Coranderrk
The struggle for rights 1850 - 1901
Journeys
Robinson and Gellibrand's travels through Victoria.
Establishment
Attitudes
Threat of Closure
Protest
Children
Legislation
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Extract Three
(Victorian
Parliamentary Debates, 1876, vol. 25, pp. 985-86)
'Savage nomads' are the same the world over. Aren't they? Here the notions of
civilised and savage are again discussed. The 'smoothing the pillow of
the dying race' view is also evident.
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Mr.
G.V.Smith, 4 October 1876
'Was
it within the experience or reading of any honourable member that
any attempt to bring Choctas, Cherokees, or any other tribe of
savage nomads from different parts of the country, into one spot,
in order to reconcile them to the usages of civilised life had
been successful? His own belief was that the only way to treat
the aborigines - whose manifest destiny it was to die off before
the whites - was to deal with them generously in the districts
to which they belonged…the best thing that could be done
was to leave the aborigines as much as possible in the localities
to which they belonged. As to collecting them in one particular
place, and endeavouring to deal with them, and expecting satisfactory
results - results which might be expected in dealing with civilised
people - the thing was hopeless.'
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