10 things you should know about slavery in Australia
The dark history of forced labour and Stolen Wages is slowly becoming a national conversation, with people sharing their traumatic first-hand experiences of indentured service. Here are some ugly truths about white masters and black servants in Australian history.
1.
You should know that ... Just because we don't call it slavery doesn't mean it's not slaveryMuch like the words ‘invasion, ‘theft’, massacres’, and ‘wars’, Australia appears uncomfortable using the word slavery in reference to its own history. But no matter what you call it, the forcing of thousands upon thousands of people to work for no money, or only for basic rations, is tantamount to slavery by any meaningful definition.
Blackbirding, Stolen Wages, indentured service, indentured labour; are all words that have been used to avoid the harsh bite of the word. However, the realities of these words have always been much the same; unpaid labour, unsafe working conditions, exploitation, abuse, and decades long campaigns for justice and recognition - many of which are still ongoing. This is a significant relationship between Indigenous and white Australians.
2. You should know that ... the people are still alive to tell the taleWhile the forced labour of Aboriginal people by the Federal and state Governments formally began in the late 19th Century, the system didn’t end until up to the 1970s. This means that there are number of people in our community today who lived through this experience. It's a period that led to what is now known as the Stolen Wages and is intimately linked to Stolen Generations history.
3. You should know about ... The recent documentary Servant or SlaveAs an Aboriginal filmmaker I thought it my duty to give the generation a clear voice and audience in fear that in another twenty years or so, they might be gone, taking their stories with them, writes Mitchell Stanley, filmmaker of Servant or Slave. Awarded a 5-star review from The Guardian, Servant or Slave (On Demand here) tells the stories of five women who experienced Australia's slavery system first-hand. All members of the Stolen Generations, Rita Wright, Violet West and the three Wenburg sisters, Adelaide, Valerie and Rita share their experiences of being forcibly removed from their families, put into domestic training homes as children and being sent out to work as domestic 'help', and life after working in unsafe conditions for no money.
"Many Australians have some knowledge, or assumption, of the kinds of things that might have transpired during these dark times. But to hear them articulated by the victims themselves, and illustrated by powerful albeit discreet re-enactments, brings the details to mind in terrible ways," says director, Stephen McGregor.
4. You should know about ... The groundbreaking documentary, Lousy Little Sixpence An influential film (access here) by Alec Morgan which comprised interviews and historical never-before-seen footage tells the long history of unpaid servitude of Aboriginal people.
It was premiered in 1983 at the Sydney Film Festival and was the first media of it's kind to discuss - reveal, even - this widespread dark history. Audiences were so affected that some viewers thought the film was fiction because the concept was too shocking to be conceived as was real.
5. You should know about ... This quote from Larissa Behrendt"There is probably no short answer to someone in that circumstance, particularly a child who is receiving no wage or i underpaid. Human Rights standards would say it is slavery. People will say " Yeah but that's something that happened in the southern states of America and we didn't have that here", but for the child that was working for nothing in someone else's kitchen, with no other choice, cannot escape - is beaten when they don't do their work, i abused in other ways - it's slavery."