Understanding the Enemy: Ngammadjidj or Foreign Invader? Aboriginal Perception of Europeans in Nineteenth Century Western Victoria

The purpose of this paper is to consider the ways in which traditional Aboriginal spatial organization influenced how western Victorian Aboriginal people understood Europeans. To come to terms with this understanding, it is essential to explore notions of violence and invasion in traditional Aboriginal formations. For example, if a history of invasion within and between Aboriginal groups can be shown to have existed, then the question of the relevance of the ethnic origin of the invader must be examined - presumably, whether the invaders were foreign and enemy Aboriginal people, or foreign and enemy non-Aboriginal people, would not be of any particular consequence to the dispossessed clan. Regarding European associations with 'tenure' of Aboriginal land, western Victorian clans had to come to terms with three classes of Europeans: sea sojourners; land sojourners; and settlers. Clans attempted to understand their experiences of these three different classes of Europeans within a framework of traditional thought, and it is worth exploring these classes to uncover differences in the way they were perceived.