The natives, knowing no law, nor entertaining any fears but those of the carbine’ – that’s a gun – ‘there were no other means of ruling them,’ and that, ‘the means must be resorted to’. On the tabling of the report, Watts told the parliament that: ‘The natives must be taught to feel the mastery of the whites. My ancestor joined with committee members in recommending that the native police continue its operations in Queensland, which it did for nearly 40 years afterwards. No one questioned the existence of a government-controlled paramilitary force engaged in large-scale extrajudicial killings. Their voices were not heard in that parliament. There were no Aboriginal or Strait Islander peoples invited to give evidence to this inquiry, neither native police troopers nor members of the broader community. He was a member of the Queensland parliament’s inquiry into the actions of the Queensland native police in 1861. Watts went on to say he was grappling with his ancestor’s legacy. Watts: Indigenous ‘voices were not heard’ in a parliament which allowed ‘large-scale extrajudicial killings’
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