USQ Law Society Law Review
Hayley Cohen
Summer 2021
evangelical discourse.9 Evangelicals were paternalistic and teleological in their approach and often engaged with the state to realise their Christian aims.10 Following the success of the antislavery campaign in 1833, evangelical figures turned their attention towards British colonial policy and the maltreatment of native people.11 They began humanitarian projects so that the British Empire can redeem itself from the sinful processes of colonisation.12 By the first half of the nineteenth century, evangelical humanitarians such as James Stephen, Lord Stanley and Lord John Russell dominated the Colonial Office. Thomas Fowell Buxton was also a prominent evangelical. He spearheaded the Select Committee and was President of the Aborigines’ Protection Society.13 The apotheosis of evangelical influence on colonial policy was when the Whig government came to power in 1835.14 Evangelical ideas were crystallised in the Parliamentary Select Committee Aboriginal Tribes Report (‘Select Committee Report’).15 The main objective of the report was to create a strong public sentiment against colonial violence towards Aboriginals. The public was instrumental in prompting the government into action and response.16 The report reproached settlers for their dissipation and immoral treatment of Indigenous people.17 The key recommendation was for Aboriginals to be under the aegis of British law.18 The report also proposed the introduction of Christianity as a ‘civilising process’ of ‘barbarous nations.’19 The report advised the establishment of a protectorate system of Christian missionaries that would provide refuge and religious instruction.20
III.
THE LEGAL SUBJECT
Evangelicals in the Colonial Office and the Aborigine’s Protection Society strongly advocated for justice, equality and the protection of Indigenous Australians.21 They drew from the recommendation made by the Select Committee Report that Aborigines were to be made fully amenable to British colonial law.22 This discourse led to the important issue as to whether the unsworn testimony of Aborigines could be admitted as evidence in colonial courts. Aboriginals
9
Lake (n 4) 57.3; Wang (n 6) 166. Lake (n 4) 57.2. 11 Ibid 57.3; Cooke (n 3) 127-8. 12 Wang (n 6) 166. 13 Ann Hunter, ‘The Origin and Debate Surrounding the Development of Aboriginal Evidence Acts in Western Australia in the Early 1840s’ (2007) 9 University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review 115, 118 (‘Hunter’). 14 Russell Smandych, ‘Contemplating the Testimony of ‘Others’: James Stephen, the Colonial Office, and the Fate of Australian Aboriginal Evidence Acts, Circa 1839-1849’ (2004) 8 Australian Journal of Legal History 237, 133 (‘Smandych’). 15 Select Committee of the Legislative Council, Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes (Report, 1837) (‘Select Committee Report’). 16 Elbourne (n 5). 17 Select Committee Report (n 15) 3-4, 12. 18 Elbourne (n 5). 19 Select Committee Report (n 15) 77, 137. 20 Wang (n 6) 162; Select Committee Report (n 15) 121, 119. 21 Smandych (n 14) 101-2. 22 Ibid 98. 10
40
