Overview
The British Crown lay claim to the east Coast of New South Wales in 1770 and continues to govern Australian lands and waters using the powers of long established and traditional British political and legal systems.
Key inquiry question:
How did British sovereignty of Australia impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the past and how does it influence the future?
1. Explore the significance of terra nullius. Read Governor Bourke's Proclamation 1835 (UK) | National Archives of the United Kingdom, the document written by Sir Richard Burke, Governor of New South Wales (1831 to 1837) declaring terra nullius.
- Check your understanding of the legal words and phrases used and outline the history and significance of the proclamation.
- Explain the legal implications for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
2. In 1901, Australia celebrated Federation with the establishment of the Australian Constitution, a document that upholds our political and legal systems and unified the States as the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia’s First people were not recognised in the Constitution, their rights and customary laws disregarded and ignored.
Section 127 of the Constitution provided that 'in reckoning the numbers of people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted'.
- Conduct research into the legal rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as put forward by the Constitution and government policies in the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia.
3. Examine the artworks of Gordon Syron to engage with responses to invasion from the perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
- View the contemporary artwork Botany Bay by Gordon Syron. Identify features of the landscape and the activities taking place. Syron presents a holistic view of the scene in Kamay Botany Bay prior to the arrival of Cook in the Endeavour. Identify the techniques Syron has used to develop emotion into the artwork.
- Observe the work Black Bastards Are Coming. Compare the two works describing the similarities and differences and the flipped view Syron presents on the landing of Cook in Kamay.
- Read Syron’s comment in describing his artwork.
"This painting highlights the need for Australia to recognise the pre-existing history/rights of Aboriginal land ownership. We must always remember our elders who fought gallantly and bravely in the Aboriginal wars to keep our land. If we don't remember and paint these stories, and teach our children this history, then who will?"
- Investigate the phrase 'remember our elders who fought gallantly and bravely in the Aboriginal wars to keep our land'. Conduct research into the Frontier wars and the massacres of Aboriginal people by the British to lay claims on the land.
4. Investigate the life of Syron, his connections to the land and his political and social activism in supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples.
5. Create a video documentary or news report that explains how British sovereignty of Australia impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the past and how it influences the future. Use statistics on Aboriginal health and socio-economic inequalities to inform your video.
Main image: Colonial Wallpapers - Pacific Encounters, © Helen S Tiernan, 2017. ANMM Collection V00055114