Abstract
What was Governor Arthur Phillip's relationship with the Eora, and other Aboriginal people of the Sydney region? How do we interpret Philip in the light of his actions towards Aboriginal people? Looking at the colony's early years through the twin lenses of British and Eora perspective and experience banishes the notion that there can be only one 'right' story or way of interpreting Phillip's legacy.
Highlights
In the Botanic Gardens stands a grand monument to Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales
What was Governor Arthur Phillip'ʹs relationship with the Eora, and other Aboriginal people of the Sydney region?2 Historians and anthropologists have been exploring this question for some decades
Phillip'ʹs policies, actions and responses have tended to be seen as a proxy for the Europeans in Australia as whole, just as his friend, the Wangal warrior Woolarawarre Bennelong, has for so long personified the fate of Aboriginal people since 1788.3 The relationship between Phillip and Bennelong has been read as representing settler-‐‐Aboriginal relations in those first four years but as the template for the following two centuries of cross-‐‐cultural relations
Summary
In the Botanic Gardens stands a grand monument to Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales. What was Governor Arthur Phillip'ʹs relationship with the Eora, and other Aboriginal people of the Sydney region?2 Historians and anthropologists have been exploring this question for some decades now. What was Governor Arthur Phillip'ʹs relationship with the Eora, and other Aboriginal people of the Sydney region?2 Historians and anthropologists have been exploring this question for some decades In the early accounts, such as Arthur Wilberforce Jose'ʹs 1915, History of Australasia, Phillip was kind but embattled, while Aboriginal people were inexplicably savage, just another obstacle in his way: The natives, too, were hostile Phillip did his best to treat kindly, but few of the settlers followed his example; stragglers from the township were killed by the way of revenge, and the bush was set on fire whenever the white men turned their stock into it.[5]. The twin lenses banish once and for all the notion that there can be only one 'ʹright'ʹ story
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