AustLit

'The Colony of South Australia was established at a key moment in the history of British interactions with Indigenous peoples from around its empire: the House of Commons was conducting a Select Committee on Aborigines (1835– 37); the anti-slavery campaign had recently won a major victory with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833; and the prevailing wisdom in the Colonial Office was progressive and humanitarian. This mood was reflected in South Australia’s founding documents — in the Letters Patent, which defined the nature and extent of the new colony, and in the Proclamation, which was read by Governor John Hindmarsh on 28 December 1836. These documents asserted the moral right of the British to claim sovereignty over the new colony, but enshrined a commitment to provide legal protection to Aboriginal people as British subjects. The great challenge for the colonial government in realising this vision is one of the key themes of Robert Foster and Amanda Nettelbeck’s fine book, Out of the silence: the history and memory of South Australia’s frontier wars.' (Introduction)