Aboriginal Australians and the Impact of the White Man
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature Petr Hudec Aboriginal Australians and the Impact of the White Man Bachelor Thesis Supervisor: Michael George, M.A. Brno 2011 Acknowledgements I sincerely would like to thank Michael George, M.A. for his outstanding support, great advice and kind help as well as for the supervision of this work. 2 I declare that I have worked on this bachelor thesis independently, using only the sources listed in the bibliography. ……………………………………………………… 3 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 5 2. Historical background .............................................................................................. 7 3. The official policy and situation in Australia in the late 19th century .................. 8 3.1. Aboriginal Protection Acts ............................................................................... 8 3.2. The Stolen Generations ................................................................................... 13 3.3. Ways of social and cultural assimilation of “stolen” children ..................... 15 4. Aborigines at the beginning of the 20th century ................................................... 16 4.1. The Constitution of Australia 1901 and its effect on Aborigines ................ 16 4.2. White Australia policy ..................................................................................... 20 4.3. Aboriginal situation after the Constitution .................................................. 22 4.4. Policy of assimilation 1930 – 1970 .................................................................. 25 4.4.1. First signs of resistance and pro-Aboriginal organizations .............. 28 4.4.2. The Day of Mourning 1938 .................................................................. 34 5. World War II and Post World War II development ........................................... 37 5.1. The petition campaign and the 1967 referendum ......................................... 41 5.2. Policy of self-determination and land rights movement ............................. 48 5.3. „Bringing Them Home‟ report 1997 .............................................................. 53 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 56 4 1. Introduction The Indigenous peoples of Australia (Australian Aborigines) led very rich and spiritual life connected with nature for thousands of years. It is estimated that before the arrival of white man there were up to 750,000 Aborigines living in more than 500 tribes scattered throughout the whole continent. Aborigines did not build any permanent houses because they used to move from place to place in a nomadic way because they were mostly hunters and gatherers but they had strong connections to their traditional lands nonetheless. The arrival of the whites in the 18th century proved to be almost fatal not only for Aboriginal peoples themselves but also for their culture and traditional life style. When James Cook first arrived at the new continent of Australia he declared this new country unpopulated and thus started almost 200 years of Aboriginal discrimination. New European settlers brought with them diseases unknown to Aborigines which led to epidemics devastating Aboriginal population from the very beginning; and as Australia was considered to be unpopulated Europeans started to appropriate land and water resources. The Aborigines, one of the oldest peoples on the Earth with their culture dating back thousands of years, were not even considered to be human beings by many. Despite that, there began to be an ever increasing number of children of mixed descent, especially of white fathers and Aboriginal mothers, who were called Half-Castes and who were to be protected and assimilated into the white society. It was believed that full-blood Aborigines would die out through their cultural and social inferiority. The children of mixed descent were thus offered the above mentioned protection and later assimilation into the white society, in a way of official government policies, even though it meant their forcible removal from their families for European upbringing and education. These children forcibly removed from their families were later to be called the Stolen Generations, sometimes also referred to as the Lost Generations. The population of Aboriginals thus started to decline rapidly. The situation of Aborigines did not improve after the 1901 Constitution at all because according to the Constitution Aboriginals were not to be recognized in the Census and the forcible removal of children continued even on a larger scale. The 5 policy of protection was changed into the assimilation policy which was the official government policy from 1930s to 1970s and there were no signs of improvement of Aboriginal status in the society. It was in the 1930s when Aborigines started to be organized in official associations and organizations protecting their rights and demanding the change of the overall situation of the Aborigines. The Day of Mourning in 1938 is among the most visible and memorable events on the Aboriginal way to recognition from this period of time. The path to Aboriginal recognition was in fact very slow process which was happening throughout the whole 20th century. The most significant event was the 1967 Referendum which is considered to be one of the milestones and turning points in the history of Australian Aborigines and pursue for their rights. The referendum basically recognized the Indigenous people of Australia because it led to the change of the Constitution so that Aborigines could be counted in the national Census and it gave the government right to make special laws concerning Aborigines. The forcible removal of children did stop after the Referendum 1967 and the official government policy did change from assimilation to self-determination but there were another thirty years and a lot of struggle on the way to reconciliation. The final step towards reconciliation was in fact the 1997 ‗Bringing Them Home‘ report which openly and clearly addressed the issue of the Stolen Generations and called for compensation and apology. The official government apology came more than ten years later from the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in his parliament speech on 13th Feb. 2008. Overall it took Indigenous people in Australia almost 200 years to be recognized and eventually also reconciled. This thesis compiles historical data concerning Aborigines from the arrival of the whites to the beginning of the 21st century. It deals with Aboriginal situation from the initial contact and their protection status with the Stolen Generations. In chapter 3 it tries to analyse the so called Protection Acts and it also discusses the ways of this government protection policy while the possible reasons and explanations are offered. The first half of the 20th century is chronologically mentioned as well, especially the 1901 Constitution and the World War II, because these historical events played a great role regarding Aborigines and their status in the society. The importance of these events 6 and the complicated process of Aboriginal struggle for recognition are outlined in chapter 4. The final chapter of the thesis summarises two turning points in the history of Aboriginal recognition which were the 1967 Referendum and the ‗Bringing Them Home‘ report thirty years later. The backgrounds as well as consequences of both these events are explained together with the resulting government change of the official policy and the concurrent Aboriginal land rights movement. The process of reconciliation, which consequently led to 2008 apology to the Stolen Generations, is described in the final chapter as well. 2. Historical background The continent today called Australia has been peopled long before the first Europeans came there. It is believed that the first Aborigines (indigenous peoples of Australia) arrived at Australian continent some 40,000 to 70,000 years ago. This is why they belong to one of the oldest surviving peoples in the world. Even though there are no written records it is believed that their strong and spiritual culture and traditions has been preserved for tens of thousands of years (Crawford and Tantiprasut 2). It is estimated that before the first arrival of Europeans Aboriginal people had lived there for over 2,000 generations (Clarke 10), and all these people continued in their developed lifestyle of hunters, gatherers and fishermen. Pursuant to their lifestyle and to their concept of history or religion, often referred to as the Dreaming1, Aborigines developed the unique connection with their land and nature. Unlike Europeans, they considered themselves as part of natural world as well as the land they lived (Clarke 15) and it was the land that became one of the most striking issues after the arrival of white man. 1 The Dreaming, alternatively referred to as Dreamtime, is the central concept of the indigenous Australian worldview. The Dreaming is a rich term with several different meanings. First, it is the Aboriginal word for the time of creation, the time when the land, plants, animals, and humans were created. Second, the Dreaming refers to the spiritual dimension of contemporary life, to the truth or reality that is responsible for both the world and its unfolding events, and yet somehow is hidden from sight and obscured by the