Account for the Changing of the Government Policies Towards Aboriginal People over Time

From the mid nineteenth century, Australian colonial and state governments adopted ‘protective’ policies to control and segregate Aboriginal people from the white population, and from each other.

Government policies were enforced by white ‘protectors’ who administered the reserves and had wide-ranging powers. Through the policies of Protection (1901-1940), Assimilation (1950s-1968), Integration (1968) and Self-determination (1972), governments directed where and how Aboriginal people should live.These policies changed over time as a result of internal social activism by Indigenous Australians and the pressure of changing beliefs (Human and civil rights). For most of the nineteenth century the official policy towards Aboriginal Australians was called protectionism; the idea that Aboriginal Australians needed to be separated from white Australians and ‘protected’ for their own good.The protection policy had several aims such as it was believed that the interests of the Indigenous people would best be served by separating them from white people, they were to be herded into government reserves where they might receive a basic education; major attempts made to Christianise them and to wipe out the Aboriginal population. The policy of protection denied Aboriginal people their independence and their basic human rights such as the right to vote and receive a basic wage.

The Governor in Council may make regulations and order; - For prescribing the place where any Aboriginal … shall reside…” was said by the Victorian parliament which indicates that under the policy of Protection, Aborigines had no power in determining where they lived as well as controlling their movements, leisure and sporting activities, work, earnings and possessions and marriages and family life, therefore increasing their dependence on reserves.By the late 1930’s, as it became clear that the Aboriginal people weren’t dying out and that the number of ‘mixed blood’ people was increasing, the federal and state governments began to consider a new policy called Assimilation. Assimilation meant Aboriginal peoples would be encouraged to become like white Australians and have the same rights as them and forget their own culture. This policy was an attempt to make Aboriginal Australians accept the way of life of white Australians. It was a belief that Aboriginal people should now be absorbed into mainstream Australian culture; which meant being removed from reserves.Through this policy Aboriginal people were to be educated for full citizenship without distinction and through this, Aboriginal people were to be given equal opportunity.

Aboriginals were also given the right to “apply and be recommended to achieve an exemption”. DWO had the power to issue exemption certificates after Aboriginals proved to them that they were willing to live separately. These certificates allowed access to public education, housing and services on the same basis as white Australians. However this didn’t happen.The policy of Assimilation was failing and by the early 1960’s, it was clear that Indigenous people and migrants entering Australia in 1945 didn’t want to totally discard their culture and due to the fight put up by the Aboriginals, it was proving impossible to make them white. Therefore in 1965 the definition of assimilation was changed; ‘all persons of Aboriginal decent will choose to attain similar manner and standard of living to that of other Australians’ and soon the policy was called Integration.

The policy of Integration meant that Aboriginals could live in white society and retain their culture, no longer had to hide their identity, could access services such as Aboriginal Medical Services and were free to participate and revive cultural practices. But, PM William’s lack of commitment to this policy meant that the change was slow and inconsistent. According to source 3, we can suggest that the policy of Integration was not fair for all Aboriginals as some states in Australia such as QLD remained ‘assimilationists’ until the late 1980’s.Aboriginals were rarely consulted about programs designed to help them and government officials were still making decisions for them. The value of Aboriginal culture was still not being recognised. The integration policy was slowly dying out due to the land rights campaign and the 1967 referendum.

In the new political and social climate of Australia and due to the major arrival of refugees from South East Asia in the early meant that integration as a policy was no longer feasible.The election of the Whitlam government in 1972 marked a shift in policies towards indigenous people as the age of paternalism finally came to an end and a new attitude towards Indigenous people was adapted with the introduction of the Self-determination policy. Self-determination is the right for a nation or group of people to determine and control all aspects of their lives. This policy involved Aboriginal people finally having the right to navigate their needs and wants and the purpose of self-determination was to end paternalistic attitudes, to remove ideas of racial superiority and to allowIndigenous people to have a say in the polices that affected them.

Through this policy, aboriginals were given the same rights and freedoms as other Australians; process of consultation in edicts, choose how they live and take positions of responsibility. Since 1972 the policy of self-determination had a wide spread acceptance through Aborigines. The rights and freedoms of Aboriginal Australians have changed tremendously over the past decade. The treatment given to the indigenous population of Australia has been an aggravating issue, ever since the white settlement in Australia.As a matter of protection, the Australian governments have implemented, rules, and policies such as, ‘the policy of protection’, assimilation, integration and self-determination which was designed to gradually take away, and disempower the Aboriginals, and rights and freedoms.

But due to protests, campaigns, significant events and through the self-determination policy, Aboriginals were finally given their rights and freedoms and therefore they were no longer a ‘dying race’.