For years, Peter Sharp thought his great-grandfather – Australia’s second prime minister – was an honourable man and a great defender of Aboriginal rights.
As a child, his grandmother said Alfred Deakin – her father – was a “wonderful man”, “a storyteller” and a “playful” person.
Then, one day in 2017, Sharp learned the full truth. It horrified him.
Contained in Judith Brett’s biography of Deakin, published that year, is the pivotal role his great-grandfather played in legislation that led to the forcible removal of Aboriginal children, he told Victoria’s Indigenous truth-telling inquiry on Wednesday.
Deakin, who served as Victoria’s chief secretary, was responsible for the 1886 Aboriginal Protection Amendment Act (known as the “Half-Caste” Act), which changed the definition of “Aboriginal” to exclude those who had one Indigenous parent. The law enabled the forced removal of mixed-race children from reserves and was later implemented in other jurisdictions.
“Suddenly I realised he actually meant this. This was deliberate,” Sharp told the Yoorrook Justice Commission.
Sharp also apologised for the actions of Deakin.
“To all those viewing who themselves, or whose families have been and still are being impacted by the introduction of laws and policies in which a member of my family played such a significant role, I say that I am personally profoundly sorry,” he said.
“I thought my family were all just … they came in the gold rush, they weren’t part of the frontier massacres. This was a shock. I had no idea that this could have been possible.”
As part of its work investigating historical and contemporary injustices experienced by First Nations people, Yoorrook has heard from the descendants of some of the state’s early colonists.
They spoke about their horror at what occurred as a result of the actions of their ancestors, including those who have previously been commemorated in white-washed history books and for whom statues have been created.
Gippsland farmer Elizabeth Balderstone, the owner of a property where the Warrigal Creek massacre occurred in 1843, was among those to appear at the inquiry.
She said that she was committed to ensuring that the truth of the massacre was understood by Gippsland’s residents and the wider Australian community.
“Despite persistent advocacy for the truth of the massacre to be known and understood, it has only felt as though people really wanted to listen in more recent years,” she said.
In July 1843, Scottish explorer Angus McMillan and a group of his countrymen known as the Highland Brigade shot between 60 and 150 Gunaikurnai people in retribution for the murder of Ronald Macalister, the nephew of a wealthy pastoralist, Lachlan Macalister, who owned a local station called Nuntin.
Balderstone said her family was exploring options to jointly manage the site with traditional owners.
She said she was inspired by the March appearance at Yoorrook of Suzannah Henty – a sixth-generation descendant of the Hentys, who were the first permanent European settlers of Victoria.
Henty – a direct descendant of Edward’s brother James – had told Yoorrook that monuments memorialising her ancestors in Victoria’s south-west should be removed due to their links to the massacres.
In his testimony to Yoorrook, Sharp said books he had previously read about Deakin described him as a supporter of Aboriginal rights.
He said he investigated Deakin’s role further, using public records like Hansard, but believed his role in the legislation had been “intentionally hidden”.
“He was very clever at disguises and covers … being able to do things under the cover of his reputation for higher principles,” he said.
Yoorrook commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter said Deakin’s legislation was “destructive” for Indigenous Australians.
“It was so devastating and dehumanising for our people.”
Sharp said his own research revealed his great-grandfather was an “extremely complex man”, pointing to his belief in “higher powers and spiritualism” which led to his vision to create an Australia only for Anglo-Saxons.
Deakin later became one of the chief architects of the White Australia policy.
“He even said that he was prepared to sacrifice himself for this cause … the ideal of an Anglo-Saxon race to have exclusive occupation of this continent.”
Katrina Kell, a researcher and author who is the descendant of Captain James Liddell – who brought the Hentys to Portland in the 1830s – also took part in the inquiry.
She told Guardian Australia that when she began researching her family’s history she unearthed records pointing to her ancestor’s central role in the violent period.
Coloniser Edward Henty arrived in Portland in 1834, creating the first permanent European settlement in Victoria. Tensions between settlers and traditional owners, the Gunditjmara people, led to the state’s first recorded massacre of Indigenous people at Portland Bay.
Kell said these records included a letter his daughter had written which stated Liddell had identified that the soil in Portland was perfect for farming and it was a suitable place to settle.
“I felt very uncomfortable about it, because I knew the impact on the Gunditjmara people because I was aware of the frontier wars,” she said.
Yoorrook chair Prof Eleanor Bourke said she hoped the hearing would help the healing process for many First Peoples across the state.
“When we understand what has happened in the past and how this impacts the present, we can create a better future and have a better understanding between all Victorians,” she said.
The Yoorrook Justice Commission is due to deliver a final report to the state government by June next year that will make recommendations for reform and redress.
