Obstacles to ‘a proper exercise of jurisdiction’ - sorcery and criminal justice in the settler-indigenous encounter in Australia

Abstract

Frustrated with what he repeatedly described as the ‘very painful situation’ of dealing with Aborigines in colonial courts, South Australian Chief Justice Charles Cooper questioned in 1846 whether ‘a proper exercise of jurisdiction’ was achieved in bringing Aboriginal people before courts for offences committed among themselves (Ward 2006). In this chapter we explore how the practice of and belief in sorcery has been, and continues to be, a significant obstacle to the ‘proper exercise’ of jurisdiction in some inter se cases. In many Australian Aboriginal communities, and in other colonized countries, beliefs about sorcery have endured, and indeed increased, in recent times. Such beliefs ofte..