Settler-Colonial Violence, Primitive Accumulation and Australia&apos;s Genocide

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State Crime Journal

Volume 7, Issue 2

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Settler-Colonial Violence, Primitive Accumulation and Australia's Genocide

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Author(s): Michael Grewcock ¹

Publication date (Print, pub): 1 October 2018

Journal: State Crime Journal

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: settler colonialism, colonial genocide, foundational violence, structural violence, primitive accumulation, Stolen Generation

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Abstract

This article explores ways in which state crime theory, which is predominantly based on contemporary conceptions of human rights, might be applied to settler-colonial violence and the forced dispossession of the land from Indigenous peoples. The Australian state was established through the foundational violence inherent to settler colonialism and the processes of primitive accumulation that underpinned it. This created the conditions for ongoing structural violence, inflicted through a continuum of criminogenic, arguably genocidal state practices designed to disrupt – if not eliminate – the social worlds and collective identities of Indigenous peoples. These practices have been normalized through Australian nationalist ideology and its associated narratives of progress, democracy and the rule of law. Theories of state crime need to break from these normative narratives to make sense of the criminogenic nature of settler colonialism.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): statecrime

Title: State Crime Journal

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 20466056

ISSN (Electronic): 20466064

Publication date (Print, pub): 1 October 2018

Volume: 7

Issue: 2

Pages: 222-250

Affiliations

[1 ] University of New South Wales (UNSW);

Article

Publisher ID: statecrime.7.2.0222

DOI: 10.13169/statecrime.7.2.0222

SO-VID: e620f77f-d011-4dad-934f-6dd29dee0f7a

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Notes

See Arena Magazine ( 2017), Number 148, a special issue to mark 10 years of the Intervention, and John Pilger's film, Utopia , accessible via: https://arena.org.au/arena-magazine-issue-148/.
On Indigenous incarceration, see Anthony, this volume. On child removal, see Larissa Behrendt's film, After the Apology , http://www.pursekey.com.au/after-the-apology/.
It should be noted that Green and her colleagues' more recent work on the Rohingya (Green, MacManus and de la Cour Venning 2015, 2018) does use a more expansive definition of genocide based on the framework of “genocide as social practice” (Feierstein 2009) and draws on concepts such as “social death” that are discussed in this article.
The National Museum of Australia has also compiled an incomplete but useful “Resistance reference list”: http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/first_australians/resistance/resources. See also Note 7 below.
Major General Lachlan Macquarie was Governor of New South Wales, 1810– 1821.
For details of Ryan's Massacre Mapping Project, see https://www.newcastle.edu.au/newsroom/featured-news/mapping-the-massacres-of-australias-colonial-frontier.
There was significant resistance to this, including prolonged strikes and walk-offs, which led to ongoing campaigns around land rights and issues such as stolen wages. See, for example, McLeod ( 1984), Meakins and Charola ( 2016) and Ward ( 2016).
William Wentworth ( 1790– 1872) was a pastoralist, lawyer and Member of Parliament, and a key figure in the early colonial establishment in New South Wales: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/member-details.aspx?pk=239.
For a critique of Harvey that mirrors Callinicos's critique of Luxemburg, see Bailey ( 2014).

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] See Arena Magazine ( 2017), Number 148, a special issue to mark 10 years of the Intervention, and John Pilger's film, Utopia , accessible via: https://arena.org.au/arena-magazine-issue-148/.

[2] On Indigenous incarceration, see Anthony, this volume. On child removal, see Larissa Behrendt's film, After the Apology , http://www.pursekey.com.au/after-the-apology/.

[3] It should be noted that Green and her colleagues' more recent work on the Rohingya (Green, MacManus and de la Cour Venning 2015, 2018) does use a more expansive definition of genocide based on the framework of “genocide as social practice” (Feierstein 2009) and draws on concepts such as “social death” that are discussed in this article.

[4] The National Museum of Australia has also compiled an incomplete but useful “Resistance reference list”: http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/first_australians/resistance/resources. See also Note 7 below.

[5] Major General Lachlan Macquarie was Governor of New South Wales, 1810– 1821.

[6] For details of Ryan's Massacre Mapping Project, see https://www.newcastle.edu.au/newsroom/featured-news/mapping-the-massacres-of-australias-colonial-frontier.

[7] There was significant resistance to this, including prolonged strikes and walk-offs, which led to ongoing campaigns around land rights and issues such as stolen wages. See, for example, McLeod ( 1984), Meakins and Charola ( 2016) and Ward ( 2016).

[8] William Wentworth ( 1790– 1872) was a pastoralist, lawyer and Member of Parliament, and a key figure in the early colonial establishment in New South Wales: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/member-details.aspx?pk=239.

[9] For a critique of Harvey that mirrors Callinicos's critique of Luxemburg, see Bailey ( 2014).