ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that, while limitations must be acknowledged, the Gunditjmara experience, like many others in Australia has involved extraordinary successes. It discusses the ways in which colonisation was enacted on Gunditjmara lands but also how these actions, and the associated sites, have become part of a post-colonial settlement. The chapter describes the way colonisation was enacted on Gunditjmara lands: through mapping, violence, squatting, and reserves. Despite oppressive treatment, the Gunditjmara defended the mission when it was threatened with closure. It was a place of safety and community on country which thereby assumed importance at the time and in their history. The Gunditjmara of western Victoria have survived extraordinary colonial efforts to render them invisible before organising their systematic killing, removal, containment, and assimilation. The physical, sexual, economic, and epistemic violence involved in these processes confirms the reality of ongoing coloniality, but also the complexity and contestation that occurred across two centuries.
