The theatre of justice: Race relations and capital punishment at Moreton Bay 1841-59

The theatre of justice: Race relations and capital punishment at Moreton Bay 1841-59

The chapter discusses the public hanging of Aboriginal men in Brisbane in the years 1841 to 1859. It argues that Aboriginal people’s responses to these three public executions of their men are proof of Aboriginal rejection of British law and of their assertion of their sovereignty. The paper begins with a discussion of the significance of public hangings in early New South Wales and the politics of the 1830s and 1840s that led to this dreadful penalty being applied to Aboriginal men who had lived their whole lives traditionally, outside the bounds of English legal jurisdiction. It briefly discusses each episode in turn and how the Aboriginal response can be interpreted as a measure of local resistance, especially the execution of the warrior Dundalli. However settler political developments changed dramatically over these years and the final case provides insight into the brutal racial politics that would mark the separated new colony of Queensland.