About the White Australia Policy

Some facts on Assimilation and Integration:

1937 21-23 April: Aboriginal Welfare - Conference of Commonwealth and State Authorities called by the federal government, decides that the official policy for some Aboriginal people is assimilation policy. Aboriginal people of mixed descent are to be assimilated into white society whether they want to be or not, those not living tribally are to be educated and all others are to stay on reserves.

The minutes of the meeting sahy:

"The destiny of the natives of aboriginal origin, but not of the full blood, lies in their ultimate absorption... with a view to their taking their place in the white community on an equal footing with the whites." [3]

In practice, assimilation policies lead to the destruction of Aboriginal identity and culture, justification of dispossession and the removal of Aboriginal children.

Segregationist practices continue until 1960s with separate sections in theatres, separate wards in hospitals, hotels refusing drinks and schools able to refuse enrolment to Aboriginal children.

The governments in the 1930s said children had to be taken away from their parents because the influence of their own communities was immoral and they were in danger of abuse and neglect, but the real agenda then was to de-Aboriginalise them.—Michael Anderson, Aboriginal leader [1]

 

27 June: In Dubbo, western NSW, trade unionist and Aboriginal politician William Ferguson launches the Aborigines Progressive Association, in opposition to the Aborigines Protection Board, after officials of the Board had arbitrarily used their powers to harass Aboriginal people.

The Presbyterian Church establishes a mission - Ernabella - in the Musgrave Ranges, South Australia.

Australia has not had a national multicultural policy since 2006. We need a national policy to ensure that we recognise that culture is not a costume that people can discard without it creating deep and enduring distress for individuals and communities."

Read article here:

http://candobetter.net/node/2252

The policy of assimilation meant individual families were persuaded to share the life in the towns with whites. Earlier government policies had relocated Aborigines from their homelands to reserves. The assimilation policy aimed at breaking up these reserves and "encouraging" people to give up seasonal and casual work, replacing this with regular work for wages (which remained unequal). The stations were considered as "stepping-stones to civilisation".

While espousing the benefits of assimilation to Aboriginal people, the policy still denied their basic rights, even in the 1960s. It stopped them from raising their own children, stopped freedom of movement, having access to education, receiving award wages, marrying without permission, eating in restaurants, entering a pub, swimming in a public pool or having the right to vote.

1965

Integration policy

Integration policy is introduced, supposedly to give Aboriginal people more control over their lives and society.

12/5/11 

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A small extract from: http://epress.anu.edu.au/bwwp/mobile_devices/ch03.html

3. World War II and the Assimilation Era: A Self-Destructive Doctrine

Adam Shoemaker

Abstract

This chapter examines the gulf between policy and practice during the 1945-1961 period. It emphasises the inherent contradictions of an era of attempted assimilation by highlighting independent Aboriginal activity which, to a great extent, traces its roots to the experiences of the Second World War.

The end of the Second World War provided the spark for increased Black Australian urbanisation, activism and self-determination.

The picture which Calley paints of Aboriginal station life in northern New South Wales is remarkably similar. For example, wage exploitation of Black Australians was ubiquitous:

During 1954, rates of pay for Aboriginal workers in the … area were about half of those demanded and received by white employees doing the same work … Frequently Aboriginal employees were persuaded to take cheap wine (sweet sherry or muscat) in lieu of part of the wage due to them.

Almost identical racial stereotypes are invoked by the Europeans (‘the mixed blood is not worth as much as a white employee … he does not work as hard and is “unpunctual”^[185] ) and there is a similar Aboriginal attitude to paid labour (‘work is undertaken to gain leisure … leisure is regarded as the normal state, and work, something which regrettably interferes with it’^[186] ). It is obvious that as in the case of the South Coast part-Aboriginal communities, those in northern New South Wales and indeed, fringe-dwelling groups throughout Australia, adhered to a lifestyle which was in so many ways inimical to both the theoretical possibility, and the actual policy, of assimilation.

It is natural that the widespread poverty of these communities and the racial rejection of their inhabitants caused many health problems, numerous hardships and much unhappiness. What is perhaps more surprising is to find the pride, solidarity and defiance which survived alongside this despair and alienation. The Pilbara and Darwin strikes exemplified one form of committed defiance, but there were many other forms of rebellion and assertion, often of a personal nature. For example, a number of commentators have noted the prominence of Aboriginal boxers in the sporting world of the 1940s and 1950s.^[187] The successes of fighters like Ron Richards and Dave Sands were an inspiration for hundreds of young Aborigines who entered the ring in the post-war era. Even Calley noted the distinctive ethic of the fringe-dwellers of northern New South Wales, many of whom considered themselves ‘first and foremost to be boxers’.^[188]

Significantly, success in this sport conferred prestige in White Australian society as well; it was one way of vaulting over the caste barrier. Champions in the ring were heroes to both White and Black Australians, as Corris has noted:

The crowds roared for them – Bennett, Hassen and Sands – as they had roared for Ron Richards. Their exploitation went unnoticed in the days of their success for they were part of a new boom in Australian boxing which began during World War II and rolled on into the 1950s.^[189]

24/5/11
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