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Date: | Thu, 18 Sep 1997 11:17:23 +0800 |
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>>Hello, my name is Hannah McGlade, I am an Aboriginal lawyer from Australia
>>seeking information about a possible Aboriginal slave building in
>>Fremantle, Western Australia. This was the first building in West
>>Australian. It is made of a wall of 11 sides with lean-to cells on the
>>inside. We know that it was used to house Aboriginal men in particular and
>>was located on a large limestone outcrop. The limestone was quarried for
>>this and other British colonial buildings built nearby. Twenty years later,
>>a much later complex consisting of a similar round building was built on
>>Rottnest Island, an island 18 kilometres off the coast of Fremantle. A
>>drawing of the roundhouse can be viewed at
>>http://www.mkt.com.au/roundhou.nsf
>>
>>I have been informed that there is a similar building to the roundhouse on
>>the east coast of Africa. The building is a former slave building and is
>>currently a museum.
>>
>>I would appreciate any information or confirmation regarding the genre of
>>this building type. We are in the process of mounting an argument on the
>>basis that this building type has its origin as a slavery building not as a
>>building for housing prisoners.
>>
>>There is no evidence of systematic slavery existing in British colonial
>>Australia. However, the existence of these slave compounds, if it can be
>>demonstrated that their origin is in slavery, would confirm a immensely
>>important feature of early contact between the two cultures.
>>
>>
>>Thank you very much
>>H. McGlade
To answer this question sensibly we need to know what we mean by slavery.
Some scholars may feel that true slavery must mean the ownership of persons
as property. I don't think slavery in sense existed in Australia -
certainly not in any systematic manner. However, the enforced and unpaid
labour of "prisoners" was common practise. There is no doubt that in order
for the authorities and for Pastoralists and others to justify the use of
Aboriginal peoples in unpaid and enforced labour projects that the powers
that be often concocted offences in order to make them prisoners of the state. T
The building you are talking about was a prison built by convicts. It housed
prisoners. There were white prisoners, whose enforced labour was used to
build much of the early infrustructure and municipal buildings in and around
Perth and other parts of the colony; and there were Aboriginal prisoners,
rounded up for "offences" against property or some other ruse, and
incacerated. Their labour too was used for building works, though I don't
know to what extent. In both cases - offences were often not more than an
excuse to force "prisoners" into unpaid labour AND to remove them from their
tradtional lands.
I'm carrying out research in the West Pilbara of North West Australia.
Slavery of Aboriginal people in this area, I and others would argue,
definately existed. There was a systematic removal of mostly young men and
women from their traditional country. These people were forced into unpaid
labour on pastoral stations and on pearling luggers. Conditions were usually
quite poor and cruelty was common.
Students at the Centre for Archaeology carried out some research on the
round house building last year. I'll dig up some more info for you.
Robin Stevens
University of WA.
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