sailed to Port Jackson. The site selected for the anchorage had deep water close to the shore, was sheltered, and had a small stream flowing into it. Phillip named it Sydney Cove, after Lord Sydney the British Home Secretary. This date is still celebrated as Australia Day, marking the beginnings of the first British settlement. The British flag was planted and formal possession taken. This was done by Phillip and some officers and marines from Supply, with the remainder of Supply's crew and the convicts observing from on board ship. The remaining ships of the Fleet did not arrive at Sydney Cove until later that day.^[13]

[edit] The voyage of the Lady Penrhyn

In an attempt to put into execution one of the reasons given for founding the Botany Bay colony, that is, to use the colony as a base to develop the fur trade of the North West Coast of America and for trade with China, Korea and Japan, the First Fleet ship Lady Penrhyn sailed on from Port Jackson on 5 May 1788 under a contract with George Mackenzie McCaulay, an alderman of the City of London, to go to the "North West Coast of America to Trade for furrs & after that to proceed to China & barter the Furrs &ca for Teas or other such Goods..."^[14] Her owners, Timothy and William Curtis (merchants and, in William’s case, like McCaulay, a London alderman), had obtained a license to sail to the North West coast from the South Sea Company, which still maintained its ancient monopoly rights over British trade to the eastern Pacific.^[15] The poor condition of the ship and sickness among her crew compelled the Lady Penrhyn to turn back from this voyage when she had gone only as far as Tahiti from where, after the crew had recovered and the ship been repaired, she proceeded to Canton (Guang Zhou) on the China coast to take on a cargo of tea.^[16]

First Fleet smallpox[link]

Recent scholars, Christopher Warren (2007)^[17] and Craig Mear (2008),^[18] have shown that the First Fleet probably introduced live smallpox virus into Australian aboriginal tribes. Earlier writers were divided over 1) whether the First Fleet introduced smallpox and 2) whether this was deliberate. Mear's paper shows that the First Fleet was the origin of the disease but says there is no proof that smallpox was deliberately released [see Mear (2008) pg 17]. There remains some disputation in avowedly conservative media such as Quadrant.^[19]

In 2009, Michael Bennett argued "... that it was communicated deliberately" in Bulletin of the History of Medicine.^[20] Bennett proposed that convicts may have been responsible, as an act of revenge against local Aboriginal tribes.

Commemoration Garden[link]

The First Fleet Memorial Garden, Wallabadah, New South Wales

After Ray Collins, a stonemason, completed years of research into the First Fleet he sought approval from about nine councils to construct a commemorative garden in recognition of these immigrants. Liverpool Plains Shire Council was finally the only council to accept his offer to supply the materials and construct the garden free of charge. The site chosen was a disused caravan park on the banks of Quirindi Creek at Wallabadah, New South Wales. In September 2002 Ray commenced work on the project. Additional support was later provided by Neil McGarry in the form of some impressive signs and the council which contributed $28,000 for pathways and fencing. Ray hand-chiseled the names of all those who came out to Australia on the eleven ships in 1788 on stone tablets along the garden pathways. The stories of those who arrived on the ships, their life, and first encounters with the Australian country are presented throughout the garden.^[21] On 26 January 2005, the First Fleet Garden, was opened as the major memorial to the (approximately 1,500) First Fleet immigrants. Previously the only other specific memorial to the First Fleeters was an obelisk at Sans Souci, New South Wales.^[22] The surrounding area has a barbecue, tables, and amenities.

Fiction[link]

• Colleen McCullough, Morgan's Run, ISBN 0-09-928098-1.
• Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Country's Good, ISBN 0-413-73740-3
• Thomas Keneally, The Playmaker, ISBN 0-340-42263-7
• William Stuart Long, The Exiles, ISBN 0-8264-021-4
• William Stuart Long, The Settlers, ISBN 0-8624-021-4
• William Stuart Long, The Traitors, ISBN 0-86824-021-4

References[link]

External links[link]

• Complete list of the convicts of the First Fleet
• Searchable database of First Fleet convicts
• The First Fleet - State Library of NSW
• State Library of NSW - First Fleet Re-enactment Company records, 1978-1990: Presented by Trish and Wally Franklin
• State Library of NSW - First Fleet Re-enactment Voyage 1987-1988
• An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales at Project Gutenberg
• The Voyage Of Governor Phillip To Botany Bay at Project Gutenberg

Mary Bryant (born 1765, death-date unknown) was a Cornish convict sent to Australia. She became one of the first successful escapees from the fledgling Australian penal colony.

Life[link]

Born Mary Broad^[1] (referred to as Mary Braund at the Exeter Assizes) in Fowey, Cornwall, United Kingdom, to William Broad and Grace Symons Broad, a fishing family. She left home to seek work in Plymouth, England, where she became involved in petty thievery. After being arrested for highway robbery of a silk bonnet, jewellery, and a few coins, and committed by J Nicholls, Mayor of Plymouth, to gaol, with two accomplices - Cathrine Fryer and Mary Haysoning - she was sentenced to seven years' transportation to Australia. In May 1787, Bryant was sent as a prisoner with the First Fleet aboard the ship Charlotte.

Bryant gave birth on the journey to a baby, whom she called Charlotte after the ship, and gave the surname Spence, after one of the other convicts, David Spencer, possibly the father. When she arrived in Australia, she married William Bryant on 10 February 1788. Bryant, a convicted smuggler, was also on the Charlotte with Mary and they later had a son together called Emanuel, born on 6 May 1790.

William Bryant was also from Cornwall, where he had worked as a fisherman. In Sydney Cove, a colony just starting off, William was considered useful, and was put in charge of looking after the fishing ships. When he was caught selling fish on the side to convicts, he was given 100 lashes. He made a plan to escape with Mary, persuaded a Dutch captain to give him some sailing equipment, and waited until all boats that could chase after them had left. On 28 March 1791, William, Mary, her children, and a seven-man crew stole one of the governor's boats and many supplies.

After a voyage of sixty-six days, Mary, her children and the eight men reached Kupang, in West Timor on the island of Timor, a journey of 5,000 kilometres. This extraordinary voyage became part of seafaring history, and has often been compared with William Bligh's similar epic journey in an open boat of only two years earlier, after the mutiny on the Bounty. Bligh's voyage had also ended in Timor. The trip involved navigating the then uncharted Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Straits.

Timor was then under the control of the Dutch. The Bryants and their crew claimed to be shipwreck survivors. They were later discovered to be British convicts, apparently after William became drunk and confessed in the process of bragging. To avoid an international incident they were sent back to Britain to stand trial, travelling first on a Dutch ship to Batavia in the company of survivors of HMS Pandora, a British ship sent to capture the Bounty mutineers, and then later from the Cape in the company of Royal Marines returning from Sydney on HMS Gorgon. During the voyage back Mary's husband and children perished of fever; the younger child and husband in late 1791, the elder in May 1792.

She expected to be hanged or returned to Australia. However, Mary Bryant was instead imprisoned for an additional year in Newgate Prison, during which time a public outcry ensued, coupled with an onslaught of publicity by the famous writer and lawyer James Boswell. As a result, she was pardoned in May 1793, as were the four surviving men of her crew later. Boswell gave her an annual pension of 10 pounds, but nothing more is known of her life after her release.

Boswell had a reputation for amorous dalliances with lower class women and his friends took to imagining or joking that Botany Bay had provided him a new mistress.^[2] His friend William Parsons wrote a scurrilous poem in which they're imagined hanged together on the gallows at Tyburn in a final union. Yet despite this "elegantly turned prurience"^{[verification needed]} (as Robert Hughes put it), it seems Boswell was motivated only by sympathy and that all he received was a packet of "Botany Bay tea leaves" (Correa sp.). (The tea was found with papers at Boswell's Malahide Estate in Ireland in 1930. It and the papers are today at Yale University, which gave a portion of the tea to the Mitchell Library in Australia.^[3]). Bryant returned to her family in Cornwall and nothing more is known of her.

Drama[link]

She was the subject of a British/Australian television movie The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant, with Romola Garai (playing the eponymous heroine) Jack Davenport and Sam Neill. It was first screened in Australia on 30 October 2005 on Network Ten as a two 2-hour part series. It was screened in the UK over Easter weekend 2006 on ITV. It was not an entirely historically accurate treatment of her story.

She also featured heavily in Timberlake Wertenbaker's play Our Country's Good, which itself was based on Thomas Keneally's novel The Playmaker. Both centre on the first Australian settlers' decision to stage a performance of The Recruiting Officer, and the action ends just at the point of Bryant's escape.

The Mary Bryant story also featured in Patrick Edgeworth's play Boswell for the Defence. A huge success in London in 1989, it starred Leo McKern.

A musical titled Mary Bryant was written by Nick Enright to music by David King [2] [3] and was presented in Melbourne by Magnormos, directed by Aaron Joyner with musical direction by Sophie Thomas and movement direction by Jessica Enes.

Mary Bryant is the subject of a one-woman physical theatre show, "Oh Mary!", devised and directed by Bec Applebee and Simon Harvey (Kneehigh Theatre and O Region), and performed by Bec Applebee. It has an original script written by Anna Murphy (Kneehigh Theatre, BBC Radio 4), choreography by Helen Tiplady of Cscape Dance and a unique soundtrack recorded with award winning band Dalla and Radjel, including a special commission by Neil Davey. Currently (May 2011) touring the UK [4].

Books about Bryant[link]

Part of the series on Australian criminals

Bank robbers Bushrangers Convicts Criminals Drug traffickers Fraudsters Murderers Serial killers Prisoners Rapists and sex-offenders

International Criminals by nationality

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• Cook, Judith (1993) To Brave Every Danger: the epic life of Mary Bryant of Fowey, highwaywoman and convicted felon, her transportation and amazing escape from Botany Bay. London: Macmillan ISBN 0-333-57438-9
• Currey, C. H. (1963) The Transportation, Escape and Pardoning of Mary Bryant (née Broad). Sydney: Angus and Robertson
• Durand, John (2005) "The Odyssey of Mary B" Elkhorn WI ISBN 0-9743783-1-3
• Erickson, Carolly (2005) The Girl From Botany Bay. Hoboken, NJ.: John Wiley ISBN 0-471-27140-3
• Hausman, Gerald & Loretta (2003) Escape from Botany Bay: the true story of Mary Bryant. New York: Orchard Books ISBN 0-439-40327-8
• Hughes, Robert The Fatal Shore: a history of the transportation of convicts to Australia, 1787-1868. New York: Knopf ISBN 1-86046-150-6
• Kampen, Anthony van (1968) Het leven van Mary Bryant. 3 vols. Bussum: Unieboek NV (in Dutch)
• King, Jonathan (2004) Mary Bryant: her life and escape from Botany Bay. Pymble, N.S.W.: Simon & Schuster Australia
• Pearse, Lesley (2003) Remember Me. London: Michael Joseph (London: Penguin Books, 2004 ISBN 0-14-100649-8) (historical novel)
• Pottle, Frederick A. (1938) Boswell and the Girl from Botany Bay. London: Heinemann
• Scutt, Craig (2007) Mary Bryant: The Impossible Escape. Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia; Black Dog Books ISBN 978-1-921167-61-4
• Veitch, Anthony Scott (1980) Spindrift, The Mary Bryant Story: a colonial saga. Australia: Angus & Robertson Publishers ISBN 0-207-14409-5
• Walker, Mike (2005) A Long Way Home. Chichester; Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley

References[link]

• Parish registers for Fowey, 1803-1970. Microfilm of original records in the Cornwall Record Office, Truro, Cornwall. Cornwall Record Office call nos.: DDP/66/1/9, 18, 21-23.
• Cornwall parish registers, marriages. Vol. 8, p. 1-54 Phillimore, 1905
• Devon Quarter Sessions. Epiphany 1786, DRO-QS32/73, Christmas Session 1786. Gaol Calendar.

External links[link]

• Mary Bryant movie at The Internet Movie Database
• First Fleet Online at University of Wollongong
• Mary Broad Christening and Family information from IGI

For other articles about people named Mary Parker, see Mary Parker (disambiguation)

Mary (Ayer) Parker of Andover, Mass., was executed September 22, 1692, with several others, for witchcraft in the Salem witch trials. She was 55 years old and a widow. Mary's husband, Nathan, died in 1685.^[1] Nicholas Noyes officiated.

Her daughter, Sarah Parker, was also accused.^[1][2]

Mary was an 8th great-grandmother of U.S. President George W. Bush who is a descendant or relative of up to 217 of the trials' participants.

References[link]

Further Reading[link]

Upham, Charles (1980). Salem Witchcraft. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 2 vv, v.2 pp 324-5, 480.

Australian Aborigines

80px
70px
Top row (l-r): Douglas Nicholls, David Wirrpanda, Adam Goodes. Bottom row (l-r): Truganini, Bronwyn Bancroft, Jessica Mauboy
Total population
517,000[1] 2.3% of Australia's population
Regions with significant populations
Northern Territory 32.5%  Western Australia 4.0%  Queensland 3.6%  New South Wales 2.5%  South Australia 2.3%  Victoria 1.0%
Languages
Several hundred Indigenous Australian languages, many no longer spoken, Australian English, Australian Aboriginal English, Kriol
Religion
Mixture of Christian, small numbers of other religions, various locally indigenous religions grounded in Australian Aboriginal mythology
Related ethnic groups
see List of Indigenous Australian group names

Australian Aborigines ( /æbəˈrɪdʒɨni/), also called Aboriginal Australians, from the Latin ab origine (from the origin), are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continent — that is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania. Since 1995 the Australian Aboriginal Flag (right), designed in 1971 by the Aboriginal artist Harold Thomas, has been one of the official "Flags of Australia" under section 5 of the Flags Act 1953.^[2]

Legal and administrative definitions[link]

The category "Australian Aborigines" — sometimes "Australian Aboriginals" or "Aboriginal Australians" or, more usually within Australia, simply "Aborigines" — is not itself indigenous, but is a classification invented by and for the purposes of the British colonisers after the beginning of colonisation in 1788. Until the 1980s, the legal and administrative criterion for inclusion in this category was solely biological, following biologically based conceptions of "race".

In the era of colonial and post-colonial government, access to basic human rights depended upon your race. If you were a "full blooded Aboriginal native ... [or] any person apparently having an admixture of Aboriginal blood", a half-caste being the "offspring of an Aboriginal mother and other than Aboriginal father" (but not of an Aboriginal father and other than Aboriginal mother), a "quadroon", or had a "strain" of Aboriginal blood you were forced to live on Reserves or Missions, work for rations, given minimal education, and needed governmental approval to marry, visit relatives or use electrical appliances.^[3]

This was assumed in the two references to Aborigines that used to exist in the Constitution of Australia. Section 51(xxvi) gave the Commonwealth parliament power to legislate with respect to "the people of any race", but excluding "the aboriginal race" within any state, which would remain subject solely to the legislation of the particular state. Section 127 provided that "aboriginal natives shall not be counted" in reckoning the size of the population. Both of these references were removed by a 1967 referendum. The overall result was that "Aborigines" are no longer mentioned by name in the Australian Constitution. However, there have been a number of calls for an alteration to be made to the constitution to specifically mention Indigenous Australians.^[4][5]

The result of the change to Section 51(xxvi), however, was that the Commonwealth parliament acquired power to legislate with respect to Aborigines as a "race". In the Tasmanian Dam Case of 1983, the High Court of Australia was asked to determine whether Commonwealth legislation whose application could relate to Aborigines — parts of the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983 (Cth) as well as related legislation — was supported by Section 51(xxvi) in its new form. The case concerned an application of that legislation that would preserve cultural heritage of Tasmanian Aborigines. It was held that Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, together or separately, and any part of either, could be regarded as a "race" for this purpose. As to the criteria for identifying a person as a member of such a "race", the definition by Justice Deane has become accepted as current law.^[3] Deane J said:

It is unnecessary, for the purposes of the present case, to consider the meaning to be given to the phrase "people of any race" in s. 51(xxvi). Plainly, the words have a wide and non-technical meaning [...]. The phrase is, in my view, apposite to refer to all Australian Aboriginals collectively. Any doubt, which might otherwise exist in that regard, is removed by reference to the wording of par. (xxvi) in its original form. The phrase is also apposite to refer to any identifiable racial sub-group among Australian Aboriginals. By "Australian Aboriginal" I mean, in accordance with what I understand to be the conventional meaning of that term, a person of Aboriginal descent, albeit mixed, who identifies himself as such and who is recognised by the Aboriginal community as an Aboriginal.^[6]

While Deane's three-part definition reaches beyond the biological criterion, it has been criticised as continuing to accept the biological criterion as primary.^[3] It has been found difficult to apply, both in each of its parts and as to the relations among the parts; biological "descent" has been a fall-back criterion.^[7]

Definitions from Australian Aborigines[link]

Eve Fesl, a Gabi Gabi woman, wrote in the Aboriginal Law Bulletin describing how she and other Australian Aborigines preferred to be identified:

The word 'aborigine' refers to an indigenous person of any country. If it is to be used to refer to us as a specific group of people, it should be spelt with a capital 'A', i.e. 'Aborigine'.^[8]

While the term 'indigenous' is being more commonly used by Australian Government and non-Government organisations to describe Aboriginal Australians, Lowitja O'Donoghue AC, CBE, commenting on the prospect of possible amendments to Australia's constitution, was reported as saying:

I really can't tell you of a time when 'indigenous' became current, but I personally have an objection to it, and so do many other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. [...] This has just really crept up on us ... like thieves in the night. [...] We are very happy with our involvement with indigenous people around the world, on the international forum [...] because they're our brothers and sisters. But we do object to it being used here in Australia.^[9]

O'Donoghue went on to say that the term indigenous robbed the traditional owners of Australia of an identity because some non-Aboriginal people now wanted to refer to themselves as indigenous because they were born there.^[9]

Definitions from academia[link]

Dean of Indigenous Research and Education at Charles Darwin University, Professor MaryAnn Bin-Sallik, has publicly lectured on the ways Australian Aborigines have been categorised and labelled over time. Her lecture offered a new perspective on the terms urban, traditional and of Indigenous descent as used to define and categorise Aboriginal Australians. She said:

Not only are these categories inappropriate, they serve to divide us. [...] Government’s insistence on categorising us with modern words like ‘urban’, ‘traditional’ and ‘of Aboriginal descent’ are really only replacing old terms ‘half-caste’ and ‘full-blood’ – based on our colouring.^[10]

She called for a replacement of this terminology by that of "Aborigine" or "Torres Strait Islander" - "irrespective of hue".^[10]

Origins[link]

The origin of Aboriginal peoples in Australia has been the subject of intense speculation since the nineteenth century. Until recently, no theory of migration has gained wide acceptance, and genetic studies have shown the Aborigines to be isolated from other racial groups. Some scholars have proposed theories of kinship with groups in South Asia, where as others have proposed a more direct migration from Africa only passing through South Asia.^[11] A 2009 genetic study in India found similarities among Indian archaic populations and Aborigines of Australia, indicating a Southern migration route, with expanding populations from Southeast Asia migrating to Indonesia and Australia.

In a genetic study in 2011, researchers found evidence from the DNA of Aboriginal hair strands that the Aboriginal population split off from the European and Asian population between 62,000 and 75,000 years ago, roughly 24,000 years before the European and Asian populations became differentiated. The earliest human explorers kept migrating into South Asia and then into Australia, making the Aborigines the oldest continuous population outside Africa, the people who have longest occupied their traditional territory. The results imply that modern Aborigines are the direct descendants of the explorers who arrived 50,000 years ago.^[12] This finding supports earlier archaeological findings of human remains near Lake Mungo that were dated to 45,000 years ago. Another 2011 genetic study showed varying levels of Denisovan admixture in Aboriginal populations, apparently from human and archaic populations that interbred in Asia before the migration to Australia.^[13]

Groups of Aborigines[link]

Dispersing on the continent of Australia, over time the ancient peoples expanded and developed over 200 distinct languages and differing cultures.^[14] Four hundred and more distinct Australian Aboriginal peoples have been identified across the continent, each distinguished by unique names for groups of people's ancestral languages, dialects, or distinctive speech mannerisms.^[15] Of all the groups, there are three main cultural areas that these peoples lived in. The Northern, Central, and Southern, with the Northern and Southern cultural areas being most dense population wise with resources from the ocean and woodlands, and the Central being least dense because of the lack of resources.^[14]

Other names used by Australian Aboriginal people[link]

There are a number of other names from Australian Aboriginal languages commonly used to identify groups based on geography, including:

• Bama in north-east Queensland
• Koori (or Koorie or Goori or Goorie) in New South Wales and Victoria
• Murri in southern Queensland
• Noongar in southern Western Australia
• Nunga in southern South Australia
• Anangu in northern South Australia, and neighbouring parts of Western Australia and Northern Territory
• Palawah (or Pallawah) in Tasmania.

See also[link]

• First Nation
• Tasmanian Aborigines
• History of Indigenous Australians
• Indigenous Australian music
• National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award

References[link]

This section requires expansion.

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