History-10

• 'Dying race'


  By the late 19th century, many Aboriginal people were forced off their land to the edges of non-Indigenous settlement, dependent upon government rations if they could not find work, suffering from malnutrition and disease. Governments typically viewed Indigenous people as a nuisance.
• Protection


  The government response was to reserve land for the exclusive use of Indigenous people and give responsibility for their welfare to a Native Affairs Department, Chief Protector or Protection Board
• 'Protection Acts'


  Legislation introduced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to regulate and control the lives of many Indigenous people. The stated intention was to 'protect' Indigenous people.
• First Protection Act (Victoria)

  1. Passed in 1869 to 'provide for the protection and management of the Aboriginal natives of Victoria'

  2. Gave the Board power to decide where Aboriginal people could live, the way they could earn a living, and the distribution of government funding and food and supplies

  3. Gave the government, through the Board, the power to make arrangements about the 'care, custody and education' of Aboriginal children
• Paternalism


  These laws assumed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could not take care of themselves and therefore gave the native affairs departments, protection boards and chief protectors the power to make decisions about how they lived their lives.
• Tasmania was the exception to this protectionist trend. By the turn of the century most Indigenous families had been moved to Cape Barren Island off the north coast of the Tasmanian mainland where they were segregated (set apart or isolated) from non-Indigenous people.
• Missions


  In the control of churches and missionaries with little or no government involvement
• Reserves and stations


  Generally run by the government. Aboriginal reserves were overseen by government 'protectors', who controlled rations and housing and decided who could, and could not, live there.
• Most Aboriginal people were forced to live on missions and reserves. Reserves were generally run by the government with strict controls, while missions were run by churches and missionaries.
• For many Aboriginal people, living on a mission or reserve meant loss of freedom, culture, and family connections.
• Stolen Generations


  Estimated that possibly as many as 1 in 3 Indigenous children were removed from their families and communities between 1910 and the 1970's. Children were taken by the police, from their homes or on their way to school, and put in institutions, fostered or adopted out to non-Indigenous families. Many children suffered harsh, degrading treatment and were frequently taught to believe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were inferior.
• Assimilation


  The forcible removal of Indigenous children was a part of assimilation policies adopted by all Australian governments throughout the twentieth century. Assimilation means that all persons of aboriginal blood or mixed blood in Australia will live like other white Australians do.
• Australian Freedom Rides


  Drawing inspiration from the US Civil Rights movement, a group of 29 students boarded a bus outside the University of Sydney on 12 February 1965 to embark on a two-week tour of outback NSW to draw attention to the poor state of Aboriginal health, education, and housing, expose social barriers between Aboriginal and white community members, and encourage and support Aboriginal people to resist discrimination
• The US Civil Rights movement

  Was a major influence in the struggle for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights and freedoms in Australia
• Charles Perkins: '"...we adopted the principle of passive [non-violent] resistance as laid down by Martin Luther King. We intended to demonstrate via peaceful picketing in any situation or to any group which practised racial discrimination"'
• Journey of the Australian Freedom Ride Pt1

  1. The students completed a 3,200km trip in 2 weeks

  2. Their goals were to: Draw attention to the poor state of Aboriginal health, education, and housing, Expose social barriers between Aboriginal and white community members, Encourage and support Aboriginal people to resist discrimination
• Journey of the Australian Freedom Ride Pt2

  Watch the 3 clips linked below, and write down: The attitudes and goals of the activists, The attitudes of wider Australia at the time, The reactions the activists encountered during the Freedom Ride
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were subject to regulations which prohibited them from voting in federal and state elections at different times in different places


  1902 to 1965
• The Commonwealth Electoral Act gave federal voting rights to Aboriginal people, but only if they already had state voting rights which QLD and WA had not yet granted


  1949
• Campaigning by the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA) led to a national committee in 1961 estimating that 30,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples around Australia had been denied the right to vote as a result of discriminatory legislation
• The equal right of Aboriginal peoples to vote in federal elections was codified, after which WA gave out state voting rights later that year and QLD followed suit in 1965


  1962
• Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now had the same voting rights as other Australians, they were not counted in the census or recognised as part of Australia's population
• Section 127 of the Australian Constitution stated: "In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted."
• As a result of growing popular support for civil rights and activism by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the 1950s and 1960s, a referendum was held in 1967 to change the Constitution
• The referendum passed with 90.77% national approval, making it the most successful in Australia's history
• Section 127 of the Constitution was removed, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were included in the next census conducted in 1972
• Section 51 of the Constitution was altered, removing the underlined section "the people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws", rendering lawmaking power for "special laws" with respect to Aboriginal peoples to the federal government so as to be able to create legislation that promoted equality
• There are several common misconceptions about the 1967 Referendum: That it gave voting rights to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (this was achieved nationally in 1965), That it gave citizenship to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (all Australians were granted citizenship in 1948, prior to which they were still British subjects), That it overturned a "Flora and Fauna Act" which classified Aboriginal peoples as animals (such a law has never existed)
• Referendum held on removing provisions of the Australian constitution that discriminated against Aboriginal people

  27th of May 1967
• Section 51 (xxvi) of the constitution


  Enabled the Commonwealth to make laws with respect to, 'The people of any race, other than the aboriginal people in any State, for whom it is necessary to make special laws.'
• Section 127


  Read, 'In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted.'
• Aboriginal people could vote in all Australian elections by 1965
• Aboriginal people were counted, although separately, in all Australian censuses
• Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of Australia: ''There is basic inequality. I think no one wants convincing of this fact.''
• Victoria established the Board for the Protection of Aborigines


  1869
• Board for the Protection of Aborigines

  • Could force Aboriginal people to relocate to designated reserves
  • Could control Aboriginal work and wages
• Protection boards were rolled out across Australia, controlling the daily lives of many Aboriginal people and restricting freedom of movement, association and marriage
• Protection boards removed Aboriginal children from their families, known as the Stolen Generations
• At Federation, it was believed Aboriginal people of mixed heritage would be assimilated into the broader population, while so called full-bloods would die out
• Section 51 (xxvi) left Aboriginal policy to the states, while section 127 was designed to prevent Queensland and Western Australia, with large Aboriginal populations, from securing more revenue and parliamentary seats