Australia: study of massacres of colonizing aborigines

In the border wars between British colonizers and indigenous nations in Australia, after the occupation which began in 1788, hundreds of Aboriginal massacres were perpetrated, in half of the cases by the police or other government forces. Many others were executed by settlers but with the tacit approval of the authorities.
These are some of the data from the final version of the eight-year project called Colonial Frontier Massacres Digital Map, which shows how widespread the conflict was and how most of the massacres were planned, in a deliberate attempt to eradicate Aboriginal peoples and the resistance. of indigenous nations to the colonization of the continent.
The analysis indicates that the deaths of Aborigines were from 27 to 33 times more numerous than those of the colonizers: between 11,000 and 14,000 Aborigines were killed, and between 399 and 440 only colonizers. The most common pretext for a massacre was retaliation for the killing of a settler, and the number of people killed was highly disproportionate. The death of a settler could result in police-led vengeance expeditions that lasted weeks or months.
The massacres classified as ‘opportunities’ follow in frequency. Most of these were planned, not random, and in many cases they could count on the involvement of the authorities, or at least they were perpetrated in the knowledge that there would be no formal repercussions. Many were perpetrated “to teach the natives a lesson” after a cattle theft. The study provides a picture of the conflicts over land, water and resources, between settlers and aboriginal peoples, which were systematically displaced.

Source: Ansa

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