The Black Resistance – Fergus Robinson and Barry York Widescope international Publishers 1977
This Whispering in Our Hearts – Henry Reynolds New South 2018
Where ever there is oppression , there is resistance to that oppression, is a historical maxim and nowhere is it more applicable than to the resistance of the Aboriginal people of Australia to British colonialism. However, whilst conventional western history has generally accepted that indigenous peoples are not simply passive recipients of the effects of colonialism , official history in Australia has not seen fit to accord the Aborigines with such history of resistance.
So starts the introduction, where Robinson and York set out colony by colony, to overturn the prevailing ideology by detailing indigenous resistance to colonial depredation.
Unfortunately, no longer in print, The Black Resistance is a remarkable book, while its research and writing were carried out by Robinson and York; its impetus, direction and inspiration comes from the writing of E.F. Hill’s book Australia’s Revolution.
Since its publication in 1977, many others have assisted with research and writing, so by 2020, the ‘great Australian silence’ that W.E.H. Stanner spoke about has lifted and the truth is visible for all to see.
Henry Reynolds is another historian who has faced the opprobrium of the establishment with his works. His initial efforts came about when he started teaching history at Townsville University Colleges and he realised that in the most widely used text “there was nothing about Indigenous Australians at all” So he set about researching and writing. In time, Reynolds befriended Eddie Mabo and learnt a great deal. His latest book sets out all the efforts of the indigenous people to defend their country and outliines the wars, massacres or what the colonialists euphemistically called “dispersal” Vividly illustrated accounts like those that occurred at Forrest River in W.A. or Coniston N.T. in 1926. The latter by Gallipoli veteran, Constable G. Murray who led and expedition that rounded up and slaughtered over 100 Walpiri and Arrernte men, women and children .
The ruling class refuses to see this conflict as war. Reynolds cites the hypocrisy of of the Australian War Memorial’s refusal to recognise these frontier wars while there is commemoration of every war and conflict. This despicable organisation received $498 million of taxpayer money last year as former director B. Nelson assumes it must expand as Australia continues to go to war.
Reynolds surveys the range of views of supporters and antagonists of the indigenous people. The emphasis is mainly directed at the non-indigenous actors, both saints and villains. There were colonialists who never opposed settlement but sought more humane terms for the dispossessed. Amongst these were clergymen who saw aborigines as children of god. “all of humanity was of one blood, made in the image of God, with equal capacity for salvation.”
He details brave settlers and farmers across the country who intervened to prevent wholesale slaughter near their farms. He pays attention to the role of anthropologists in shaping government policies that rarely led to emancipation and full human rights
The Australian Communist Party from its in inception in 1920 played an active role with critical analysis, brave policies and practical support.
“The annuls of Australian pioneering history are smudged with the blood of natives, slaughtered not because they resisted the white intruder but mainly because they were in the way of the big squatter…. (Workers Weekly November 1928)
Trade unions (often lead by communists) supported indigenous political struggles such as the Pilbara walk off in 1946 and the Gurindji strike in the late 1960’s against British Lord Vesty who exploited the Gurindji people as slave labour on massive cattle stations, leased for 1C per acre per year from the Northern Territory.
Reynolds plays a scorching scholarly spotlight on the issue of indigenous dispossession.
Together these books provide important contribution to truth telling on the valiant struggles of Australia’s indigenous peoples since Lieutenant Cook’s arrival. They are an essential read for those wishing to lifting the veil of secrecy, the Great Forgetting and the ‘silence of the whispering in our hearts’.
The image at the top is of Tuckiar ( Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda) Yolgnu patriot. Secretly murdered after his acquittal and release by the High Court in 1934 for his defence of his people against the depredations of Japanese fishermen and the Northern Territory police.
