Monthly Talks are held at Burnside City Uniting Church, Tusmore at 7.30pm. Visitors welcome $5 cash on entry.
October 2 : ‘TO TREAT WITH THEM’: George Fife Angas and Aboriginal South Australians 1835 to 1842
by John Walker
Taking as a starting point George Fife Angas’ largely neglected speech on the Aboriginal peoples of the proposed colony, given in London in late 1835 at the congratulatory dinner for John Hindmarsh on his appointment as the first governor of SA, the talk will throw further light on Angas’ motivations and actions from 1835 to 1842 in relation to the traditional owners of the land. Angas, influenced by evangelical humanitarianism and by Enlightenment-inspired notions of a hierarchy of races, believed that colonisation, if carried out according to Christian principles, could be advantageous to colonists and Aboriginal peoples alike.
Although Angas never followed through with his ideas, he played a key role in the decision to appoint a Protector of Aborigines and, in 1842, he successfully pushed for the establishment of some Aboriginal reserves. Ultimately, however, Angas was one of those who benefited the most from the seizure of Aboriginal lands in the Barossa. When compared with his fellow colonisers, Angas was neither saint nor devil, but his commitment to his idea of successful colonisation and to his own economic security trumped his humanitarianism.
Speaker: John Walker is a retired Baptist pastor, an adjunct lecturer in church history at Burleigh College (SA’s Baptist theological college) and the Bible College of South Australia. John, with his wife Karen lived in Cambodia between 2008 and 2014. As members of Baptist Mission Australia, they taught post-graduate students at Phnom Penh and assisted local Cambodian churches. They continue their involvement with Cambodia through mentoring postgraduate students and emerging leaders. John’s 2006 Flinders University doctoral thesis was on South Australian Baptists, circa 1900 to 1939. He has authored several journal articles, biographical entries and book chapters based on his research. John coordinates the South Australian Baptist History Project and is a member of the South Australian Church History Network committee. He is currently working on a history of South Australian Baptists to 1914.