In September last year we marked the arrival of an important new initiative in tracking Australia's Black and White history: the Australian Wars and Resistance website.
The website is a collaborative effort to map and provide information about Australian Wars and Resistance. It will be updated and expanded based on previous and ongoing research.
The website is a response to the call for greater recognition, understanding and acknowledgement of the Australian Wars or Frontier Wars. It includes an interactive map and sources, with a bibliography which complements the Reading List on the Defending Country site.
From the first British settlement in 1788 to the 1930s [the website commences], wars and resistance occurred across the continent of Australia. These were mortal conflicts between colonists and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over land, water, resources and the ability to exist as a people. These were undeclared guerilla wars, waged through raids, killings and massacres. Colonisation, violence and resistance did not end but continued in different forms during the 'mission phase' and after. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
The information on the website is provisional and will be updated with research. 'We estimate there are roughly 10,000 events that comprise these wars and resistance movements, involving 100s of named and 1000s of unnamed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as well as colonists.'
The new website emphasises that the history of settler-invader contact with First Nations Australians is not just about massacres - of First Nations people by settlers, military, and police - but also about resistance by First Nations people.
Australian War Memorial Council Chair (recently re-elected) Kim Beazley has often talked about the Memorial needing to depict 'the dignity of resistance'. Defending Country expects that 2026 will see not only further development of the Australian Wars and Resistance site but also progress at the Memorial towards Chair Beazley's worthy objective.
