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Author: Bj Cruse

  • RELIGION

    Doctrine of Discovery: How a papal teaching subjugated Australia’s First Nations people

    • BJ Cruse
    • 07 July 2022
    7 Comments

    The subjugation of the world’s First Nations people was enshrined in the Doctrine of Discovery, a series of papal decrees made by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, where any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be ‘discovered,’ claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers. The Doctrine of Discovery legitimised Christian explorers’ claims to land uninhabited by Christians, promoting and fortifying Christian domination, and forcing original inhabitants into Christianity. 

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