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Charles Sievwright Charles Wightman Sievwright (1800-1855) was a British army officer and was Assistant Protector of Aborigines in the Port Phillip Protectorate of Victoria from 1838 - 1842.

Early life

Charles Sievwright was the third of seven children of lawyer Andrew Sievwright and his wife Ann née Robertson. At the age of 15 he gained a commission as ensign in the British Army and served 20 years without seeing combat. He rose to be the Military Secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor of Malta, a position which he held for 5 years ^[1]. In 1837 Seivwright resigned his commission as Captain of the Royal Engineers in Malta due to gambling debts. On his return to London military influence helped him secure a position as Assistant Protector in the Port Phillip area under George Augustus Robinson ^[2].

Protector of Aborigines

Sievwright arrived in Sydney in November 1838. He lived with his family under canvas among the Aborigines of his protectorate in the area of Geelong. As Protector of Aborigines , he had been commissioned by the colonial government to protect the rights and life of Aboriginal people. One his tasks was to report on the life of Aboriginal people. He extensively examined the massacres of Aborigines and their living conditions. He lived with his family partly with up to 270 Aborigines together. He criticised the administrations of the colonial government, which did little to counteract the plight of the indigenous population.

Sievwright hoped that the loss of her traditional way of life by sporadic food supplies to the colonial administration, self-cultivation of food and employment of the Aboriginal would be a certain compensation for the lost aboriginal livelihood. But these were still hunting cattle of the colonists, so he was accused by the Whites of Inactivity. When he wrote in a report about the murder of three unarmed aborigines and one child by a group of whites, he was suspended from office, ^[3] and from 1842 onwards he received no salary. This also led to family problems that slipped into poverty. Gipps and La Trobe held back information on Sievwright and ordered no official investigation,

Later Life

When Sievwright received his official notice of dismissal, he returned to London in November 1845 to clear his name however this left his family in poverty in Australia. In 1847 his dismissal was confirmed after an inadequate investigation. Until 1849 he tried to resume his proceedings with a full investigation. He became deaf, blind, and died in September, 1855, without seeing his family.

Archive

• Public Records Office Laverton, Victoria: Correspondance from the Office of Assistant Protector of Aborigines in Western District.
• State Library of Victoria: La Trobe Collection. A.S. Kenyon Card Index. Entries for Charles Wightman Sievewright, John Sievwright and Marcus Sievwright

Family

On 3 April 1822 Sievwright married Christina Watt in Stirling , Scotland. They had seven children: Francis Ann (born c. 1822), Marcus (born c. 1826; died 1851), Charles (born c. 1828), Fredrica (born c.1830), Melita (born c. 1830), Georgina (born c.1833), Falkland (born c.1834) ^[4]. His wife died in Melbourne in 1854.

References

• Arkley, Lindsey (2000). The Hated Protector : The Story of Charles Wightman Sievwright, Protector of Aboriginal 1839-42. Mentone Victoria: Orbit Press. ISBN  0646404210.

• Lester, Alan; Fae Dussart (2014). Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance: Protecting Aborigines across the Nineteenth-Century British Empire. Cambridge University Press.

• Mitchell, Jessie (2011). Governing Indigenous Australia through God, Charity and Empire, 1825-1855. ANU Press.

External links

• http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/sievwright-charles-wightman-13194