To Protect, Exploit, or Govern: The Role of Indigenous Labour in Western Australia, 1829-1850

The establishment of the Swan River colony (later Western Australia) in 1829 coincided with a movement that sought to check the impacts of colonial violence and dispossession of Indigenous peoples in the British Empire. The anti-slavery campaigns which achieved abolition across the empire in 1833, and the House of Commons' 1837 Report from the Select Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements) is often cited as the starting point for Indigenous protection. However, concerns to 'protect' Indigenous rights in the early 19th century often reflected more than the desire to ensure moral reform in the colonies. As other scholars have noted, the purpose of dedicated policies of protection, similar to those provided to enslaved and indentured labourers before them, was to ensure their adherence to British authority.3 Furthermore, the unique set of circumstances that led to the establishment and development of each colony ensured that the practices and agendas pursued were often as diverse as the Indigenous agency they enabled. This was particularly the case in the early years of the Swan River colony where the treatment of the Noongar people (the original inhabitants of the south-western portion of Western Australia) pre-dated the establishment of the committee. Instead, their treatment was intricately interwoven with demands of colonial governance and labour concerns.