Backbencher

Lecture one, Native People: Aborigine and Maori , discussed Australia and New Zealand’s settlement by the Natives, and further into the lecture about the European’s effect on the natives. The beginning of the lecture Dr. Isern discussed the problems of terminology, that the word ‘native’ itself does not work as well, because the Aborigines and the Maori were not ‘native’ to the land. The lecture discussed the way that the Aborigines came to Australia as long as 60,000 years ago and the Maori roughly 1,000 years ago. Yet really there is no true record of the time that they arrived. The Aborigine’s took to the land with fire stick sculpting and turning it into land that was semi-manageable. The Aborigine’s were hunter/gather types and were ones to be on the move a lot. The Maori, which were from Polynesian descent, had more of a warfare history. They were very resistant to the European invasion as much as possible. However, like usual, the presence of the Europeans brought disease and worked at changing everything that the Aborigines and the Maori were. The tribal warfare became worse as the Europeans tried to take over.


Also discussed was the deconstruction of the traditions and changing the lives of the natives. The Europeans thought it was a great idea to go on killing rampages and kidnapping the Aboriginal children and putting them up for adoption with hopes that they can, I feel, eradicate the history of the natives. This is still where I have the most questions. Bonnie brought it up in her post relating it back to the Native American’s and what the U.S. did to their children by sending them to boarding school. With reference to Rabbit Proof Fence which was set in 1931, that still feels very recent for something so ridiculous to occur.
This lecture just reminded me once again how horrible Europeans are, and pretty everyone who invades land that is home to the ‘natives’ of the area.