Rum and Corn Pipes: The introduction of alcohol and tobacco into Aboriginal populations of the Hunter Region of central eastern New South Wales, Australia, in the first half of the 19th century

Abstract

In this article it will be shown through archival sources that alcohol and tobacco were introduced by colonists into Aboriginal communities living in the Hunter Region of central eastern New South Wales in the first half of the 19th century. Colonists used alcohol and tobacco as a means of pacifying and coercing Aboriginal people to perform a variety of tasks and services, including carrying water, serving as guides, and supplying foods and labour. It will be argued that the introduction of these addictive substances was a colonial practice which not only created a physiological dependency, but also increased the vulnerability of Aboriginal people to disease by reducing immunity. This article suggests that historians review proposals that a lack of natural or acquired immunity to exotic disease was a major cause of Indigenous depopulation by acknowledging that other factors intertwine to weaken immunity. This article will nominate the introduction of alcohol and tobacco as a factor which extends beyond exotic disease theories that solely prescribe a lack of natural immunity as a reason Aboriginal people died from disease. According to contemporary medical expertise, the health and well-being of an individual or society is determined by social, physical and environmental factors which, if negative, produce a harmful effect. In contemporary Australia, alcohol and tobacco are two of the major contributors to a gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.