The Swan River Logic (of elimination): Mary Blight, ‘Colonial violence in Australia – “Swan River Logic” and the Voice referendum’, Limina, 30, 1, 2025, pp. 70-78 | settler colonial studies blog

The Swan River Logic (of elimination): Mary Blight, ‘Colonial violence in Australia – “Swan River Logic” and the Voice referendum’, Limina, 30, 1, 2025, pp. 70-78

07Jun25

Abstract: This article looks at the crisis in forgetting and remembering of colonial violence in Australia today. This ‘forgetting’ is one of the factors that led to the Voice referendum resulting in a ‘no’ vote in October 2023. The violence of the colonisation of Australia was actively forgotten by settler society until the 1970s and is an area that still needs research today. Settlers sought to take Indigenous land and ‘replace’ Indigenous people, in line with settler colonial theory. This paper will look at two massacres on Noongar land or boodjarin 1837 and examinethe‘Swan River Logic’ behind settlerjustifications for the violence. Although these two events are on the University of Newcastle Massacre Map, they need to be further researched and explained to facilitate truth telling. Without truth telling the Australian public will continue to be unable to understand the need for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

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