MONTHLY MEETINGS are held at BURNSIDE CITY UNITING CHURCH, Portrush Rd, TUSMORE – 7.30 pm
APRIL 4— PROTECTION (OR OTHERWISE) OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE’S RIGHTS TO LAND IN EARLY COLONIAL S.A.
The foundation of the Province of South Australia coincided with the rise to power of philanthropic evangelicals both in the Colonial Office and the British Parliament. Largely as a result of their influence, South Australia’s founding documents seemingly sought to protect Aboriginal people’s rights to land. But just how genuine were those who were responsible for legislating and implementing these protections?
This paper draws on official correspondence and examines the actions of key individuals (including Robert Gouger, Governors Hindmarsh and Gawler, Protectors of Aborigines Wyatt and Moorhouse, and Lutheran missionaries Teichelmann and Schürmann) to discuss this question.
Speaker: SKYE KRICHAUFF is an ethno-historian who combines the methodologies of history, anthropology and oral history. She is interested in colonial cross-cultural relations, the relationship between history and memory, and how societies live with historical injustices (in particular how Australians live with the enduring legacies of colonialism). She is a senior lecturer at the University of Adelaide.