Terra Nullius: A Journey Through No One's Land. Sven Lindqvist

Sven Lindqvist has never written a bad word, and the abuse and destruction of Aboriginal and nomadic peoples is one of his pet subjects - see his work on the destruction of the Hetero peoples in "Exterminate All The Brutes". Now he turns to Australia and the dismal treatment of the Aboriginal population by both settlers, anthropologists, "protectors" (possibly one of the most grotesque misuses of a word in the history of the English language) and politicians. He travels through South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia documenting at each stop another example of a community torn apart by casual race hate, or near genocide, of Aboriginal communities desperately trying to protect cultural and family ties. None of this is new material, but rarely has it been described in such stark terms. Lindqvist argues, correctly, that whether the near genocide was intended or not (he thinks it was, or at least that the removal of Aboriginal communities was a desired outcome) it very nearly succeeded, and that the extent to which Aboriginal culture has managed to survive is remarkable. He believes it a sign of a very strong culture rather than the weak, outmoded one it is often portrayed as. He also correctly argues that saying "Sorry" is meaningless without some attempt to change behaviour or make things right. As he points out to those who would argue "its nothing to do with me, I haven't mistreated any Aborigines", maybe not, but if you've enjoyed the spoils of conquest, as all European settlers have, then you should pay part of the reparation costs. Couldn't agree more. Highly recommended

In the last few years Sven Lindqvist has become one of my favorite nonfiction authors. He probes some of the worst situations in human history, yet always ends up with giving us some hope for our future. In earlier books, such as Exterminate All The Brutes he chronicles the history of European genocides in Africa, and in The Skull Measurers Mistake he chronicles a history of men and women who spoke out against racism. In this volume, Terra Nullius: A Journey Through No One's Land, he chronicles the history of racism and systematic abuse against the Aboriginals from Australia, from the arrival of James Cook in 1770 to 1992 when the Mabo Decision in the Australian Supreme Court outlaws the concept of 'terra nullius'. Like many of his earlier books it is written as part history and part journal. He chronicles events from the past, key places in this history story, and side by side with that is his journey to and fro across the Australian countryside to personally experience the places discussed in the history. He writes in a very fluid, lucid style. At times it appears to be stream of conscious writing, yet as the reader goes further and further into the book, you realize that it was nothing so random. Every history event portrayed has a specific purpose; each personal recollection brings to light either the preceding or following events; each portrait of either a victim or someone who attempted to help the victims has specific meaning and purpose to the whole. What amazed me most about this book was that it was a story with which I was completely unfamiliar. I remember in school in the late 70's and early 80's that we often had lessons on apartheid and the situation in South Africa, and even Africa as a whole. Later in high school and into university I often encountered history around the Latin American situation and especially liberation theology, and again in film with such powerful movies as The Mission, Cry Freedom, Amistad and others. Yet never have I encountered these stories and events. Such as: 1911 In the Northern Territory, The Aboriginals Ordinance gives a protector appointed by the 'whites' authority to take any Aborigine of 'half-blood' into custody at any time. The ordinance remained in force until 1957. 1937 The Native Administration Act gives Chief Protector legal instruments with which to 'breed out' the Aborigines, the 'final solution' to the race problem in Western Australia. 1953 The Welfare Ordinance (NT) substitutes the racially neutral word 'ward' for 'Aborigine'. More than 99 percent of the Aboriginal population is declared 'wards' of the state. 1962 Aboriginal people acquire the right to vote in state and commonwealth elections, even though they are still wards of the state. 1964 Aboriginal people are no longer wards of the state, but in name only. 1967 Aboriginal people are included in the national census. 1983 Sixteen Year old John Pat dies in police custody; 5 officers are charged but acquitted. 1991 The Year of Indig

Literary historian Sven Linqvist was introduced to Australia at a young age. An 1896 book described how white European invaders viewed and treated the Aborigines. The story depicted a trio of young European boys encountering a group of Aborigines at a meal. Tucked away in a deep cavern, which to the boys meant the Aborigines couldn't have hunted the meal, the boys immediately concluded the group was engaging in cannibalism. The result was inevitable, the boys opened fire with their carbines, wiping out the "natives". For Lindqvist, it launched a train of thought he pursued years later. Journeying around and through Australia, he brought in his swag a background of European literature dealing with "primitive" peoples. In this vivid account, he takes us on both a geographic and a sociological tour of Australia's historical dealings with its indigenous population. At each stopping point, he relates what occurred to the Aboriginal occupiers there. It's not a pretty story. The Aborigines were the focus of a good many early ethnographic scholars, almost none of whom set foot on the southern continent. Emile Durkheim, Sigmund Freud, Bronislaw Malinovski, among others, read a few accounts of missionary or other observers to draw novel, if still Euro-centric, ideas of what Aborigine social structure was like and what it meant for human history. The common theme was that primitive societies represented a step on the way to "civilisation". According to Lindqvist, these scholars were uniformly incorrect. Instead of family, clan or even religion binding Aborigine society, it was the land they occupied. Europeans, who considered nomadic peoples as "landless", failed to observe the way land featured in family relationships, religion and the way a people who seemed to be constantly on the move, viewed the land. Aborigines may not have farmed the soil or used it to pasture animals, but that was because they understood how fragile that resource truly is. Europeans, under the influence of Christian dogma about "heathens" and academic dogmas about "primitive people", occupied Aborigine land with the view to "assimilating" or eradicating them. Assimilation was achieved by elimination of all ties to their own culture and a brief education leading to demeaning jobs as domestics or labourers. In short, forced off their land, forced to deny their roots, forced to enter an alien life. The colony of New South Wales considered the issue of "terra nullius" ["land not occupied"] in the 1820s, but the author mercifully skips over the issue of whether displacing or killing Aborigines was "legal" or not. Instead, he views it as the attitude and the practice of Christian European settlers and miners as they crossed the continent. Until recently, only a few accounts made any effort to bring the Aborigines into historical narratives. Lindqvist makes the most of what he can find to depict the atrocities perpetrated against them. Beyond merely shooting them, E

With 'Terra Nullius', Sven Lindqvist turns his ascerbic, post-colonial attention on the great antipodean continent of Australia, ancient land mass, ancient indigenous cultures and one of the greatest of C18th Enlightenment experiments. The grim life of what was essentally a prison developed when the option of the United states was closed due to the War of Independence, is well documented by Robert Hughes in his, 'Fatal Shore'. Lindqvist's rhetoric is of cooler peruasion, but none the less withering for that. The manner adopted will be familiar to Lindqvist's readers. We are conducted on a studious and lugubrious tour of the literature surrounding the subject, the land mass and the treatment of its indigenous peoples, by its colonizer. These alone are salutory selections and presented in Lindqvist's usual succinct and pithy chapters. However, he is not a long distance operator, drawing conclusions in the safety of a European cell. He does the hard yards, gets the soundbites, scents, geology and social realities right. I recommend this as a primer for intending travellers to central Australia, who might wish for some background to the contemporary malaise in indigenous affairs, or in need of some background on why the federal government saw fit, and found it so easy, to intervene its army in indigenous communities, with barely a ripple of concern from the Australian public. It should be mandatory on the reading lists of Australian students. Check my website, rodmoss.com