Australian Aborigines

Australian Aborigines

Since the European attack until very lately, government principle pertaining to Aboriginal persons has been conceived and applied by non-Aboriginal people. The widespread justification for most principles for Aborigines was that they were "for their own good". There have been principles of defence, assimilation, self-determination and reconciliation. It is now clear that no one of these principles have really made the status of Australia's Indigenous persons any better than it was former to the invasion.

When the six Australian colonies became a Federation in 1901, white Australia accepted that the Aborigines were a staining rush and the Constitution made only two quotations to them. Section 127 omitted Aborigines from the census (although heads of beef cattle were counted) and Section 51 (Part 26) provided power over Aborigines to the States other than to the Federal Government (www.creativespirits.info). This was the position until the referendum of 1967 when an swamping most of Australians cast a vote to encompass Aborigines in the census of their own country.

The Aborigines Protection Boards principle for defending Indigenous Australians was that all Aboriginal peoples were to reside on reserves. The Board had 3 causes for this policy:

To defend Aboriginal Peoples

To double-check they dwelled individually from whites

To keep and eye on themAll states and the Northern Territory had reserves or missions where aboriginal peoples were anticipated to live.

These reserves were usually on the outskirts of villages, as the white community did not desire the Aboriginal peoples dwelling too close. This made it hard for Aboriginals to get jobs.

The paternalistic outlook of state authorities, place of adoration managers and the white community intended Aboriginal persons were not conferred about what was best or them. It was accepted that they would be improved by Christianity, schooling and by following the white mans ways. Thus, Europeans put Aboriginal persons ...