I remember driving along the Eyre Highway as a kid, either going to Ceduna or Port Lincoln, and being told the story of a massacre as we passed the rugged, cliffy coastlines of the Great Australian Bight.
In May 1849 near the township of Elliston, a number of First Nations people were herded up and shot or forced to jump off the cliffs to their deaths. This impacted Wirangu, Kokatha, Nauo and Barngarla peoples.
There is now a memorial site near the location of the Waterloo Bay massacre to remember our people that were murdered.
Further west from Elliston is Koonibba, an Aboriginal mission founded in 1901 and by 1975 was transferred to the Aboriginal Lands Trust. A lot of our people were sent to Koonibba during the Protection and Assimilation eras. My great-grandparents spent most of their youth at Koonibba, especially when most of the area was taken for agricultural purposes.
What I find interesting about my family’s history with the far west coast, is that on one hand, it is our Country, and then on the other, my maternal great-great-grandfather and his siblings were the first ‘whitefullas’ to clear the land and start-up agriculture in the area. Decades later the descendants of the whitefullas' family still own those lands now.
They know we are related and still don’t acknowledge this, or they choose to ignore it.
I also remember as a young kid in Ceduna going to see or pick up family up from the Rooster Bar. It was historically known as the bar where ‘Blackfulla’s’ drank and the main Ceduna bar was where the ‘whitefulla’s’ drank. It wasn’t knocked down until the early 2000s.
Keenan Smith reflects on past atrocities committed against Aboriginal people in South Australia. Source: Supplied: Keenan Smith
As I’ve gotten older I reflect back on that and how normalised that was.
It was segregation, but so deeply ingrained into the fabric of that community that it is considered the norm. The early 2000s weren’t that long ago, and it’s amazing it lasted until then, but it was probably very profitable for the owners.
I’ve never quite known where it got its name from, but I assume ‘Rooster’ came from the Koonibba Football Club, which is also the oldest Aboriginal Football club in Australia.
Past promises unfulfilled
I write about these things because they shape how I feel about January 26. For me, it's Invasion Day, and I strongly believe in the abolishment of this date.
As a First Nations person that’s from and living in South Australia, my reason for labelling January 26 as ‘Invasion Day’, is because South Australia was forcibly taken from First Nations people of this state, even though laws of the British at that time said otherwise.
Unlike most other states and territories in Australia, South Australia was a planned ‘free settlement’ with the passing of the South Australia Act in 1834, and the commencement of the colonial government in 1836. Terra Nullius wasn’t applicable to the inception of South Australia, but rather the establishment of South Australia was guided by the Letters Patent from King William IV.
Within the Letters Patent, the following provision was included:
“That no actions could be undertaken that would “affect the rights of any Aboriginal natives of the said province to the actual occupation and enjoyment in their own persons or in the persons of their descendants of any land therein now actually occupied or enjoyed by such natives”.
So despite this being law by the colonial government, this hasn’t been fulfilled.
Keenan Smith says January 26 should be abolished. Source: Supplied: Keenan Smith
We still feel those effects
On these lands now - Ceduna, Koonibba and surrounding areas, there's a COVID crisis. Most infections are Aboriginal people. Communities like Ceduna shouldn’t be getting high covid case numbers.
In my opinion, the support from our state government and peak health body has been horrid. When our borders opened, keeping our vulnerable people safe should have been a priority.
Lack of consultation with mob and lack of provision of resources shouldn’t have been the last resort. Ceduna was one of the first communities where the Indue (cashless debit card) was rolled out and mob are having issues using this.
I believe the lack of action and attitudes from the government is the continuance of colonial legacies I spoke about earlier. We are always too often the last thought, last consulted and 'resolutions' only implemented when the worst-case scenario has happened. We are seeing this in Ceduna.
This all stems from how South Australia was set up. We still feel those effects now.
It will always be an invasion in South Australia until the promise of what was written in the Letters Patent is fulfilled and honoured.
Keenan Smith is a Kokatha, Wirangu & Mirning person who lives on Kaurna Country. They are the Chairperson of the Wirangu Aboriginal Corporation, the SA NAIDOC LGBTQI+ Person of the Year 2021, and an Environmental Sciences Student at Flinders University.
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