... has only vaguely been known by various Dutch and Portuguese trader. Of course, local aboriginal people had known this land fully for over tens of thousands of years before. They were people who shared the culture, language, dreams and lives for all this time. Ironically, the first settlers of Australia, which landed there in 1788, were prisoners on the run, or convicts with officers to guard them. Before the American War of Independence, Britain had sent convicts to America. American independence ended the practice and the British prisons had to be sent somewhere else. Australia seemed the perfect place for the purpose. (The First Fleet in Sydney Cove, January 27, 1788 by John Allcot) From these very early years, there has been a huge problem between the native people and the settlers, be it prisoners or British high society. They took the lands of the locals, made them slaves, destroyed their identities. The anthropologist ...

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