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Original Articles

An antipodean genocide? The origins of the genocidal moment in the colonization of Australia

Pages 89-106 | Published online: 03 Aug 2010

  • TaI , Uriel . 1979 . 'On the study of the Holocaust and genocide," . Yad Vashem Studies , 8 : 14 Today, policies motivated by such an intention would be called ethnocide or cultural genocide; they would not have been genocidal. Cultural genocide was explicitly excluded by the UN Convention. See
  • Chalk , Frank and Jonassohn , Kurt . 1990 . The History and Sociology of Genocide. Analyses and Case Studies , 23 New Haven and London : Yale University Press . I follow TaI and Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn in distinguishing ethnocide and genocide on the basis that the physical extermination of a group is analytically distinct from the suppression of a culture. See
  • 1944 . Axis Rule in Occupied Europe , 79 Washington, DC : Carnegie Endowment for International Peace . This is how I understand Raphael Lemkin's statement that genocide aimed ultimately at "annihilating the groups themselves." See his
  • Fein , Helen . 1990 . "Genocide: a sociological perspective," . Current Sociology , 38 ( 1 ) : 15f. 79f
  • Lippman , Matthew . 1985 . "The drafting of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide," . Boston University International Law Journal , 3 ( 1 ) : S7 The draft resolution that accompanied the initial request for the UN to formulate a convention on genocide argued that genocide is analogous to homicide: "Genocide is the denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings." See
  • LeBlanc , Lawrence J. 1984 . "The intent to destroy groups in the Genocide Convention: the proposed U.S. Understanding," . American Journal of International Law , 78 : 369 – 385 . Exterminating a large proportion of a group may be prima facie evidence of a genocidal intention: see
  • Starkman , Paul . 1984 . "Genocide and international law: is there a cause of action?," . Association of Student International Law Societies (ASILS) International Law Journal , 8 ( 1 ) : 38
  • Stanner , W. E. H. 1977 . "The history of indifference thus begins," . Aboriginal History , 1 ( 1 ) : 3 – 26 .
  • Broome , Richard . 1994 . Aboriginal Australians. Black Responses to White Dominance, 1788-1994, , 2nd edn , 27 Sydney : Alien & Unwin .
  • Shaw , A. G. L. 1992 . "British policy towards the Australian Aborigines, 1830-1850," . Historical Studies , 25 : 266
  • Yarwood , A. T. and Knowling , M. J. 1982 . Race Relations in Australia. A History , 12 – 21 . Melbourne : Methuen Australia .
  • Shaw , A. G. L. , ed. 1980 . Sir George Arthur, 1784-1854 , 124 Melbourne : Melbourne University Press .
  • Atkinson , Alan . 1997 . The Europeans in Australia: A History , Vol 1 , 345 Oxford : Oxford University Press .
  • Weaver , John C. 1996 . "Beyond the fatal shore: pastoral squatting and the occupation of Australia, 1826 to 1852," . American Historical Review , 101 : 981 – 1007 . Broome, op cit, p 37
  • Watson , Don . 1997 . Caledonia Australis: Scottish Highlanders on the Frontier of Australia, , 2nd edn , Milson's Point : Vintage . For a case study, see
  • McGregor , Russell . 1997 . Imagined Destinies. Aboriginal Australians and the Doomed Race Theory, 1880-1939 , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press .
  • Nance , Beverley . 1981 . "The level of violence: Europeans and Aborigines in Port Phillip, 1835-1850," . Historical Studies , 19 : 532 – 549 .
  • Ryan , Lyndall . 1981 . The Aboriginal Tasmanians , 83 Brisbane : University of Queensland Press .
  • Reynolds , Henry . 1987 . Frontier: Aborigines, Settlers and Land , 55 Sydney : Alien & Unwin . Cited in
  • Rowley , C. D. 1972 . The Destruction of Aboriginal Society , 48f Melbourne : Penguin .
  • Fein , Helen . "Genocide: a sociological perspective," ” . 11 Raphael Lemkin, for example. See
  • Charny , Israel W. 1988 . Genocide. A Critical Bibliographic Review , 53 London : Mansell Publishing .
  • Levy , M. C. I. 1953 . Governor George Arthur. A Colonial Benevolent Despot , 107 Melbourne : Georgian House .
  • Loos , Noel . 1982 . Invasion and Resistance. Aboriginal-European Relations on the North Queensland Frontier, 1861-1897 , 53 Canberra : Australian National University Press . Reynolds, op cit, pp 21, 30
  • Reynold , Henry . 1990 . With the White People , 47ff Melbourne : Penguin .
  • FeIs , Margaret . 1988 . Good Men and True. The Aboriginal Police of the Port Phillip District, 1837-1853 , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press .
  • Reynolds , Henry . 1998 . This Whispering in Our Hearts , Sydney : Alien & Unwin .
  • 1999 . "The Chittagong Hill tracts: a case study in the political economy of 'creeping' genocide," . Third World Review , 20 ( 2 ) : 339 – 369 . What Mark Levene calls "genocidal processes" are, according to him, in fact "a series of state strategies," and not abstract processes going on "behind the backs" of policy makers. Levene feels licensed to use the term, because the Bangladeshi state ultimately resorted to outright genocidal measures when its pre-genocidal strategies failed. He bundles all these policies under the rubric of "genocidal processes" and calls it a case of "creeping genocide." See his excellent analysis:
  • Arens , Richard , ed. 1976 . Genocide in Paraguay , Philadelphia : Temple University Press . which I read just before submitting this article for publication. It makes a similar argument about the developmental and nation-building impulse behind the turn to genocidal policies. For this line of thinking, see also
  • Sartre , Jean-Paul . 1968 . On Genocide , 57f 78f. Boston : Beacon Press .
  • Genever , Margaret . 1996 . "The road to Lotus Glen. Aborigines and the law, justice, and imprisonment in colonial Queensland," ” . 240 Townsville : James Cook University . PhD dissertation
  • Hughes , Ian . 1975 . "¢ state of open warfare': frontier conflict in the Cooktown area," ” . In Lectures on North Queensland , 2nd Series 38 42 Townsville : Department of History, James Cook University .
  • Genever , Geoff . 1997 . "Prosecutors or protectors? Police and Aborigines in pre-separation Queensland," . Queensland Review , 4 ( 1 ) : 63 – 70 .
  • 1861 . "Instructions of Commandant to Officers and Camp Sergeants of Native Police." . Appendix A,, Queensland Votes and Proceedings . 1861 . pp. 152 Report of the Select Committee on the Native Police
  • Johnston , W. Ross . 1992 . The Long Blue Line. A History of the Queensland Police Force , 92 Brisbane : Boolarong Publications .
  • Ibid, p 50.
  • Palmer , Alison . 1999 . Colonial Genocide , Sydney : Crawford House . forthcoming, This book had not yet appeared at the time of writing. I was able, however, to consult the University of London doctoral dissertation (1993) of the same title, on which it is presumably based, before preparing the final draft of this article. Palmer anticipates my argument that the place to look for a genocide in Australia is not Tasmania, but Queensland
  • Maykutenner (Vicki Mat son-Green) . 1995 . "Tasmania: 2," ” . In Contested Ground. Australian Aborigines under the British Crown , Edited by: McGrath , Ann . 338 – 359 . Sydney : Alien & Unwin . See, for example
  • Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission . Bringing Them Home 270 – 275 .
  • Evans , Raymond . 1988 . "Keeping Australia Clean White," ” . In A Most Valuable Acquisition. A People's History of Australia Since 1788 , Edited by: Burgmann , Verity and Lee , Jenny . 170 – 188 . Melbourne : McPhee Gobble, Penguin .
  • Stanton , Susan . "Time for truth: speaking the unspeakable-genocide and apartheid in the 'lucky' country," . Australian Humanities Review , July 1999 www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/
  • Shaw , A. G. L. 1996 . A History of the Port Phillip District. Victoria before Separation , 139 – 142 . Melbourne : Melbourne University Press . For some statistics, see
  • Tatz , Colin , ed. 1997 . "The Powhatans of Virginia and the English invasion of America: destruction without genocide," ” . In Genocide Perspectives I , 66 – 108 . Sydney : Centre for Comparative Genocide Studies, Macquarie University . In relation to North America, Paul R. Bartrop judges that despite the massive population loss of the Powhatans of Virginia upon English invasion, no case for genocide can be made. See his
  • Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission . 1996 . Bringing Them Home. National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families , Canberra : Commonwealth Printer .
  • Manne , Robert . 1998 . The Way We Live Now , 15 – 41 . Melbourne : Text Publishing .
  • Tatz , Colin . 1999 . Genocide in Australia , Canberra : Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies .
  • Attwood , Bain , ed. 1996 . In the Age of Mabo. History, Aborigines and Australia , Sydney : Alien & Unwin . For a survey and analysis of the historiographical literature, see
  • Curthoys , Ann . "Aboriginal history," ” . In Oxford Companion to Australian History , Edited by: Davison , Graeme , Hirst , John and Maclntyre , Stuart . 3 – 5 . Melbourne : Oxford University Press .
  • Brunton , Ron . "Genocide, the 'stolen generations,' and the 'unconceived generations'," . Quadrant , May 1998 : 19 – 24 .
  • Minogue , Kenneth . "Aborigines and Australian apologetics," . Quadrant , September 1998 : 11 – 20 .
  • Ibid, p 129.
  • Barta , Tony . 1987 . "Relations of genocide. Land and lives in the colonization of Australia," ” . In Genocide and the Modern Age , Edited by: Wallimann , Isidor and Dobkowski , Michael N. 237 – 251 . New York : Greenwood Press . Wallimann and Dobkowski's introductory essay expresses the view that insisting on the presence of intention in the definition of genocide "seems historically and politically too limiting," because "anonymous social forces" and their "structural violence" make it difficult to identify concrete agents that can be bearers of intentions. I have criticized this argument in
  • 1998 . "Structure and agency in the Holocaust: Daniel J. Goldhagen and his critics," . History and Theory , 37 ( 2 ) : 194 – 219 .
  • Katz , Steven T. 1996 . "The uniqueness of the Holocaust. The historical dimension," ” . In Is the Holocaust Unique? Perspectives on Comparative Genocide , Edited by: Rosenbaum , Alan . 23f. Boulder : Westview Press .
  • Glaser , Kurt and Possony , Stefan T. 1979 . Victims of Politics: The State of Human Rights , 37 New York : Columbia University Press .
  • Huttenbach , Henry R. 1988 . "Locating the Holocaust on the genocide spectrum," . Holocaust and Genocide Studies , 3 ( 3 ) : 289 – 304 .

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