Aboriginal Australians were often arrested on spurious charges, such as 'Entering city limits while Aboriginal', and given long prison sentences, after which they were rented out as convict labor, chained to prevent escape. This is just one group of such folk.

[–] Slowy@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What’s up with the scarring(?) on their chests?

[–] DillyDaily@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's part of ceremonial scarification, there are several mobs and groups of indigenous peoples where this is a sacred cultural practice.

Though in many cases the British used the evidence of ritual scarification as some kind of proof that aboriginal people didn't feel pain the same way Europeans did, so you had to whip them harder and longer than white prisoners for the same transgressions.

[–] Slowy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Thanks for the details, I assumed something cultural because of the consistent horizontal orientation - it would have to be an extremely specific whipping technique to create those. It’s a shame colonizers and slavers used that practice as reason to hurt them even more, though..