The following database intends to survey all the collective fights among Australian Aborigines that were reported in the literature. The sources may be professional ethnographies, as well as newspaper articles or personal memories. The events cover whatever form of fight, from a feud to a pitched battle or a raid, given that it opposed two collectives in Australia (Torres Strait islands and Tasmania excluded).
Whenever possible, the database records the presumed date and location of the fight, number of people involved, the number of casualties (dead and injured), the type and the alleged motivation of the confrontation. Each item is sourced, and the corresponding extract is included.
In addition to being listed in the table view of the database, all the events are located on the interactive map. Main characteristics are summarized in the synthesis, with one table showing the distribution according to the type of confrontation and its lethality, and another one according to the causes of conflicts.
Currently, the database includes 221 events. Everyone may submit others by sending me an email.
Publications using these data
- Justice and Warfare in Aboriginal Australia, Lexington Books (Nov. 2020). See the presentation and reviews
- “Vanished wars of Australia: the archaeological invisibility of aboriginal collective conflicts”, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 26(4), December 2019, p. 1556-1590 [get the article].
- “The organizing principles of Aboriginal justice”, Droits & Cultures 83, 2002/1 [get the article].
- “Indigenous Australian laws of war: Makarrata, milwerangel and junkarti”, Ray Kerkhove, Samuel White, International Review of the Red Cross, 2021 [get the article].