Edward Micklethwaite Curr

Edward Curr

Edward Micklethwaite Curr (25 December 1820 – 3 August 1889) was an Australian pastoralist, author, advocate of Australian Aboriginal peoples, and squatter.

Quotes

• [T]he Australian black, without exception, nurtures, one might almost say from the cradle to the grave, an intense hatred of every male at least of his race who is a stranger to him. The reason they themselves assign for what I must term this diabolical feeling is, that all strangers are in league to take their lives by sorcery. The result of this belief is that whenever they can, the blacks in their wild state never neglect to massacre all male strangers who fall into their power. Females are ravished and often slain afterwards if they cannot be conveniently carried off. Such being the normal state of things amongst the Australian blacks, the cause of war, of which I am now treating is generally set down to the sorcery of some hostile or little-known tribe. In such cases a party will set out after the burial, mad for bloodshed; march by night in the most stealthy manner, perhaps fifty or a hundred and fifty miles, into a country inhabited by tribes the very names of which they may be ignorant of. On discovering a party of such people they will hide themselves, and then creep up to their camp during the night, when the inmates are asleep, butcher the men and children as they lie and the women after further atrocities. If the parties discovered be too large to slaughter wholesale, one or two will be disposed of by sudden onslaught or otherwise, and the invading party will quickly retire, to be followed in due course by warriors seeking their revenge. In melees of this sort it sometimes happens that a man or woman belonging to a tribe associated with the one whose members made the onslaught is killed in the darkness and confusion unrecognised the result of which is further complications and bloodshed. Should a man under any circumstances accidently kill one of his own tribe he has to undergo certain penalties. Though the custom of carrying on war in this manner is general throughout Australia, under no circumstances, I believe, is a sentinel ever posted. I have known a whole tribe pretty near, when apprehensive, watch until perhaps eleven o'clock and then all go to sleep. Onslaughts of this kind are usually made a couple of hours before daylight. Should blacks at any time come on a man with whom they are unacquainted they invariably kill him, if possible. Strange children are killed in a like manner. A black hates intensely those of his own race with whom he is unacquainted, always excepting the females. To one of these he will become attached, if he succeeds in carrying her off, otherwise, he will kill the women out of mere savageness and hatred of their husbands. I have never heard of a tribe yielding to another, for no quarter would be given; nor of a strong tribe attempting to possess itself of the territory of a weak one, as so commonly happens in Africa. No idea of conquest exists, nor properly speaking of battle, for their fights do not lead to slaughter or spoils, and are devoid of the ordinary consequences which follow battles and victories in civilized countries. This sort of warfare is favourable to the weak. As a token of peace, the Australians hold up green boughs.
  • The Australian Race: Its Origins, Languages, Customs (1886), quoted in Charles White, The Story of the Blacks, Ch. 35

• Savage and objectionable as the corroboree is, it has played an important part in the past of the Australian race, for it tended strongly to keep up communication between the tribes. The renewal of friendly relations between tribes is always marked by a corroboree. When tribes corroboree, it is a gauge of peace; and this peace is, so far as I know, ratified in no other way. A quarrel between two associated tribes is usually brought to an end by an invitation to fight which invariably ends in a corroboree. A great point in it, as a medium of reconciliation, is that it excludes for the most part explanations, questions, and reflections. Two tribes at variance meet, a fight ensues, in which generally not much harm is done and then a corroboree takes place, and every point of honour is satisfied ipso facto. On the other hand, ill feelings, and eventually war, not infrequently originate at these meetings, and almost invariably as the result of outrages on women. Though advantages of some sorts have certainly resulted from the corroboree it was undoubtedly, especially when several tribes were present, often an occasion of licentiousness and violence.
  • Quoted in Charles White, The Story of the Blacks, Ch. 29

• The white race seems destined to exterminate the blacks.
  • Quoted in Charles White, The Story of the Blacks, Ch. 38