Slavery

A gruesome discovery revealed the fate of Tambo, an Aboriginal man put on show in the USA in the 1800s. The story begins in 1883 on Hinchinbrook and Palm islands, in Far North Queensland. Robert A. Cunningham, a recruiter for Barnum and Bailey’s circus, had traveled there to find subjects for his next show-stopping exhibition, Ethnological Congress of Strange Tribes. He sought to add to his collection of indigenous people, which already included Zulus from Africa, Toda from southern India, Nubians from southern Egypt and Sioux from the USA.

The Northern Territory branch of the United Voice union says a program that allows prisoners to work at a central Australian salt mine for award wages is akin to slave labour.

The Territory Government says low-security prisoners are being trained for work at a potash project near Curtain Springs because the company had trouble recruiting staff.

The Aboriginal Pilbara Strike.

At the meeting of tribal leaders Winyirin Bin Bin was nominated, in his absence, to work with a non-Aboriginal social reformer, Don McLeod, as a representative of the inland’s Aborigines.

'Dooley' and his kinsman Clancy McKenna sought a minimum wage of thirty shillings per week for Aboriginal station-hands and planned a mass withdrawal of labour if the request were refused.

Chain gangs and slave labour in Australia" width="690" height="300" border="0">
Notice the tin mug 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.

Some people know about the South Sea Islander slaves but most are ignorant that many thousands of First Nations people were also used as slaves right across Australia, in settlement, on pastures and in industries. Even First Nation children were used in most industries and often kidnapped by 'blackbirders' - the children received no wages and had no opportunity to attend school. The adults often died of slavery or abuse. Here is an article by Alecia Simmonds, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.

A little before 1892, Archibald Meston who later became the Southern Protector of Aboriginals for Queensland rounded up 27 First Nations people from Wakaya, Kuthant, Kurtjar, Arapa, Walangama, Mayikulan, Kabi Kabi, Kalkadoon and Muralag. There were 22 men, four women and one child. He called his prisoners the 'Wild Australia' show and carted them down the east coast of Australia until he ran out of funds and deserted them in Melbourne. - A Photographic Exhibition aims to reconnect families to their descendants.

The article 'Jobs and education are the lifters' by: Nyunggai Warren Mundine, The Australian 3 December 2014 with Comments by Maurene Brannan

... as if it meant nothing, which it apparently doesn't to Warren - 'cultural authority' does not come easy, it takes a lifetime of dedication and education in the highest, most evolved culture on Earth.

Some researchers have said that there was 10 First Nations people death for each European killed in the process of the British Invasion. However research is now telling us that is was probably 40 to 1.

There are stories of massacres everywhere in the archives of the major cultural institutions of Australia and Great Britain. They are in the diaries, letters, journals and memoirs of colonial and postcolonial officials, troops, police, farmers, frontiersmen and women.

Felicity Holt is almost 77 years old. She lives in Queensland and remembers the day she was taken away from her parents in Cherbourg. She was just 16 and hopeful of a future in nursing. 'I had enrolled in nursing at the Cherbourg Hospital because I love looking after people, and they came and took me and sent me to St Joseph's Convent in Dalby to work in the kitchen,' Mrs Holt said.