AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 13 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES

AMONG QUEENSLAND BLACKS.

BAD EFFECTS OF CIVILISATION

EFFICIENCY IN WILD STATE. i I

» (By R. J. TERRY.)

It is rather surprising in these modern days when no portion of the world is supposed to be unknown, to find how easy it is to get mistaken ideas about the inhabitants of even a near country. I had most certainly formed wrong impressions of the Australian aboriginal. Like many others, I had no doubt been influenced by comic papers, which either held the black fellow up to ridicule or depicted him with the intelligence of a child, and in years gone by my then chief had at one time lived in Northern Queensland and had shot blacks on sight. During the last few months I have taen able to study the blacks in their natural state, and have found them very different from those seen by the average tourist 011 the borders of civilisation or special encampments where boomerang and spear throwing are exhibited for the pleasure of the visitor. Even in large Government reservations 6uch as Barambali the visitor gains a totally wropg impression, due in a certain measure to the very small proportion of full blood blacks found in the encampment. In this reservation, which contains 35,000 acres, there are 900 blacks, but of these not more,- than 50 are full blood. It is rather sad to have to relate that the black deteriorates in many ways when he comes in contact with civilisation. Self-confidence with its dignity is lost. The so-called' blacks —half-caste and quarter-caste —are taught white man's arts and crafts. Visitors are shown sewing, embroidery, sketching, etc., on very much the same lines one sees when visiting white schools. The men are taught to use tools. It is very apparent that they cannot excel in the white people's' occupations, therefore the inferior complex is developed. No attempt seems to be made to retain their wonderful bush craft attained and handed down for a new thousand years. .A Bush Test. How different is the comparison between the black in touch with civilisa-' tion who cadges cigarettes, tobacco, lollies or a few pence, and is quite content to wear his white brother's castoff clothes, and the black fellow who still lives the natural life of his father. He has no slouching, cringing gait and he looks you straight in the face. And what wonderful eyes these people have when you look into their depths. It peems you are looking ' a deep shaded well with the thought coming that if the well were notquite so shaded you would see something wonderful in its greatest depths. To such a one I said, "Tell me what you think of the white fellow. I will not be cross, tell me true 1" He evidently had in his mind tlid new chum or for lie made it plain that the white man came over the sea, came into the bush and didn't have sense enough to find food when it \p.s all round him, but that the black fellow could come along and find food and save him from death. To t§st his capabilities ill this direction I suggested that wo go into the bush the next day without any food, water or weapons. He succeeded in snaring a wild duck by fixing a bundle of reeds around his head and wading, with his body submerged, until he was sufficiently near the ducks t» grasp the duck's feet under the water. In a 'fraction under three minutes he had a handful of dried grass smouldering owing to the friction of his fire stick." The duck was roasted as were some roots that he had dug with a pointed stick. Water was easy to find. The repast was finished with a piece of honey comb. I refused a portion of a green tree snake. Later in the afternoon he again found honey, lighter in colour than that eaten at lunch. By the way, with new foods in my mind I now know that" there are delicious roots which go to waste on waste plots even in the city areas of Auckland. The greatest brains in the world are trying to-day to solve the problem of the worker and the workless. Tile blacks living in their natural state had solved these problems, and it does not trouble them to-day when free of the white man's interference. Tribal Law. The tribal law was and is that everyone,. unless sick, must work to eat. In the morning, the young children gather various gums, the women dig for roots with pointed sticks, the men hunt. The man who did not hunt was held up to ridicule and contempt, and if he continued the laziness he would be expelled the tribe. The food gathered.or killed was shared. Food was always supplied to the aged and young in plenty. _ They believed that this would be pleasing to the Father, as some tribes called the spirit in the heavens, and that those who looked after crippled or sick people and gave food 'to the aged Would go and live with the Father.

A man had to supply his wife's parents with food if they were old, but not if they had a son who could hunt for them. They evidently had similar ideas to some of their white brothers as regards the mother-in-law. A man was not allowed to speak to, and would also if possible avoid seeing, his mother-in-law. If the pair sighted each other they would each make a detour from the path.

Medicine men had a great hold over flie tribes, as they do to-day, despite All reports to the contrary. If a medicine man points a bone at a person, the person invariably dies—probably by auto-suggestion. They associate the fat of the body will well-being and virility, and it is easy to see how this idea came about. The blackfellow's food is not" a fattening food, and at times of drought when root food would be scarce and the fat 6f animals diminished, he would naturally associate the loss of fat with weakness and disaster —not naturally death, because the blackfellow does not recognise disease as we know it. Anyone who dies, no matter what the age, dies because of the ill-will of some other person. It is fairly common for a medicine man to absent himself from a tribe and on his return state _ that he has been -to another world. Pointing to the distance where the sky apparently touches the earth, ho will say that he walked through to the other world. Often he brings back with him a piece of stone which is not common in the immediate vicinity of the tribe, and this stone is supposed to give him magic powers. He may convince a person that he can cut him open whilst he is sleeping, remove his kidney fat, and heal the place without showing any scar. Under these circumstances the person invariably sickens and dies unless the magic can be counteracted.

The younger men would eat the fat of a dead man if he was a great hunter or tracker, or they would sit under a

tree so that the decomposing. juices of the dead body in the tree might drip on them. There were strict codes or tribal laws which were carried, out impartially. If a man had injured or killed another he had to stand his trial—the old men being the judges. He would step out from among his friends until he was about two hundred feet away, facing his accusers, who would then ask, "Why did you kill or injure our brother?" He could then admit or deny the offence or endeavour to explain why ho had committed the wrong. The old men having consulted together would then pass sentence, which might be that he had .a certain number of spears thrown at him. He was allowed to ward off these spears with a narrow shield. If he succeeded in doing this and the offence was rather bad, he might havo to undergo a certain amount of clubbing, and the clubbing, even in these modern times, is rather drastic. I saw one instance of this in what might be termed a little domestic trouble at the reservation.

If the old men thought that there was some justification for the offence he had committed the prisoner's wife might be allowed to stand by his side and help him to ward off the spears with her digging stick. In extreme cases he might be allowed one friend. One must come 'to the conclusion that their justice was administered possibly more impartially than is ours.

Tlie blackfellow in his natural state is to-day found only in the northern portions of Australia, country which is not yet coveted by the white man. Where the white man utilises 1 e country the blackfellow is rapidly dying out. On Government reservations he lives in houses, eats at least a portion of the white man's food, and in a short time the white man's diseases, especially T. 8., wipe him out. Civilisation is generally unkind to natives.