Supported by archival footage and historian interviews, this clip identifies values and attitudes in the past about race. At the time of colonisation, white Europeans saw themselves as a superior race and Aboriginal Australians as an inferior race. This perspective influenced ideas like terra nullius and subsequent policies that affected the treatment of Aboriginal groups during this time period.
Historians explain some common early views that the Europeans and the Aboriginal people had of one another. Some Aboriginal people thought that the Europeans were ghosts, and some Europeans thought that the Aboriginal people were savages. Despite early mutual curiosity, conflicting views about land use and laws eventually led to Aboriginal dispossession of land, and the assimilation policies of Federation.
This historical documentary from John Pilger is an early exploration of the struggles of Indigenous Australians in their own country, and the long, historical conspiracy of silence in Australia.
A Brief History of Australia by 