Civilising The Natives

Redfern, Sydney NSW When the White man came to Australia among other things he brought religion. In 1788 and the years after religion was not what it is today. The Preacherman taught the Aboriginal people to wear clothes, to pray to a foreign god and to follow the teachings of the Bible. This must have been so confusing and scary to Aboriginal people as they had to pray to a white man hanging on a cross. The practice of nailing people on a cross or a tree was not part of the Aboriginal religion. Then there were different religions protestant vs catholic. This must have been confusing to understand.

The Aboriginal people's religion was based on the land, nature and complex laws of who you can marry and that religion enabled them to survive for thousands of years. It must have been so confusing to learn to sing hymns in another language and told that you are not allowed to sing your own corroboree songs.

In this painting the Aboriginals march/file past a black man on a cross into church putting down their spears as a sign of giving in to the white man. I ask you could Jesus have been a black man or a woman. There were no photographers or written word in those days and the word of mouth as we know can be exaggerated.

There are no people coming out showing that this is a permanent solution to Australia's Indigenous population. There were many cruel missionaries and people who ran homes for the stolen children.

There were missions where Aboriginal lived for generations that were worse than refugee camps. In all fairness I must add there were also preachermen or missionaries who were kind and tolerant and respected the customs and language of the Aboriginal people and these exceptions were published and cried out for basic rights of Aborigines.