The ''Aboriginal Witnesses Act 1848'' was a series of

South Australian South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which includes some of the most arid parts ...

ordinances, acts and amendments that permitted Indigenous South Australians to give unsworn evidence in Court, because at the time it was considered that Indigenous people could not make an

oath Traditionally, an oath (from Old English, Anglo-Saxon ', also a plight) is a utterance, statement of fact or a promise taken by a Sacred, sacrality as a sign of Truth, verity. A common legal substitute for those who object to making sacred oaths ...

. The Act existed from 1848 until 1929. Enacted by

Governor of South Australia The governor of South Australia is the representative in South Australia of the monarch, currently King Charles III. The governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the governor-general of Aust ...

George Grey Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Gov ...

during the early colonial period of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, the act was established "To facilitate the admission of the unsworn testimony of Aboriginal inhabitants of South Australia and parts adjacent". Despite the act's stated aims being to facilitate Aboriginal testimony, it had the opposite effect, creating a situation where the massacre of Aboriginal peoples by European colonisers could not be tried solely on the evidence of Aboriginal witnesses.

History

In 1844, the ''Aborigines' Evidence Act 1844'' was enacted. This was followed by the 1848 ''Aboriginal Witnesses Act 1848''. Governor

was responsible for the act, and later Governor

Frederick Robe Major-General Frederick Holt Robe CB (1801 – 4 April 1871) was the fourth Governor of South Australia, from 25 October 1845 to 2 August 1848. Early career Frederick Holt Robe entered the Royal Staff Corps as an ensign in 1817, following his ...

was responsible for the act's amendments. The acts: * * * * While its stated aim was to make provisions for unsworn

testimony Testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. Law In the law, testimon ...

by "uncivilised people" to be admissible in court, the act made it possible for a judge to dismiss the testimony of an "uncivilised person or persons" as insufficient unless corroborated by other evidence - that the court could not base the conviction of a white man on the testimony of an aboriginal witness alone. Although it was a progressive law for the time, the act decreed that the credibility of the evidence be left to the discretion of "the justice of the court, or jury under direction of the judge". The act also made Aboriginal testimony inadmissible in trials that carried the penalty of death. Effectively, the act created a situation where settler solidarity and the law of evidence ensured that the murder and

massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...

aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

by European colonisers could not be tried solely on the evidence of aboriginal witnesses. Possibly in response to the

Avenue Range Station massacre The Avenue Range Station massacre was a murder of a group of Aboriginal Australians by white settlers during the Australian frontier wars. It occurred in about September 1848 at Avenue Range, a sheep station in the southeast of the Colony of ...

, where three Tanganekald women, two teenage girls, three infants, and an "old man blind and infirm" were murdered by Australian mass murderer and pastoralist

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

, the Aboriginal Witnesses Act of 1848 was amended in July 1849 to allow a person to be convicted on the sole testimony of an aboriginal person, though this rarely occurred. The act remained in force until 1929.

References

{{Aboriginal South Australians 1844 in Australia 1844 in British law 19th century in South Australia Indigenous Australians in South Australia Australian frontier wars Public policy in Australia Australian legislation concerning rights of indigenous peoples

History

See also

References