The British colonies in North America used to be the dumping grounds for convicts and other ‘undesirables’. In 1783, after losing the lands that would become the United States, Britain needed a new place where they could deposit people they didn’t want within their own borders. By 1788, the British colonization of Australia began. Seeing foreigners coming to steal lands they had inhabited for 60,000 years and bringing diseases destroying more than half of their population, Australian Aborigines fought back. A medicine man named Pemulwuy, who survived a cracked skull, multiple bullet wounds and imprisonment, was the most famous leader of Aboriginal resistance. This is his story.
Thank you to one of History on Fire’s most long-standing supporters, Chimie Moxham, for suggesting this topic.