[Music] before the dreaming the Australian continent was a flat featureless place devoid of life then giant beings came down from the sky came from across the sea and emerged from within the earth but their arrival The Dreaming began and life was born in the north of Australia the junco sisters gave birth to humanity in Central Australia eita Kawara broke the marriage laws and as punishment was turned into stone forever entombed in the landscape on the East Coast by any shape the landscape and when his work was complete he stepped onto a mountain and back into the sky as they moved across the land they're giant bodies shaped the earth creating rivers and mountain ranges in everything they touched they lift their essence making the landscapes sacred to those who honor the dreaming the first Australians [Music] if you think about the ancient civilizations that Europeans look to such as the dynasties of the pharaohs in Egypt then even they are young compared to the period when humans were coming to Australia the first Australians number more than 250 tribes each with their own language laws and territorial boundaries a civilization encompassing the entire continent we've had this debate about Australia was a Terran nullius and it was a wasted landscape and people hadn't used it and hadn't farmed it they've discovered that in fact it's probably supported about 1.6 billion lives and that's how productive Aboriginal people were able to make this part of the earth which has the most irregular and unreliable rainfall and the driest continent on earth 80,000 years 100,000 years doesn't matter whether it's 60,000 years it's an incredible length of time it's the longest living civilization on earth and if it can't learn something from people that's successful then you're really defying your own intelligence just over 200 years ago without warning strangers arrive they appear on the East Coast at a place called hwarang the strangers name at Sydney they are about to come face to face with the first Australians been along a young American who spends his days on the beach will become the toast of English society Pomeroy will reject diplomacy and declare the first war on Australian soil believing he cannot be killed by firearms wins Iran will also become a wanted man when his family is murdered over a handful of potatoes this is the story of the first Australians and the events that shaped the nation when the strangers came to stay [Music] it's impossible not to have hoped that there'd be some sort of evolution of a society which was tolerant of difference but which sustained everyone it is a summers night on the 25th of January 1788 11 giant ships into the harbor on board are over 1300 people more than half are convicts the rest are soldiers the people on board are ordered to remain there until dawn they've traveled for nearly eight months from England to this unknown land around the harbour the first Australians like fires and they yell from their canoes for these apparitions to go away they thought they was the devil when they landed first they did not know what to make of them when they saw them going up the masks they thought they was possums my route Gunners and people at first light the order is given for the convict men and women to disembark and for Aboriginal people can you imagine suddenly there are 11 ships for these strange people wearing clothes but funny hats have guns what are these people up to why are they here how long are they going to stay why did they come to my country why don't they go somewhere else are they spirits very strange [Music] there's this very curious and very touching attempt to come together and to comprehend so you have these extraordinary scenes within two or three days of landing of brittish's and Aborigines dancing together 29th of January 1788 they pointed with their sticks to the boat landing place and medicine the most cheerful manner shouting and dancing these people mixed with ours and All Hands danced together William Bradley first doctor and all we've got to go on are the paintings done by a young naval lieutenant called Bradley and he has these enchanting paintings of redcoats and Aboriginal men indeed dancing together their hand in hand they seem to be dancing a sort of playground encounter if you like when you're trying to check each other out the first Australians can't work out if these visitors are men or women as their clothing covers them like a strange skin finally an officer is challenged to submit to the country's very first immigration procedure he has a wig hair some leotards on they ask him to take his pants off which he declined and made a sailor do it Arthur Phillip captain of the first fleet leads the newcomers ashore after an unremarkable career of 30 years in the Navy he is dragged from retirement an appointed governor of a place nearly 60 times the size of England governor Phillip was in a rather unique situation when he came to Sydney because he had one of his front teeth missing and it was the same tooth that was knocked out during the mail initiation ceremony on my showing them that I lacked a front tooth it occasioned a general clamor and I thought it gave me some little merit in their opinion Arthur Phillip governor the local people would have thought here is a man who's initiated here is an elder a senior person so this is somebody we can negotiate with this is somebody we can talk to because he has shared at least one of our ceremonies he's missing his front tooth been along in his early 20s also carries the mark of a man he has passed through the sacred initiation ceremonies which complete his formal training he's married and lives in Wankel Territory where he dines on oysters and crayfish and sleeps under the stars on one of the most spectacular beaches in the world we're everywhere the spirit of Bayeux me can be felt in the wind and his voice can be heard as thunder as by a me moves across the sky Philip has spent a year in London preparing for the journey and like Noah he gathers together humans animals and supplies there are 44 sheep for cows one bull his own greyhounds tents farming equipment wine and seeds Philip is also taken on board 700 hatchets 74,000 nails 50 pickaxes and 700 cramp knives all this he takes to win over the first Australians according to his instructions these instructions also direct Philip to occupy the land of the first Australians which they now see as British territory instructions for our well beloved Arthur Philip the squire governor of New South Wales you are to endeavour by every possible means to open an intercourse for the natives and to conciliate their affections in joining all our subjects to live in Amity and kindness with Lord Sidney secretary for the Home Department the Home Office was rather good at issuing orders controlling the interactions of the British with any natives they encountered they put a great deal of time and thought into it and most of them were absolutely utopian on the ground it wasn't like that the justification for taking the land was that Aboriginal people were animals and to engage with people on an individual basis and to acknowledge that the history of those people meant that they were people what they wanted was to set up a Britishness here that was for Britons and that's exactly what drove them to do the things they did immediately he orders trees be chopped down and the land to be cleared they erect tents an area for the convict women separate from the men a blacksmith the hospital and a store invisible to Philip are the clearly defined territories of the Sydney clans on the North Shore other Baraga goal and Gomorrah girl lands and on the South the bitter bitter girl the gadigal and been along people the Wong go all men a equal these ideas were there sitting there and Britain went off and said now these people are inferior we can I own this land that assumption was inhumane they did incomprehensible things and they treated each other with vile cruelty the first Australians are quickly learning about this military society from a distance they realized that the men wearing red are armed and are to be avoided [Music] average on people watching must have been horrified within the space of a week or so there were 1,100 people in their country and they would have been outnumbered [Music] before Philip can conciliate the affections of the natives in 1789 disaster strikes an extraordinary calamity was now observed among the natives repeated accounts bought by our boats are finding bodies of the Indians and all the coves and inlets of the hub pustules similar to theirs occasioned by smallpox were thickly spread on the bodies but our disease could at once have introduced itself and then spread so widely seemed inexplicable what content how did it come to Australia I think there's such a debate and there's such speculation that we can't know definitively but in my own mind it's clear that it came with the first foot it's sometimes said more often believed that the smallpox was let loose by the British at that point in time to destroy the possibility of Aboriginal resistance I simply can't comprehend that notion at all in all he accounts there is bewilderment despair horror in the British accounts as they see that smallpox is loosed among the native population the excavations in the rocks were filled with putrid bodies who had fallen victims to the disorder not a living person was anywhere to be met with it seems as if flying from the contagion they had left the dead to bury the dead he lifted up his hands and eyes in silent agony for some time the last he exclaimed all dead all dead and then hung his head in mournful silence David Collins judge advocate [Music] none of the whites are affected by it as they are immune to it England were masters and the first masters of German were warfare there were alehrer listed through India they tried it in the Americas they released it in the West Indies and they brought it here some say it came from the north of the continent bought by McKesson fishermen and arrived coincidentally just after the British whatever the source it wipes out the great majority of the first Australians in the Sydney region terrified some survivors flee from the epidemic and carry the disease further where it makes its remorseless journey from clan to clan this is all my country nice country when our little fella plenty black fella plenty gin plenty [ __ ] great robbery plenty fight hey or gone now all gone only me left to walkabout my room gum evaluation Bennelong survives on the 25th of November 1789 a boat sets out from the British camp towards him and the remnants of his people with the intention of capturing them the two poor devils were seized and handed into the boat in an instant the noise of the men crying and screaming of the women and children together with the situation of the two miserable wretches in opposition was really a most distressing scene it was by far the most unpleasant service I was ever ordered to execute william bratton first lieutenant Pennell long is one of two men abducted and taken bounding ropes to government house to make philip he believed it was essential to establish some communication with these people who fled before him therefore he did what other imperialists have done before him he thought he'd kidnapped someone so he would then have an interpreter and someone who could explain to his own people Philips benevolent intention the poor fellow as I am told exhibited the strongest marks of terror and consternation believing there were certainly meant to be sacrificed he starts to bring Aboriginal people in in this case coercively as if they're prisoners to do to be there at his convenience rather than him going to them and involving them in a process of of change for Philip change was to be imposed when they were taken to the governor's house and immediately cleaned and closed their astonishment everything they saw was amazing a new world was unfolded to their view at once Elizabeth McArthur settler despite being locked up there long is dressed in specially created silk suit his charms quickly engaged government house society and he entertains his captors by imitating them and toasting the king he quickly threw off or reserved his powers of mind were certainly far above mediocrity he acquired knowledge both of our manners and language he willingly communicated information sang danced and capered told us all the customs of his country and all the details of his family economy they are universally fearful of spirits they call us spirit more they often scruple to approach a corpse saying that the mourn will seize them and that it fastens upon them in the night when asleep when asked where their deceased friends are they always point to the skies not content Bennelong finds common ground in more earthly practices explaining that benelli means to kiss which of course the first Australians also like to do I think they were both strategically learning as much about each other as they possibly could I think they needed each other but Philip needed Bennelong more than Bennelong needed Philip for sure in fact Philip and Bennelong developed a surprisingly intimate and touching relationship he calls Philip baiana father and Philip called him son Chris something we have to remember that the smallpox has gone through you know the old rules have been damaged how do you keep the old shapes of authority after that terrible decimation it always meant to be a mediator between the clans and between between government and the colony the colonists but I don't think it worked out that way in April 1790 the shackle is removed from Ben Alone's leg at 2:00 a.m. on the morning of the 3rd of May Bennelong wakes his guard and tells him he is sick the unsuspecting guard opens the door to let him out but once outside bent along strips of his English clothes and leaps the paling fence to freedom disappearing into the night Philip is in despair our native has left us and that at a time when he appeared to be happy and contented this too is unlucky as we have all the ceremony to go over again with another I think that man is leaving us prove that nothing will make these people amends for the loss of their Liberty ah Philip governor [Music] Phillips sends his men to bring him back and when the officers call from their boats have been along the women laugh and mimic them he has returned to his former way of life [Music] then long avoids Phillip for several months until the 7th of September 1790 when Phillip discovers the first Australians are at a whale fest and that been along is amongst them as governor Philip had always been desirous of meeting with this man and had sought an opportunity from the day he left his house he went to the spot where he had been seen Philip is absolutely determined to establish friendly contact again he needs it he wants it and he also feels it been along entices Philip into a circle of warriors captain hunter illustrates the moment in his sketchbook as Philip is surrounded on the beach been long introduces Philip to a qiraji a clever man Philip thinks he's being asked to make friends with the other warrior so he puts down his arms and walks towards him with his hands out the native stepping back with his right leg through the spear with great violence and it struck against governor Philips collarbone which he painted and the bob came out close to the third vertebrae of the back the behaviour of Daniel could not be accounted for he never attempted to interfere when the man took the spirit serve a single word to prevent him from throwing it [Music] a bewildered Phillip has been punished in a ritual known as payback whatever Bennelong and his people saw Philips trying to be Philippe's wounded and the score is settled the spearing of governor Phillip suggested that where he was speared where it got him that was paid back showing in fact it's a harsh way to say it but trying to tell him that they liked him if they had intended to kill him they would have killed him they merely wounded him and I think certainly it was a sign that they wanted Phillip to be aware that he shouldn't cross the line he shouldn't go too far with his own capacity to exact blood he absolutely prohibited any vengeance at all being taken you know i he didn't know just what had happened what the mechanisms of it were because you know anything like enough about Aboriginal political culture but he knew enough to have a sense that this had been a formalized occasion and that somehow he'd muffed his lines Phillip tries to woo bin along back to government house but Bennelong plays hard to get a month passes before Ben alone finally concedes to Phillips please Ben along his wife are greeted like celebrities on their return on hearing of their arrival such numbers flocked to see them when we reached the Governor's House Ben long expressed honest joy to see his old friend and appeared pleased that he had recovered of his wound Bennelong seemed to consider himself quite at home running from room to room with his companions and introducing them to his old friends particularly the governor's orderly sergeant whom he kissed with great affection what content it is a turning point in relations and now the first Australians taking Ben alongs lead flock into the settlement they visit the governors and walk the streets of Sydney town and many move in with the settlers they were frequently visited by many of the natives some of whom daily came to the barracks all of them were very fond of bread and they now found the advantage of coming amongst the settles other Philip governor of the many Europeans who are fascinated with the first Australians lieutenant doors becomes one of the most familiar in his out-of-the-way observatory he meets the first Australians on their own terms Dawes was a very religious young man we're told he was also a very aloof and solitary young man he was an expert astronomer he managed to establish intimate relationships with a young Aboriginal girl called Poirot he gone mad a guru bangin on Appa we shall sleep separate they go out of my demeanor you winked at me Buddha to warm one's hands by the fire and then squeeze gently the fingers of another person there's this interaction which is on a much more relaxed and friendly basis and it allows for an understanding of each other's culture an understanding of what the requirements are from each other's perspective what the obligations are in each other's culture patio Goering teaches him her language and in return he teaches her to read and write English here a papillary ow I shall not become white this was said by Patchi going after I told her that if she would wash herself often she would become white the same time throwing down a towel in despair William Dawes there's no doubt that there's was a tender relationship whether it was physical is I don't know but tender it certainly was she was a person who actively was involved in this interrelationship with doors so it's not a question of her just being a subject or someone who was investigated by doors it was a genuine relationship [Music] the interaction between the settlers and the first Australians is steadily improving until the 10th of December 1790 when Philips gamekeeper a man called McIntyre is fatally wounded he staggers into the settlement with a death spear through his body his killer is Pomeroy meaning man of Earth he has a blemish in his left eye a sign that he is a kraji a sorcerer or clever man Hemingway was another man like bent along who was fully an adult initiated and had clearly been engaged in skirmishes before some feuding some warfare who can know but he was clearly by no means a stranger to violence McIntyre was feared with what's called a death sphere this is a long hunting sphere which is armed with two rows of stone flakes and once these two rows were mounted with resin on the head of the spear when the spear went into a person the barbs dislodged and remained inside so the person would ultimately died it is said that Pomeroy was seen at been alone just before the murder and that they may have conspired to serve McIntyre his retribution it seems highly likely that McIntyre was shooting Aborigines as he was out hunting animals he was a gamekeeper shooting food for the governor and four other officers from the attitude have been along towards him and other Aboriginal people in the colony and indeed from some of his own statements shortly before his death it seems highly likely that he was regularly killing Aboriginal people and so it was almost certainly payback on his deathbed McIntyre calls for a priest in order to confess his sins the poor wretch now began to added the most dreadful exclamations and to accuse himself of crimes of the deepest I accompany with such expressions of his despair of God's mercy as are too terrible to repeat what content this was the turning point Philip became enraged the natives will be made severe examples of whenever any man is wounded by them but this will be done in a manner which may satisfy them that it is a punishment inflicted on them but with their own bad conduct Philip asks been long to find Pomeroy but Bennelong and his people are glad to see the last of MacIntyre this fellow that's been killed MacIntyre its engagement and ISA Gardiner they can't understand why Philip is so angry I think Philip was under a lot of stress his living standards were becoming worse and worse the colony was becoming perilously close to starvation and this must have been an incident of enormous proportions perhaps blown out of proportion for Philip a party are to be ready to march tomorrow morning at daylight in order to bring in six of those natives who reside in the head of botany bay or if that should be found to be impracticable to put that number to death Governor William Dawson his colleague what content are ordered to lead the revenge party tent similar to doors has befriended the first Australians he expresses his disgust at the order in his journal at 4 o'clock on the morning of the 14th December 1790 we marched with three days provision ropes to bind our prisoners with and hatchets and bags to cut off and contain the heads of the slain what content off they go as he says heavily encumbered Europeans in pursuit of naked native Indians as he always calls them because his time in America on their home ground yet they're somehow meant to entrap them or encircle them or catch them now they're carrying 60 pounds on their back they're in these big red hot coats big boots trying to go through the bush on his own turf Pomeroy eludes the officers with ease Philip cannot accept he has been outmaneuvered doors refuses to participate when Philip orders them to go out yet again it's a very strange performance from a cool-headed man all it happens on a second expedition is that they you a number of them nearly drown themselves in quicksand by November 1791 after governing for three years Philip is exhausted by the extraordinary effort of establishing the colony and he resigns due to his ill health despite doors wanting to stay Philip orders him to leave in his final weeks doors truly discovers how he and his people are perceived I then told her that a white man had been wounded some days ago and asked her why the black men did it go Lara minion Galera Yura in young mallow a whitening [Music] with doors departure Perrier Goering his friend and confidant disappears from the written record perhaps returning to her country or some say she even sailed to Calcutta hoping to follow doors Philip has succeeded in conciliating the affections of at least one of the natives been along willingly boards the ship with Philip and he takes with him his young friend Yama warranty all very well for Bennelong but not his wife who smashes his Spears as he sails into the distance with the governor of their embarked voluntarily and cheerfully to natives of this country been along and you marijuana who withstood at the moment of their departure the United distress of their wives to accompany him to England a place that they well knew was at a great distance from them David Collins judge advocate imagine the idea of him travelling back with the English to wherever it was that they came from with no idea if he would ever come home and he wanted to know where they came from we wanted to know if they were gods or men [Music] for Bennelong it is like arriving on another planet [Music] governor Philip is brought down with him two of the natives of New Holland a man and a boy and brought them to town the Atlantic also has on board for kangaroos lively and healthy and some other animals peculiar to that country the London packet he was their trophy been long was the ultimate trophy to prove that they'd created a colony and befriended the natives and brought a native back to court to exhibit been along in the same way that the returning Roman soldiers exhibited lions and tigers and elephants and gold and trinkets the day after their arrival in London been along in Germany are fitted with clothing worn by gentlemen of society bills paid by mr. Waterhouse on the account of two natives two pairs of knee buckles fresh he needs two pair of gloves four shillings a boat for the natives bathing two shillings it's like a dancing bear everyone wants to talk and everyone wants to poke him everyone wants a rubbish skin he's a curiosity to [ __ ] natives of New South Wales went to the houses of parliament where they were introduced to several persons of consequence the Oracle and public advertiser 19th of April 1794 he'd arrived in a society that was so utterly different from his own but which know the less he managed to infiltrate to manipulate on taking his leave Bennelong asked the Prime Minister for permission to kiss his fair daughter's hand to which her father agreed the young lady held at a hand encased in a cloth Bennelong however declared in a loud firm voice Madame I received permission to kiss your hand not talk love [Music] two years on the novelty of Bennelong has worn off his young friend yeah Moroni after suffering for many months with pneumonia has died a world away from his country and people in memory of EMA warranty a native of New South Wales who died the 18th May 1794 in the nineteenth year of his age [Music] Bell dongs depressed alone and on the verge of dying himself as he waits in the hull of a ship through a freezing English winter hoping to set sail for home he is unaware of the fate that has befallen his people back in Sydney with Philip now out of the way military officers take over and begin granting land to their mates the land grab has begun and seeking better farming lands to support their growing population the newcomers push out beyond Menelaus territory following rivers they move south and west into Biddy agirl inland eric and gundam Gaara territory [Music] the first target is the Fertile river banks where they replace the native yam beds with their own pops of corn with their livelihood at stake the first Australians fight back [Music] pema way unleashes his fury at their trespass into his territory the papers report his raids and his name once more spreads fear amongst the settlers he had them frightened the definite voters that day he could be a mile away from them set to scrub on fire he knew which way the winds were going to go he knew how the fire would run and he'd burn them out and he wouldn't have to be within Kuya Bird all the crops between Parramatta and Sydney Cove and break the legs on sheep and cattle so they couldn't sustain their farms in their attacks they conducted himself with much armed but where that failed they had recourse to force and on the least appearance of resistance made use of their Spears or clubs David Collins Judge Advocate whether it was a grudge whether he wanted to revenge whether he wanted to drive the British out we can't precisely know but somewhere in there lies the answer we were followed by a large body of natives headed by Pennell white a riotous and troublesome Savage who in a great rage threatened to spear the first man that dare to approach him and actually did throw a spear at one of the soldiers last week the government sent 60 soldiers to kill all they could meet with they seized a native boy who had lived with the settler and made him discover where his parents and relations concealed themselves they came upon the man armed and unexpected killed five and wounded many more the dead they hang on gibbons the people killed were unfortunately the most friendly of the blacks and one of them more than once saved the life of a white man Reverend Thomas fish Palmer the ideas of self-preservation and having farms here and all these things were very romantic in the mind of contemporary white people because they love hearing that kind of history what they don't like is the aboriginal perspective that says that that Aboriginal people were protecting the land and they did it continually an open war seemed about this time to have commenced between the natives and the settlers David Collins judge advocate 1802 him always killed head cut off it's taken back to the colony Sydney there are two put in a jar like a pickle jar with alcohol let's put on the next boat and let's take him back to England taking heads to England and sending them across to other places in Europe was in fact the ultimate insult it was not only insulting to the people whose heads were removed but it was insulting to their families and relatives who were left without having the capacity to carry out the ceremonies that they needed to satisfactorily complete the requirements of burial or cremation or whatever else was needed taking his head showing it in the streets taking it back to England was not just a war trophy but a sign that they had finally conquered the Aborigines Pomeroy's head arrives in London and is placed at the Royal College of Surgeons Museum it is soon lost amongst the thousands of specimens gathered from around the world we need the whole of him to put it to rest once and for all after Pomeroy's death the British believed the war of resistance has ended but Pomeroy is now a martyr and his influence spreads to others we have to look at the ways in which Europeans acted did they make an effort to do what they were supposed to do is there any evidence that they were building a humanities building a partnership and the answer to that is no [Music] I think it's a those first three years of a heartbreaking time because you see people of curiosity goodwill trying to comprehend each other for a while it looked like that something was possible here which hadn't happened anywhere else that something remarkable might have been achieved and that dawn closed catastrophic ly and quickly within a few years [Music] Bennelong arrives back in sydney and immediately takes up residence in government house perhaps expecting a hero's welcome on his first appearance he conducted himself with a polished familiarity towards his sisters and other relations but to his acquaintances he was distant and quite the man of consequence David Collins judge advocate his own country his own society is absolutely transformed and his own position in it has vanished because this is a period of very fast change and he can never reclaim that position of authority again sir hope all are well in England I live at the governance I have not a wife another black man took her away he speared me in the back you can watch him being drained of prestige it's very painful to watch madam I want stockings thank you madam send me two pair stockings send me some shoes to pay please sir Benoit he takes to drink in fury he stalks through the streets of Sydney naked with his Spears threatening to kill the governor no it's a here's a man driven to the limits of endurance by the disappointments and the confusions and the ambitions he has felt his whole society is on its last legs alcohol's taken hold Aboriginal people have become fringe dwellers in Sydney town and despised and hated eventually they were hunted away from the houses and were left living in the streets drinking rum rum was used from the earliest times to lull the convicts into drunken stupidity and indeed it wasn't my opinion used as an enticement with Aboriginal people - a dictum to the effects of alcohol and to gain some control over them binlong had become so fond of drink that when any officers invited him to their houses he was eager to be intoxicated and in that state were so savage and violent as to be capable of any mischief Governor John Hunter been along eventually turns his back on government house returning to his own people [Music] when Aboriginal people are actually materially emotionally physically philosophically equal to watch they're not interested in what the white fellows have got to offer they're not interested and they reject it [Music] you for some time after his return it is true he assumed the manners the dress and consequence of a European but since he's returned to New South Wales he has subsequently taken to the woods again returned to his old habits and now lives in the same manner as those who have never mixed with the civilised world David Mann the Europeans of the colony will not forgive Bennelong for choosing his life over there's been long died on Sunday morning at kissing point of this veteran champion of the native tribe little favorable can be said his voyage to the neverland treatment in Great Britain produced enough change whatever in his manners and inclinations which were naturally barbarous and ferocious in fact he was a ferrous savage but the tribe been along was leading at the time of his death he was a different man I had a port would have been along which I showed his kindred which had been taken in England in my pocket at the time I took it out and showed it to them when they looked upon his features and they were astonished and wept aloud it is been along they cried he was our brother and our friend Reverend Lee a peacemaker in a leader the first of his people to see the newcomers world been along is largely forgotten he dies being regarded he was given an epitaph of being an irreconcilable savage and to see that light-footed man that man of so much political skill and resilience so reduced is I think tragic with Sidney conquered the land grab moves west the only natural obstacle in their path is the Blue Mountains some convicts believe that just over the mountains lies China and many died trying to find a way over it takes the settlers 25 years to find a way of crossing the Blue Mountains using an Aboriginal trade route but it is not the mountains they are interested in rather their endless pastures that lay beyond well William Sadler here is my great-great great-grandfather but he came across the mountains he was only 17 years old so he would have been filled with ambition to try and you know make his mark and to try and grow whatever they had for their family being young in a new area it must have been a very exciting time for him because he had all the energy to go ahead and do things and it must have just been like you could just see the whole world out there or what he thought was a whole new world as they move inland the settlers are observed by the people who live here they stumble onto one of Australia's biggest tribes the war a jury windra dine is a young warrior when the newcomers first arrived in his territory they called him Saturday he was a fairly far oblate - from what I understand because actually the first part of his name means fire he was fairly calm trying to get on with the with the British net when they first came there he was a very very family-orientated sort of follow but also strong with his culture and things like that I feel pretty very proud to send it back to him William Sutter arrives in Windsor Dan's country in 1822 with his father George they are guided to land with good water by the Rhodri people [Applause] they call their station Bruce Dale [Music] William is left in charge with instructions from his father to treat the local Roger E with kindness and respect he takes the instructions to heart more than any other and he learns to speak the very language they would have come to a place with absolutely nothing no house no fences or anything and probably not a lot of cleared land so it's been in the family right from when it was an original land ground so and I'm the sixth generation on it now the country has opened up to anyone who can pay to settle there by the new governor Sir Thomas Brisbane but he does not find time to explain this to the ruggieri people as governing goes this is not a spectacular success so the idea then in the minds of the British were that that they could simply go over the mountains if they could do that and own everything out there at the time or the governor's you know they gave land to the white settlers and yeah we just took it it was as simple as that like there wasn't any treaties signed to say I were young like there was recognition of prior ownership you have these people come across the mountains and just set up a town and declared it a town and then just started clearing the land and taking over everything that now the whole rotary people were left basically starving in their own land the barrage rewatch as the land is cleared of trees trees have special meaning for the Roger II who carving to their bark to mark graveyards and sacred initiation sites they call Bora grounds it's just a tree to other people something worries to us it's partly our being and this would have enraged the Oratory people about that knocking down these sacred objects that were part of their belief system [Music] these natives have some imperfect ideas of property and the right of possession they say or wild animals or there's the tame or cultivated ones are ours whatever spring spontaneously from the earth or without labour is there's also things produced by art and labor how the white fellows as they call us George Sutter there was an incident that started a whole lot of the conflict in Bathurst where there's a potato farmer at Kelso where he was growing potatoes and he'd offered the aboriginals some potatoes and they tasted them and they must have tasted really nice because they came back later and are actually digging them up so they went in to help themselves with more and this father took offense to it they went shot most of winter lions family [Music] and so his anger just sort of come out of him and he'd rallied up his people to take these people on he figured out we've got to fight these people a different way how our rules of engagement were our rules of sorting out disputes around the window now he decided that it actually go to war with local farms and he was seeking revenge for what had happened so when did I know she turned up at Bristol where William was now Hut was one day surrounded by a large party of blacks fully equipped for war under the leadership of their great fears chief and warrior named by the whites Saturday there was no means of resistance son my father been a lad of eighteen years met them fiercely at the door he spoke to them in their own language in such a manner as not to let them suppose he anticipated any evil from them they consulted in an undertone and departed was suddenly come noiselessly as they came they never molested man or beast of my father's William saturd in yer William met with him in spite Amin in the original language and saying that he had nothing to do with the killings and he probably would have said that he was appalled with what was going on and he didn't want anything to do with what what the white people were doing and so when Durant probably would have accepted them and they disappeared that night and and one of the few families never got attacked when Jordan chooses his next target carefully it is the home of Samuel Terry who was build his farm on a Borah ground and is also rumored to have fed the Wiradjuri poison on the estate of mr. Terry Miller Mora three poor men have been destroyed by natives when the hapless men were killed the sable murderers then proceeded to break up and destroy every article of convenience about wintertime then continues on to another two stations horribly killing yet war men burning to the ground their huts and scattering and slaughtering their sheep in one month alone thirteen white Stockman are killed and many others are abandoning their properties in fear of the war re no one is safe in this climate of terror the newcomers retaliate with grim results one of the largest holders of sheep in the colony maintained at a public meeting at Bathurst that the best thing that could be done would be to shoot all the blacks and manure the ground with their carcasses which was all the good they were fit for it was recommended likewise that the women and children should especially be shot as the most certain method of getting rid of the race shortly after this declaration martial law was proclaimed and sad was the havoc made upon the tribes at Bethesda a large number were driven into a swamp and Mounted Police whirled round and round in a shotgun off indiscriminately until they were all destroyed 45 heads were collected and boiled down for the sake of the skulls Reverend throw held the Declaration of martial law means that the word jury are now facing the full force of British military expeditions and set the punitive parties against them just imagine on a rural property half a dozen troopers mandolin horses come galloping in into the homestead and there's true Aboriginal women and five kids who they just catch sight off what do they do but imagine the language imagine a few shots over their head imagine the raucous laughter as those women scurry absolutely terror stricken down to the creek and disappear as faster they possibly can grabbing up the kids under each arm running in screaming their heads off thing oh Christ they're gonna come and kill us all now a party went out in quests to the natives but the only horde they fell in with comprised three women and without questioning the propriety of such a step immediately dispatched the poor on offending creatures notwithstanding they were females five white storekeepers are charged with manslaughter for killing the women but a found not guilty after a couple of months of this full-on attack who a jury realized they can no longer sustain their resistance in October and November rayji leaders start coming in to Bathurst and start asking for peace it is not governor Brisbane who resolves this conflict Windsor Dean decides to make a peace to stop the bloodshed it takes him 17 days to walk from Bathurst across the Blue Mountains and into Parramatta leading a hundred and thirty warriors to attend the annual Native feast the whites come out in force to see this fable figure and they are impressed he is the finest looking native we have seen in this part of the country which combined with a noble looking countenance and piercing high are calculated to impress the beholder towards a character who has been so much dreaded by the Bathurst settler Saturday is without doubt the most manly black native we've ever beheld a fact pretty generally acknowledged by the numbers that saw him when Jaden attends the native feast with the word peace stuck in his house I am most happy to report to your lordship that Saturday their great and most warlike chieftain has been with me to receive his pardon and that he with most of his tribe attended the annual conference governor Brisbane but he would have walked in to Parramatta with his head held high and his worries standing tall too behind him sort of not showing any sort of signs of young well we're defeated and you know we still proud people and so he wouldn't have liked the Dunnan but he would have had to have done it to save the rest of his people from around the Bathurst area window die lives out the rest of his days in Marah dreary country he frequently visits and lives at Bruce Dale on his death window dine is wrapped in his possum skin cloak and buried in his traditional land on the Sutter's property where he remains today and the country's got to recognize the hurt that our people went through and even some of their people went through which is within their descendancy who do not want to even recognize or even want to even talk about those things that happened to them or whatever their feelings were involved in so it's not a blame game thing I don't think anymore it's just yeah we need to heal and then move on 200 years on the first Australians and those that came after them are still working out issues over land and how to live together [Music] George Sutter writes his final recollection of his friend they had called Saturday I was much amused the other day fine winter's day to see Saturday and his tribe and friends seated on the ground in groups of men and women and seeming to be enjoying their singing and making joyful noises for hours I give my opinion the cause of the disturbances between us and the Aborigines is the cruel conduct of some of our people the natives are really fond of the white people I have always been friendly to them we have never suffered the smallest injury from them George Sutter I think there's a friendship which was very very important and that's what's a William otherwise you know we might not be here today [Music]