IMAGE: Inset image is a very early example of an Aboriginal man Arthur Phillip's men first encountered and is sometimes attributed to be Arabanoo. Background image is Arthur Phillip and his men inspecting an Aboriginal women and child suffering from smallpox c1789
From Sovereign Union.
Thanks to Chester Harris..
Many Australians are probably unaware that New Year’s Eve also marks the 237th anniversary of the British invaders’ first capture of a First Nations person in Australia in 1788.
When the British invaded in early 1788, they struggled to survive.
As they were establishing the colony, British convicts stole fishing nets and canoes from local Aboriginal people of the Eora nation, causing minor altercations.
The colonists were concerned about future quarrels with Aboriginal people when their early expeditions indicated much higher numbers of Aboriginal people inhabiting the Sydney Basin than they had anticipated.
As 1788 drew to a close, British food supplies were dwindling and, although land-clearing had begun at Parramatta in November, the colonists were unsure if they would be able to cultivate crops. By December, it had been several months since any Aboriginal people had come near the colonists’ camp, and Governor Arthur Phillip became anxious they might attack his fledgling colony.
So, on New Year’s Eve he decided to go on the offensive, sending a group of soldiers to take Aboriginal people as prisoners in order to gain information.
Led by lieutenants Henry Ball and George Johnston, a squadron of British marines rowed to Manly Beach, where they began handing out gifts to a group of Aboriginal people gathered on the shore.
Using the gifts as a distraction, the soldiers captured a young Aboriginal man named Arabanoo.
When word spread about the deceptive kidnapping of Arabanoo, animosity towards the British increased. Then, a few weeks after receiving the gifts at Manly, fear broke out when several
Aboriginal people fell ill with smallpox.
Referred to by the Eora as “galgalla”, smallpox was well known by the British, who used a process called variolation for immunisation.
The treatment involved either sniffing smallpox scabs into the nose, or inserting scabs under a small cut in a person’s skin in order to contract a mild form of the disease and trigger the immune system.
There was no record of anyone suffering smallpox during the voyage of the First Fleet. However, as a precautionary measure, British surgeons on the First Fleet carried jars of smallpox flakes in their medical cases.
When the colonists received news smallpox had broken out among the Dharug, Judge Advocate David Collins took a surgeon and Arabanoo to inspect the effects of the disease around Port Jackson.
Collins described Arabanoo’s reaction as an expression of agony impossible to forget.
The expedition looked anxiously for survivors, but found nothing besides rotting corpses of people who had fallen victim to smallpox all around the harbour. When the colonists ventured north and south of Manly over the coming months, they continued to find dead bodies.
It remains unclear whether the British deliberately infected the First Nations people they encountered. Historians have posited a range of theories about what caused the outbreak but it's a tall order to believe it was accidental
Following exposure to the smallpox virus, it takes one to two weeks for symptoms to appear. Our theory is the epidemic had been spreading for several weeks before the British recorded they were aware of it, and there version is it may have originated from the gifts handed out when Arabanoo was kidnapped about 12–13 weeks earlier.
The colonial theory is supported by Aboriginal oral history from the Manly area. According to other research, several British marines had also previously fought battles in North America, where they may have heard stories about spreading smallpox as a strategy against First Nations people there.
THE DEATH OF ARABANOO
As April passed, a hut near the British tent hospital was used to accommodate two Aboriginal men and two children suffering from smallpox. The men died, but with Arabanoo’s care, a young girl named Abaroo (also known as Boorong), and little boy named Nanbaree, managed to recover. Sadly, in the process of nursing them, Arabanoo contracted smallpox himself and subsequently died on May 18.
It is important for us to remember that First Nations people’s earliest interactions with British health care did not occur in response to injury, accident or natural disaster. Instead, it occurred because of deception, kidnapping and disease in the context of invasion by the British.
First Nations people’s relationship with white health care has been haunted by this and continuing malpractices ever since.
From an edited article authored by Toby Raeburn, Associate Professor in Nursing (mental health), University of Notre Dame
Kerrie Doyle, Professor, Indigenous Health, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University
Paul Saunders. Research fellow, Western Sydney University
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