Three Immigration Waves

Three Immigration Waves:

Until now people thought that all Aboriginal people stem from one big migration wave away from Africa direction Europe, Asia and Australia. New research shows that the ancestors of the Australian Aboriginals split earlier from these African emigrants and that they hardly mingled with the early Asians. Modern man arrived possibly far into Asia some 125.000 years ago.

Professor and researcher Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen explains: Australian Aboriginals descended from the first human explorers. Whilst the European and Asian ancestors stayed in Africa, the ancestors of the Aboriginals spread out rapidly. They were the first modern people to cross unknown territory towards Asia and to cross the sea to Australia. It must have been an astonishing journey which required exceptional survival techniques and courage. Aboriginal tribes in the north-west of Australia had little contact with the inhabitants of the islands which now belong to Indonesia. Via the Torres Strait Islands there were progressively contacts with New Guinea. But the Aboriginals have taken over hardly any techniques or customs from other peoples. The Aboriginals did not know the bow and arrow. They used the boomerang and the so-called woomera, an attachment for throwing spears as a weapon. They did not practise agriculture. However, they did have an influence on the environment by burning down the bush in a controlled way. In this manner a new generation of plants repeatedly had a chance to grow. The first inhabitants of Australia were nomads: hunters and gatherers of what they could find. They lived in groups of about forty people having their own territory. In barren areas the groups consisted of about twenty people. The different groups did have contacts with one another. Once a year they would gather in New-South-Wales when the moths would appear. These moths were caught and eaten as delicacies. That would be the time for celebrations, rituals and marriages. The Aboriginals used to be called the Moth Hunters. Aboriginal culture is holistic, defined by its connection to family, community and country. In Australia, the idea of “being on country” is central to the Aboriginal worldview. Apparently, people were happy enough with fish and shellfish and did not aspire to cultivate crops. The men were professional hunters. The women gathered berries and other plants. The women handed down their knowledge and experiences to their daughters. The men had the task to prepare the food.

Researchers from Leipzig and Rotterdam found in the DNA of the Aboriginals of Northern Australia traces of another migration. This was published in the magazine PNAS. A part of the DNA of the aboriginals from the Northern Territories appeared to be the same as that from the Dravidic peoples of Southern India, who are regarded as the eldest peoples of Southern India. On account of the speed of change in the DNA the Indian migration wave must have taken place 141 generations ago. If one counts 30 years for a generation, this migration must have taken place 4230 years

ago. These Indian genetic traces are not found in other South-east Asiatic peoples. This implies that the migrants did not stay behind on the intermediate islands.

This immigration wave of 4200 years ago coincides with a change in archaeological finds. In this period, we find microlites: small, very sharp stones, which were used as knives or arrow points. Also, the oldest fossils of the dingo, the Australian wild dog date from the same period. According to their DNA this animal seems to have Southeastern ancestors. It resembles most the Indian dogs. It is quite possible that Indians on their journeys to the south-east took along their pets. Australia is still popular among the Indians; after New-Zealand, China and Great Britain India is the fourth in line of countries who choose Australia as their destination.

The third wave happened when the first colonists arrived at the end of the 18th century. The Aboriginals in Australia must have numbered between 315.000 and 750.000 people. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated in 2006 their number to be 517.200. This is 2,5 % of the total Australian population. Their numbers diminished by imported diseases and by murders committed almost with impunity by the British colonists. The British colonialists took possession of the land and the waterholes thinking that the Aboriginals did not have property rights and therefore could be chased away. Destruction of the countryside and food resources led to starvation of the local population. The Aboriginals reacted up to the 19th century with armed resistance and guerrilla warfare. The white colonists’ reaction was brutal violence and random slaughter as experienced at Pinjarra (1834), Myall Creek (1838), Battle Mountain (1884) and Coniston (1928). Estimates are that around the year 1900 about 90% of the Aboriginals had been wiped out through land theft (around 1890 the Europeans had appropriated all fertile lands), direct violence and European contagious diseases. During the Australian frontiers wars (1788-1934) estimates are that the number of victims count 40.000 Aboriginals and 2500 colonists.

Another blow to Aboriginal culture was the shameful forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families and communities as the result of government policies. The children were removed by governments, churches and welfare bodies to be brought up in institutions, fostered out or adopted by white families. Their forced removal broke important cultural, spiritual and family ties and has left a lasting and intergenerational impact on the lives and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’. We can and should talk of stolen generations.

In the Northern Territory, the segregation of Indigenous Australians of mixed descent from "full-blood" indigenous people began with the government removing children of mixed descent from their communities and placing them in church-run missions, and later creating segregated reserves and compounds to hold all indigenous Australians. This was a response to public concern over the increase in the number of mixeddescent children and sexual exploitation of young Aboriginal women by nonIndigenous men, as well as fears among non-indigenous people of being outnumbered by a mixed-descent population.

The removal of Aboriginal children took place from the early days of British colonisation. The Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 (Vic) included the earliest legislation

to authorise child removal from Aboriginal parents. The Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines had been advocating such powers since 1860. Passage of the Act gave the colony of Victoria a wide suite of powers over Aboriginal and "halfcaste" persons, including the forcible removal of children, especially "at-risk" girls. Through the late 19th and early 20th century, similar policies and legislation were adopted by other states and territories, such as the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 (Qld), the Aboriginals Ordinance 1918 (NT), the Aborigines Act 1934 (SA), and the 1936 Native Administration Act (WA). One first-hand account referring to events in 1935 stated: ‘I was at the post office with my Mum and Auntie [and cousin]. They put us in the police car and said they were taking us to Broome. They put the mums in there as well. But when we'd gone about ten miles, they stopped and threw the mothers out of the car. We jumped on our mothers' backs, crying, trying not to be left behind. But the policemen pulled us off and threw us back in the car. They pushed the mothers away and drove off, while our mothers were chasing the car, running and crying after us. We were screaming in the back of that car. When we got to Broome, they put me and my cousin in the Broome lock-up. We were only ten years old. We were in the lockup for two days waiting for the boat to Perth.’

The Bringing Them Home report (1997) concluded that: The Australian practice of indigenous child removal involved both systematic racial discrimination and genocide as defined by international law. Yet, it continued to be practised as official policy long after being clearly prohibited by treaties to which Australia had voluntarily subscribed.

On 26 May 1998, the first "National Sorry Day" was held; reconciliation events such as the Walk for Reconciliation across Sydney Harbour Bridge and in other cities were held nationally, and attended by a total of more than one million people. As public pressure continued to increase on the government, Howard drafted a Motion of Reconciliation with Senator Aden Ridgeway, expressing "deep and sincere regret over the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents", which was passed by the federal parliament in August 1999. Howard said that the Stolen Generation represented "the most blemished chapter in the history of this country".

A 2019 study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) found that children living in households as members of the Stolen Generations are more likely "to experience a range of adverse outcomes", including poor health, especially mental health, missing school and living in poverty. There are high incidences of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, along with alcohol abuse, with this resulting in unstable parenting and family situations.

In 2000, Phillip Knightley summed up the Stolen Generations in these terms: “This cannot be over-emphasized: the Australian government literally kidnapped these children from their parents as a matter of policy. White welfare officers, often supported by police, would descend on Aboriginal camps, round up all the children, separate the ones with light-coloured skin, bundle them into trucks and take them away. If their parents protested, they were held at bay by police.”