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Made in au
Been Around the Block





Owing to some odd circumstances, I've spent the better part of my life studying the language and culture of my home, the "Gathang" territories of Australia. It is a lonesome task, as this region is often referred to as the, "most racist place in Australia," and my personal experience suggests that's a correct measure.

To maintain my enthusiasm, I sometimes experiment with new ways of accessing the culture and history of the landscape I grew up in. Having fallen into 3D printing in recent years, I suppose it was only natural I'd try my hand at designing some historical figures. These are 2mm scale, the idea being to play the tiny game on a side-table.

My sad experience is this:

Initially I wanted to create wholly aboriginal armies. Something in the range of about 200 figures each, to simulate traditional battles from my region. Most especially, the pivotal battle of Myall River in 1827, where the combined forces of the northern Biripi seem to have taken issue with the entire eastern portion of the southern Worimi. The social structure of the landscape today can be traced back to this single battle, and it's also the largest battle I've ever heard of in the region.

It also ended up not being fought. Everyone showed up, but the Worimi were armed with (unloaded) guns, so the Biripi refused to engage. This pretty much sums up the colonial situation in the region at the time. A number of colonials showed up to watch the battle, some of whom were expressly invited to the viewing by the Worimi.

So I figured I should make some colonial figures too. Just to fit the scenario. And then I figured, well, if I'm making a few colonials now, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to represent the other colonials nearby at the time. First it was a few shepherds, then some drovers, hunters with kangaroo dogs, maybe a party of station hands, some of whom must necessarily be convicts, so maybe a party of convicts, and a few soldiers of the 17th Regiment to keep them in check during the 1830s, and hey, why not a detachment of soldiers, and the infamous "major" of Port Stephens...

...

Yeah.

So I ended up playtesting some game ideas with my usual small-scale stuff this way, and very quickly went down the route of trying to use all the figures I had available. I went to all the trouble of making them, right? So why not? And before I even knew what was happening, I had phalanxes of "Gathang" warriors facing off against colonial 17th Regiment gunlines. I put the game down, packed the models up, and walked away.

I suppose you could say my experience with this mirrored the actual colonisation of the region. Largely my mistakes were driven by my unfettered uptake of technology. It was there, so why not? And to a degree I wasn't hurting anyone. And maybe some good could've come from it, exploring traditional modes of warfare and embracing the pride and discipline of "Gathang" warriors from back in the day. But the sad truth now is that most of the historical material we have from my region is focused squarely on colonial pursuits, and it's easy to let that bleed into any other idea whatsoever.

I think it's fair to say also that for many Aboriginal people where I'm from, the British 17th Regiment sit right beside the German SS on the evil scale. And that's not irrelevant, when you consider my grandfather fought in Greece and Crete, while my earliest immigrant ancestors in Australia actually purchased land from the very people my 17th Regiment figures were made to represent. They really were some of the worst history has to offer.

It's pretty much impossible for people who aren't Aboriginal to seek cultural guidance on stuff like this, and so often, as with my experience here, the result is just a bunch of semi-offensive curious stuffed in a draw out of sight. Not a great result, whichever way you flip it. But hard to know how else it could've gone.

Spoiler:











   
Made in au
Voracious Kroothound





Thanks for sharing your thoughts with this experience. All I can say as a fellow Aussie, is I really wish I was taught more about the Frontier Wars in school. Or just more about Indigenous history in general, although it is basically always presented through a Colonial lens.
   
Made in us
Battlefield Tourist




MN (Currently in WY)

2mm! Wow.

I do like the little flocks you made. I can see those being used on many of my tables.

Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing 
   
Made in au
Been Around the Block





 Maskirovka_Man wrote:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with this experience. All I can say as a fellow Aussie, is I really wish I was taught more about the Frontier Wars in school. Or just more about Indigenous history in general, although it is basically always presented through a Colonial lens.


Yeah I hear you. I remember being shown the Bells Falls Massacre video in Year 4 at school, about 1997, when a teacher from another classroom literally walked into our room, and without even saying anything, stopped the video --- an argument ensued, and the kids were sent outside to play. Last we ever heard of it. That said, I actually think a colonial lens is a necessary starting point, even for Aboriginal people today. The disparity between points of view, old and new, is just too wide otherwise. Pretty much everything I know about the history of my homeland is taken from historical newspapers I've collected through the Trove Newspaper Archive. These are written exclusively by colonials, but they're often so comically over-the-top racist that even from a colonial perspective, the fallacy of the entire colonial project sticks out like a sore thumb. They also illustrate how opinions were constantly divided at the time, and the colonial establishment constantly at its own throat over the "wars".

Without these newspapers, I expect we'd still be told the country was freely given away without resistance. In that sense, I suppose I can see wargaming playing a positive role in bringing history to light.

 Easy E wrote:
2mm! Wow.

I do like the little flocks you made. I can see those being used on many of my tables.


The flocks might make it to my Patreon some day. Maybe.

   
Made in au
Been Around the Block





Just thought it might be worth adding this article from today, looking at a new book describing how tactics worked in the frontier period. I've read the thesis this is based on, and it's pretty obvious stuff, but also little-known among most:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-18/indigenous-frontier-war-tactics-revealed-in-how-they-fought/102230578

   
 
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