Isolated islanders massacred outsiders because they were not real humans

Evidence

To such visitors from outside, the Tiwi were consistently and implacably hostile. Their own traditions and what little written history there is of “Malay” penetration into the Arafura Sea both tell the same story. Outsiders who landed on the island were massacred or vigorously resisted. Whether they were classified as Malai-ui (“Malays”) or W ona-rui (Australian aborigines from the mainland) they were not Tiwi and hence not real people, or at least not human enough to share the islands with the chosen people who owned them. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 43