History

Chain gangs and slave labour in Australia" width="690" height="300" border="0">
Notice the tin mugs placed in strategic places on the tin wall behind the prisoners - if one wanted a drink or go to the toilet the whole gang would have to go with them. In some cases, people were chained next to a member of a tribal group that is culturally inappropriate to even to speak to, never-loan the different customs and language barriers. It's no wonder they had difficulty fitting into their own family group when they were 'lucky' enough to return to their home.

This page provides an insight into the treatment of the First Nations peoples in the second phase of the mass slaughters in the Australian Eastern states and the archaic attitudes of the colonisers immediately following the first stage of the invasion and the many massacres, land theft and displacements in the late 18th to the mid 19th centuries.

In 1926 a group of colonists with self acclaimed 'high moral standards' and with a small touch of guilt, came up with the idea to create an Aboriginal state. The idea was to give Arnhem Land to Aboriginal people and teach them how to be self-sufficient ... "It is a bold scheme, but the committee behind it includes men who know the aborigine, and who have sufficient faith in it to call for signatures to a petition to be presented to the Commonwealth Parliament asking for its inauguration"

Despite being one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world, First Nations People are one of the most poorly studied populations from a human evolution perspective, Ms Nano Nagle, one of the study's authors says.