![]() "You hear them now saying that they were slaves, just black slaves, and maybe they were in some cases… but I didn't think there was such a thing as slavery. "Some station people didn't treat them as well as they should have perhaps, and some were really downright horrible," she says. She acknowledges there were isolated incidents of mistreatment. "They may not have been given wages, or very low wages, but they had their whole family there with them." "Aboriginal people were well-cared for," she says. She says overall, people were treated well. "The younger ones think that it's derogatory, but it wasn't seen as that in the day," she says. "Sometimes they just gave people the name of the station, or a name that sounded like their Aboriginal name," she says. ![]() The woman is a well-respected figure in the northern cattle industry. One veteran pastoralist spoke to Background Briefing on the condition of anonymity, due to concerns about the potential fall-out from discussing the sensitive subject of race relations. "It's really important not because it's to make anyone feel ashamed and neither is it to make anyone take blame," he says.Īnd pastoralists point out the practices were in keeping with common attitudes of the time. "But the reality is, they were a population controlled throughout their lives, and that's why many Aboriginal people call it slavery."Īssociate Professor Kinnane says there's value in Australians understanding the country's past. "It may not have been slavery in a legal sense - people were not being captured, put on the blocks and auctioned like in other parts of the world," explains Associate Professor Kinnane. In WA, the government was in charge of deciding how many Aboriginal workers were assigned to each station. ( Supplied)Īcademics like Associate Professor Kinnane prefer to use the phrase 'indentured labour' rather than slave, to reflect the particular economic arrangement of the time.Īboriginal people were being paid, but usually in basic food rations. Academic Steve Kinnane says he understands examining race relations can be uncomfortable given his own Irish, Aboriginal and English ancestry.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |