Education

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.

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.

It is well documented that First Nations people knew how to make alcoholic drinks from sweet juices and nectars well before the European invasion, but little is now known about the processes involved, the yeasts and bacteria at work, or the chemistry, taste and smell of the plants and finished products, but now the University of Adelaide is investigating these traditional practices.
 

White Australia must consider the damage that disregard generates, and understand that from the Aboriginal perspective, white ways are not the only ways, or necessarily the best ways.
 
Many of our survey respondents expressed a willingness to improve the relationship. But so long as white Australia is resistant to Indigenous inclusion on any terms but its own, it’s hard to see how progress can be made.

Trachoma disappeared from most of Australia 100 years ago as individual and community hygiene improved.
(Image: Author provided)

Hugh Taylor, Emma Stanford and Fiona Lange 13 September 2016 [node:read-more:link]