Lyla Lindsey
The Indigenous people of South Australia, also known as Aboriginal South Australians, have a rich history that dates back thousands of years. Genomic studies suggest that the first peopling of Australia occurred between 43,000 and 65,000 years ago, with the ancestors of Aboriginal Australians migrating from Southeast Asia and developing one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth. At the time of British colonisation, the Indigenous population of South Australia is estimated to have ranged from 300,000 to one million, with a diverse range of languages and cultural practices. Despite initial attempts by the South Australian government to grant equal rights and protection to Indigenous people, the spread of European settlement led to violent conflicts and massacres, resulting in the dispossession and tragic loss of life for the Aboriginal communities. Today, the Aboriginal people of South Australia continue to face challenges, with efforts being made to protect their cultural heritage and assert their rights.
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What You'll Learn
British colonisation
The Aboriginal South Australians are the Indigenous people who lived in South Australia before British colonisation. The history of Indigenous Australians dates back 50,000 to 65,000 years, with the first population of the Australian continent by the ancestors of today's Aboriginal Australians. At the time of first European contact, the Aboriginal population is estimated to have ranged from 300,000 to one million. They were complex hunter-gatherers with diverse economies and societies.
The British colonisation of South Australia began in December 1836 with the arrival of Anglo-European colonial settlers led by South Australia Governor Captain John Hindmarsh. The Proclamation of South Australia, read out on Proclamation Day, granted Aboriginal people and British settlers equal protection and rights as British subjects under the law. However, in reality, the laws were rarely enforced, and the spread of settlement led to the dispossession and aggression of Aboriginal people.
The South Australia Act 1834 acknowledged Aboriginal ownership and stated that no actions could be undertaken that would affect the rights of Aboriginal natives to occupy and enjoy the land. Despite this, the Act was ignored by the South Australian Company authorities and squatters, who interpreted it to mean something else. The population of the Kaurna people, an Indigenous group in South Australia, severely declined upon the arrival of British colonists due to a smallpox epidemic and an outbreak of typhoid caused by European pollution of the River Torrens. They also contracted other diseases against which they had no immunity, such as measles and whooping cough.
As Europeans spread across South Australia, Christian missionaries set up mission stations to reach out to Aboriginal people. These often became Aboriginal towns and settlements in later years. There were also several documented conflicts that resulted in mass deaths of Aboriginal people, including the Rufus River Massacre in 1841, where at least 30 Aboriginal people were killed, and the Waterloo Bay massacre in 1849, where at least ten Nauo people were killed.
Despite being considered British subjects, Indigenous Australians faced significant challenges in exercising their rights. While the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 excluded Aboriginal natives from voting unless they were on the roll before 1901, South Australia insisted on continuing to add Aboriginal people to the electoral rolls. The 1960s marked a pivotal decade in the assertion of Aboriginal rights, with Commonwealth legislation finally guaranteeing Aboriginal people the right to vote in Commonwealth elections.
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Loss of land and violence
The Aboriginal South Australians are the Indigenous people who lived in South Australia before British colonisation. The Indigenous population prior to European settlement was small, with estimates ranging widely from 318,000 to over 3,000,000 in total. The first contact between the Aboriginal Tasmanians and Europeans happened in 1802 when the Baudin expedition to Australia arrived at Adventure Bay. The French explorers were more friendly to the Indigenous people than the British further north.
The South Australia Act of 1834 acknowledged Aboriginal ownership of the land and stated that no actions could be undertaken that would "affect the rights of any Aboriginal natives of the said province to the actual occupation and enjoyment in their own persons or in the persons of their descendants of any land therein now actually occupied or enjoyed by such natives". Despite this, the rights of Indigenous people were infringed upon, and they suffered violence and loss of land.
The Proclamation of South Australia, read out on 28 December 1836, granted Aboriginal people and British settlers equal protection and rights as British subjects under the law. However, the laws were rarely enforced, and as European settlement spread, dispossessed Aboriginal people responded with aggression. In July 1840, there was a massacre of Europeans by Aboriginal men in South Australia, where about 26 shipwrecked passengers and crew members of the ship Maria were murdered. This led to a punitive expedition by Governor Gawler, who gave permission to execute up to three suspects without a formal trial.
In 1841, at least 30 Aboriginal people were killed in the Rufus River Massacre after a clash with the official party, including police and the SA Protector of Aborigines, Matthew Moorhouse. In 1848, at least nine people of the Wattatonga clan were allegedly murdered by the station owner James Brown in the Avenue Range Station massacre. In 1849, at least ten Nauo people were killed in retribution for the killing of two settlers and theft of food in the Waterloo Bay massacre.
The loss of land and violence resulted in a severe decline in the Indigenous population. The Kaurna people, for example, suffered a serious drop in numbers in the early 1830s due to a smallpox epidemic, which was further exacerbated by an outbreak of typhoid caused by European pollution of the River Torrens. The loss of land and violence also led to the disruption of Indigenous cultures and ways of life. Christian missionaries set up mission stations to reach out to Aboriginal people, and these often became Aboriginal towns and settlements. Despite the loss and violence they faced, the Indigenous people of South Australia have continued to assert their rights and protect their heritage. The Aboriginal Heritage Act of 1988 protects sites of significance to Aboriginal tradition, archaeology, anthropology, and history in South Australia. Additionally, in 2018, the Kaurna people were officially recognised as the traditional owners of the land from "Myponga to Lower Light" in the first Indigenous land use agreement for any Australian capital city.
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Disease and death
The Indigenous people of South Australia, also known as Aboriginal South Australians, have a long and complex history that dates back thousands of years. Unfortunately, the arrival of British and European colonists in the 19th century had a devastating impact on these indigenous communities, leading to a significant loss of lives due to disease and massacres.
The arrival of British and European colonists brought with it a host of new diseases that severely impacted the Indigenous people of South Australia, who had no immunity to these illnesses. One of the most devastating epidemics was smallpox, which arrived in South Australia in the early 1830s, spreading along the Murray River as Indigenous groups traded with each other. This outbreak had a devastating impact on the Kaurna people, causing a serious drop in their population.
In addition to smallpox, the Indigenous people of South Australia also suffered outbreaks of other diseases, such as typhoid, measles, whooping cough, typhus, dysentery, and influenza. These diseases were introduced by Europeans, who polluted the River Torrens, leading to a typhoid outbreak and many deaths. The exact death toll among the Indigenous people due to these diseases is unknown, as accurate figures were not recorded. However, it is clear that these epidemics had a devastating impact on their communities, causing a rapid population decline and disrupting their way of life.
The impact of these diseases was exacerbated by the lack of medical resources and knowledge available to the Indigenous people at the time. They had to rely on their traditional healing practices, which were often ineffective against these new diseases. Additionally, the loss of life due to illness also disrupted their social structures and cultural practices, as groups merged or lost their identities in the face of declining populations.
Furthermore, the European colonists also brought with them a different legal system and concepts of land ownership, which further contributed to the challenges faced by the Indigenous people. While the South Australia Act of 1834 acknowledged Aboriginal ownership of the land and guaranteed their land rights, these rights were often ignored or interpreted in ways that disadvantaged the Indigenous inhabitants. This led to conflicts over land, resources, and cultural differences, further exacerbating the tensions and impact on the Indigenous communities.
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Language and culture
The Aboriginal South Australians are the Indigenous people who lived in South Australia before British colonisation. They have a rich and diverse culture that has evolved over tens of thousands of years.
South Australia is home to over 30 Aboriginal language groups, each with distinct beliefs, cultural practices, and languages. These groups were historically subdivided into clan groups, which were often referred to as tribes by colonists. While many of these languages are no longer spoken daily, there has been a renewed interest in teaching and learning them in recent years.
The Aboriginal people of South Australia have a strong oral tradition, with stories that demonstrate the continuity of their culture for at least 10,000 years. These stories explain how natural elements in the landscape were formed and how certain species came to be. They also inform cultural practices and beliefs, which in turn influence how Aboriginal communities interact with each other and their environment.
The first word lists in the Kaurna language were recorded in 1826, and early settlers were keen to learn the language. In 1838, South Australia's third Governor, George Gawler, gave a speech to the local Indigenous population through a translator and encouraged settlers to learn Kaurna. German missionaries, Christian Teichelmann and Clamor Schürmann, also began learning and documenting the language upon their arrival in 1838.
Today, some Aboriginal communities in South Australia continue to speak their traditional languages, such as Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara, which are among Australia's strongest Indigenous languages. Other communities have integrated into English-speaking culture, while some maintain near-traditional lives in their homelands.
The loss of South Australia's linguistic heritage has been attributed to population loss and colonial assimilationist policies. However, there have been efforts to revive Indigenous languages in recent decades, with schools offering programs in Pitjantjatjara and including Kaurna songs in their choir repertoire. Some Kaurna people are now re-learning their language for use in various aspects of their culture, such as songs, signage, public art, and naming.
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Rights and activism
The colonisation of mainland Australia started in the 1700s, while the Torres Strait Islands were only taken over by the colony of Queensland in the 1870s. The Letters Patent of 1836, issued during the British colonisation of South Australia, included the first-ever recognition of Aboriginal rights on the continent, but the promise was never kept. The Aboriginal people of Australia were subject to forced removal from their land, and placed in missions and reserves. They were also excluded from the census, and denied the right to vote.
In 1900, the Aborigines Protection Society, a humanitarian movement founded in Britain, suggested that Federation offered Australia the chance to adopt a 'comprehensive and uniform native policy' to benefit Aboriginal people. However, the White Australia Policy, which was enacted in 1901, excluded Indigenous Australians from the vote, pensions, employment in post offices, enlistment in the Armed Forces, and maternity allowance.
The Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966 (SA) was the first major recognition of Aboriginal land rights by any Australian government. This allowed for Aboriginal land previously held by the SA Government to be handed to the Aboriginal Lands Trust of SA, governed by a board of Aboriginal people. In 1967, 90.7% of Australians voted 'yes' in a referendum to count Indigenous Australians in the census and to allow the Commonwealth Government to make laws for them. This referendum was a major milestone in the long journey towards equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
In 1971, the Yolngu people sought native title rights in the "Gove land rights case", but Justice Richard Blackburn of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory ruled against them. In 1972, four Aboriginal activists, Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Tony Coorey, and Bertie Williams, set up the Aboriginal Tent Embassy outside Parliament House in Canberra, protesting the government's opposition to Indigenous land rights.
In 1981, South Australian Premier David Tonkin returned 10.2% of the state's land area to the Pitjantjara/Yankunytjatjara people, as the APY lands. In 1995, the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) was established by the Federal Government to assist Aboriginal Australians in acquiring land.
The Native Title Act was passed following the High Court of Australia's decision in Mabo v Queensland (No. 2), which recognised that Indigenous people had rights to land sourced from their continuing connection to it and that these rights are recognised under Australian common law. As of 2020, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' rights and interests in land are formally recognised over around 40% of Australia's land mass.
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Frequently asked questions
Aboriginal South Australians are the Indigenous people of South Australia. They are the descendants of the Indigenous people who lived in South Australia before the British colonisation of the region.
The Indigenous people of South Australia were declared British subjects and granted equal protection and rights as per the South Australia Act 1834. However, in practice, they faced violence, dispossession, and mass deaths. They were also subjected to assimilation policies and the removal of their children.
Colonisation has had a devastating impact on the Indigenous people of South Australia. They experienced a severe decline in population due to epidemics of smallpox, typhoid, measles, and other diseases brought by Europeans. They also suffered cultural loss and dispossession of their land.
The Indigenous people of South Australia have resisted colonisation through activism, legal appeals, and collaboration with non-Indigenous allies. They have also worked to preserve their culture, traditions, and connection to the land. In recent years, there have been efforts to secure land rights and improve housing and living conditions.
