David Marr

Black Inc 2023.  RRP $39.99

In the last 12 months I have reviewed three books which all, in their own way, dealt with aspects of the brutality involved in the way that Europeans took over the land we now call Australia.

When reviewing Black Lives, White Law by criminal lawyer Russell Marks I had this to say:

“Marks takes us on a journey through the brutality of colonisation and demonstrates how the so called fair and impartial British justice system was anything but fair and impartial when it came to the treatment of our First Nations people. Many were slaughtered by white settlers with no action generally being taken against the offenders.

I then reviewed The Settlement by Jack Serong where I said:

“This disturbing, sometimes dark work is a perfect follow up read in which Serong reimagines the way in which the Tasmanian First Nations peoples were cruelly dealt with by the invading European settlers. It is particularly inspired by the ill-conceived and failed activities of George Augustus Robinson who led the forced displacement of Tasmanian Aboriginal people to Pea Jacket Point on Flinders Island.”

Then earlier this year I wrote about a book by Jon Rhodes titled Whitefella Way where I had this to say:

“In a year when we will be asked to vote on a proposed amendment to the Australian Constitution, Black Lives White Law, The Settlement and now, Whitefella Way will all be important aides to any voter wanting to understand more about the brutal history of white settlement and why the proposed constitutional changes are so important and necessary.

This book is a sequel to his Cage of Ghosts published in 2018 and in this book the reader is taken on nine journeys to various important sites where the writer deals with the interactions which occurred between the original inhabitants and the invading white settlers.

The brutality and duplicity of the invader is evident from chapter one which is titled Bennelong and Collins Cove.

The much-vaunted British Justice System was certainly not on display from the very beginning of white settlement when it came to the invaders’ dealings with the Black population.”

Now that we know the outcome of the referendum, political commentators will no doubt debate at length the reasons for its defeat, but perhaps the outcome might have been otherwise if our community was better educated about the way that Aboriginal land was stolen by the invading Europeans, and the brutality of that land grab.

During the referendum campaign I heard some people suggest, without understanding the irony of what they were saying, that they were concerned that a successful vote might result in their land and houses being taken from them. Such comments, and others, demonstrate an appalling level of ignorance on many levels.

Now that the referendum proposal has been lost it is, in my view, more important than ever that the general community be educated about Aboriginal issues in general, and the way that the nation of Australia was established in particular.

Proper knowledge of the real facts would also help people to better know when they are being misled by absurd suggestions, such as the one by Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, that Aboriginal people did not suffer from colonisation.

Well known journalist and author David Marr’s detailed and brilliantly researched book makes a vitally important contribution to the education of the non-Indigenous community. He has written several books and this book’s cover tells us that:

“He has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian and The Monthly, and served as editor of The National Times, reporter for Four Corners and presenter on ABC TV’s Media Watch.”

What makes this book unusual is Marr’s family connection to many of the events described in the book. He was understandably shocked to discover that he had ancestors who were members of the Native Police, an organisation responsible for numerous outrages against the Aboriginal population. Those ancestors being; “Sub – Inspector Reginald Uhr, a professional killer of Aborigines,” and his brother D’arcy.

In this book we are introduced to a number of unpleasant and undesirable characters from the early years following the European invasion.

Early in the book we meet one Richard Jones, a “slippery” merchant who made his fortune from wool and whaling, as well as being involved in politics and a newspaper called the Gazette, via which he was able to publicly express his views. His actions were strongly motivated by his strong Christian faith and he presented himself as a man of charity, although for Jones “and the forces of charity in Sydney, care might leap faith lines but not straddle the race divide.”

We are also introduced to Edmund Uhr, Jones’s brother-in-law, and Reg and D’arcy’s father, and a man who worked for Jones in the task of spreading his pastoral holdings on the Liverpool Plains near a spot where, a few years earlier, there had been an unprovoked massacre of Aborigines.

A contemporaneous report of that incident noted that:

“…the whites, as usual, resorting to the use of fire-arms, poured in several destructive vollies, firing on the blacks as they climbed trees for security; and in one instance, as related, ripping open with a knife the bowels of an unfortunate being who had fallen wounded from a tree.”

No-one was ever charged.

Then we are told that:

“At Waterloo Creek on 26 January 1838, Nunn’s troops and Mounted Police drove a large number of Kamilaroi into a swamp and slaughtered at least fifty.”

Then we are reminded of the well-known massacre at Myall Creek, where finally some of the perpetrators were tried and convicted, although we get the idea of white sentiment when a letter published in the Sydney Morning Herald, from an outraged squatter said this:

“.. the Aboriginals of my native country, are the most degenerate, despicable, and brutal race of beings in existence, and stand as it were in scorn “to shame creation” – a scoff and jest upon humanity…they will, and must, become extinct – civilisation destroys them – where labour and industry flourish, they die.”

These are just some of the sickening events mentioned in the book – massacres inspired by racism, and the selfish desire to protect the lands they had stolen from the Aboriginal peoples.

As the book progresses the reader is forced to face the reality of European occupation and to then wonder how on earth it was that Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was able to conclude that colonisation was to the benefit of Aboriginal people.

The book is divided into three parts. Part one is titled “Mr Jones”, and it provides the background and flavour for the rest of the book.

Part 2 is titled “Edmund B. Uhr”.

The first page of Part 3, which is titled “Reg & D’arcy”, sets the scene of what is to come when we read the following 1879 comment from a former Native Mounted Police Officer:

“The native mounted police of Queensland …carries out its sanguinary will without the intervention of judge, jury or law. Practically there is no appeal from its almighty vengeance.”

Part 3 takes us to incident after incident of the slaughter of innocent Aboriginal people by the Native Mounted Police. The Police themselves generally weren’t able to bring themselves to call it murder or slaughter, instead euphemistically calling it dispersal.

D’arcy Uhr was taught his trade as a member of the Native Mounted Police by one Frederick Wheeler, who was said to be “one of the cruellest men who ever served in the force.” On one occasion Wheeler said this “about badly behaved blacks”:

“I don’t think they understand anything except shooting them; at least, that is the case, as far as my experience goes.”

This attitude certainly did not stand in the way of Wheeler’s promotion.

This book is brilliantly researched and loaded with detail, including footnoting, about the relentlessness and brutality of European expansion over Aboriginal land, and how “the so called fair and impartial British justice system was anything but fair and impartial when it came to the treatment of our First Nations people.”

The Uluru Statement from the Heart called for Voice, Treaty and Truth. It seems that many Australians were readily able to dismiss the call for Voice without a proper appreciation of the violent way that Europeans dispossessed our First Nations People from their land.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart uses the word Makarrata. Makarrata is a word in the Yolngu language meaning a coming together after a struggle, facing the facts of wrongs and living again in peace.

Let’s hope that there will now be a period of a greater willingness by the broader population of Australia to learn and accept the truth about how this country was established, and hopefully books such as those mentioned in this review can play a role in that process.

I strongly recommend this book. It is particularly timely.

John Watts