Jews and Aborigines
- There were three Jews involved in the consortium that was behind Batman's famous Treaty of 1835 with the Aborigines of the Port Phillip Region - the future Melbourne. (Joseph Solomon's farm was one of the first three then established.)
- Isaac Nathan, came to Australia came to Australia in the 1840's, where he wrote the first Australian Opera, to become feted as "the father of Australian music". He collected Aboriginal music, both personally, and from certain missionaries, and wrote an amazing compilation the Southern Euphrosyne published in both London and Sydney in 1849. The Euphrosyne comprises piano versions of Aboriginal songs, together with an account of aboriginal customs, and his own very positive impression of Aboriginal capability for education. As well as the score of the overture from his opera San John of Austria. This fascinating document can now be perused online, a reading usefully augmented with notes from the National Library of Australia.
- There is a "sense of shared experiences between the Jewish community and Aborigines, epitomised by the pioneering legal work of the late Ron Castan QC and Jewish involvement in the key High Court land-rights cases of Mabo and Wik."
- Inspired by the Civil Rights movement in the US, there was a groundswell of support for Aboriginals in the 1960's, in which Australian Jews played a notable part. One intriguing aside was the running of a children's club, the Nulla Nullas, at the Wallaga Lake Aboriginal Reserve circa 1965, by the Canberra-based Australian National University Jewish Students Society {ANUJSS). The story of ANUJSS and its involvement as an organization in running the Nulla Nullas is described here. (Opens in a new window)