Aboriginal Perspective and the Secret River

Secret River The two part series The Secret River, is based on Kate Grenvilles book of the same name. The series is about the colonisation of Australia through the story of Will and Sal Thornhill, who 'takes up land' on the Hawkesbury River. Will is a convict, his character may be seen as akin to many poor Dickensian characters. Once freed in Australia he has an opportunity to start a new life, which he wants to do on a point of land along the Hawksbury River.

It is here the main issue of the book manifests; the cultural differences between the white settlers and the Aboriginal people, who have very different perspectives on the issue of land ownership. The story is of the bloody and brutal settlement of the area, with characters such as Smasher Sullivan, Saggity Birtles, and Ned's perceiving the Aboriginal people as nothing but uncivilised savages, who they can abuse. When Will is presented as wanting to settle the land, he is full of exuberance and passion.

He is presented as a good father and husband, effectively civilised after his criminal [pat has been overcome. His view on the land is typical of western standards; if the land is unsettled it is assumed that the land is not owned making it free for a settles to take. His desire to own the land and make his mark is seen with the way he titles the land Thornhills Point. The underlying theme is that of cultural misunderstanding and different attitudes.

While ownership to the western world meant possessing and often using the artefact or land owned. Where there was land which did not appear to be worked, and no ownership rights exerted, it was assumed the land did not belong to anyone. Indeed, after Captain Cook discovered Australia, he claimed it for the Crown as terra nullius, or uninhabited, indicating that it was an empty continent (Eckermann et al., 2010). This attitude denied any rights or legitimacy to the Aboriginal people.

This ethnocentric approach towards colonisation is clearly evident in The Secret River, especially Smasher Sullivan and Saggity Birtles, who exhibit the use of stereotyping towards the aboriginal; assuming specific unfavourable characteristics without attempting to get to know the natives on land. Indeed, it may be argued that the ethnocentric approach that was inherent in many of the settlers' attitude often lead to xenophobia, where they were afraid of the aboriginals as they did not understand.

This may be typified with the way in which the relationship develops, and the way in which the government sent a military regiment to punish aboriginals who took one of the settlers; Spiders', crop. The core element of the cultural clashes between the settlers and the aboriginal people is the claiming and use of the land. The western culture of ownership did not exist within the Aboriginal nation.

Within the aboriginal culture land has a completely different meaning, it has a life of its own, and rather than belonging to people, people belong to the land with a spiritual, social and physical connection to that land (Clarke, 2014). A key element is the perception of land as a mother, with aboriginals having a responsibility to care for the health of the land and water on that land (Pettit, 2015).

When aboriginal people, with a strong spiritual connection to the loan, see it being taken, and then altered by settlers, there is a natural desire to protect that land. The aboriginal people had existed for generations without the need to cultivate land, the process of cultivation invariably resulted in destruction of the natural environment.

While to the western eyes the cultivation of land may have been an improvement, to the aboriginal people it was not only destruction of land, but a harming the environment, which also deprives them of their native habitat which had been providing for them for millennia. Will is not portrayed as either a villain or a hero, he is one of many settlers who happens to be the focus of this series.

However, it is the difficulties he faces when trying to cultivate the land that clearly demonstrate the divergences cultural attitudes. Will attempts, in a very clumsy manner, to cajole the local Aboriginal people, and seems unable to understand how it may be possible for the two different people to live on the same land.

He was also a former convict, appears to have some sense of responsibility telling Will "If you take a little, you have to give a little." This may appear logical to a western concept, and is aligned with processes of negotiation, but the basic concept retains an underlying misunderstanding of Aboriginal culture, where the land is no wants to take.

There are many elements in the series that display the difficulties, faced by those who have come from a culture with an ethnocentric approach, and those who have never encountered concepts of land ownership. A turning point is seen when Will travels to the Darkey Creek Aboriginal settlement, and finds a deserted camp, with the poisoned aboriginal people. The true brutality of the settlers attitudes are seen in the actions that result in deaths, which are deaths the Aboriginals could not avoid.

When the native people take corn growing on Thornhills Point the aspect of ownership is evident; Will is enraged when he shouts to them to stop picking the corn and they ignore him; he has worked hard to grow the corn, putting in his own labor and using his own resources to cultivate the crop, with the Aboriginal people coming and stealing it. Following other joining Will, the Aboriginals retreat, with a young boy left behind.

Will seams to take pity on the boy and he is released, and Will does not want the other to take any more action against the Aboriginal people, believing that they have learned their lesson. Even this may be seen as an ethnocentric approach, as it places the aboriginal people in the context of children who need to learn how to behave, and that suitable actions may help to civilise them. However, the following morning the corn patch has been burnt down.

To Williams this was an act not only of vandalism, but one which was designed to humiliate and degrade him, so he reacted in line with his culture and the laws he was used to; protecting his land with a gun. It is at this point of destruction there appears to be some realisation of the differences for Sal, that the area was the Aboriginals' home.

Throughout the novel and the television series Sal longs to return to her home in London, and if she has this longing to return to her native land, there must be at least some understanding of what the native land means to the aboriginal people. The Aboriginal people are fighting back, Saggity after an attack on his.