Treatment of Aboriginal Peoples in Australia in brief
Information provided by Aboriginal Council NSW
29 April 1770
Captain James Cook lands in Botany Bay and claimed the land ‘terra nullius’ or empty land. He ignored the presence of the indigenous peoples. In that time, it was illegal to claim land if there were already people who owned the land.
26 January 1788
First Fleet lands in what is now Sydney. Australia Day is a holiday to celebrate this event. Many consider this day to be ‘invasion day’ or ‘survival day’ to show the aboriginal perspective.
4 May 1816
Movement of Aboriginals is officially controlled by government. Aggression towards aboriginals moving from place to place without permission is approved.
1830
Tasmanian Aborigines forcibly removed to Flinders Island
1837
British Select Committee looks into treatment of Australian Aboriginal peoples. They agree that aborigines have plain and sacred rights. They decide that a protector of Aboriginals is needed. Protection Policy begins.
1879
Torres Strait Islands taken by Queensland. People left to live on their land and in their houses but restrictions on movement are implemented.
1888
By this year the population of aborigines in Australia has reduced from 220,000 to 80,000 due to disease, massacre, poisonings, suppression of way of life and effects of being moved off of prime land over the last 100 years.
1910-1970
10-30% of aboriginal children were removed from their families and taken to what is similar to orphanages where they were trained to be labourers (men) or domestic servants (women). Abuse is well recorded. These children are now called the Stolen Generation.
1911
By this year the Board of Protection ha full rights and control over all aborigines in Australia. Local Police were often the ‘protectors’. This included full control over children.
26 Jan 1938
The Day of Mourning. First organised civil rights protest by aboriginal people. Held in Sydney on the 150th Anniversary of the First Fleet landing. A Ten point plan is presented to the Prime Minister. It calls for equal right to education, health services and employment, owning property, right to have a bank account and other rights afforded to white Australians.
1939
Child Welfare act. Aboriginal parents are given rights to argue in court about the removal of their children. The courts are too far away for them to attend and they are not offered legal help.
1948
Declaration of Universal Human Rights is Signed by Australia. The rights are not extended to Aboriginal Australians.
1951
Assimilation is expressed openly by Paul hasluck, Federal Minister for the Territories. “Assimilation means, in practical terms, that, in the course of time, it is expected that all persons of aboriginal blood in Australia will live like other white Australians do”
Information provided by Aboriginal Council NSW
29 April 1770
Captain James Cook lands in Botany Bay and claimed the land ‘terra nullius’ or empty land. He ignored the presence of the indigenous peoples. In that time, it was illegal to claim land if there were already people who owned the land.
26 January 1788
First Fleet lands in what is now Sydney. Australia Day is a holiday to celebrate this event. Many consider this day to be ‘invasion day’ or ‘survival day’ to show the aboriginal perspective.
4 May 1816
Movement of Aboriginals is officially controlled by government. Aggression towards aboriginals moving from place to place without permission is approved.
1830
Tasmanian Aborigines forcibly removed to Flinders Island
1837
British Select Committee looks into treatment of Australian Aboriginal peoples. They agree that aborigines have plain and sacred rights. They decide that a protector of Aboriginals is needed. Protection Policy begins.
1879
Torres Strait Islands taken by Queensland. People left to live on their land and in their houses but restrictions on movement are implemented.
1888
By this year the population of aborigines in Australia has reduced from 220,000 to 80,000 due to disease, massacre, poisonings, suppression of way of life and effects of being moved off of prime land over the last 100 years.
1910-1970
10-30% of aboriginal children were removed from their families and taken to what is similar to orphanages where they were trained to be labourers (men) or domestic servants (women). Abuse is well recorded. These children are now called the Stolen Generation.
1911
By this year the Board of Protection ha full rights and control over all aborigines in Australia. Local Police were often the ‘protectors’. This included full control over children.
26 Jan 1938
The Day of Mourning. First organised civil rights protest by aboriginal people. Held in Sydney on the 150th Anniversary of the First Fleet landing. A Ten point plan is presented to the Prime Minister. It calls for equal right to education, health services and employment, owning property, right to have a bank account and other rights afforded to white Australians.
1939
Child Welfare act. Aboriginal parents are given rights to argue in court about the removal of their children. The courts are too far away for them to attend and they are not offered legal help.
1948
Declaration of Universal Human Rights is Signed by Australia. The rights are not extended to Aboriginal Australians.
1951
Assimilation is expressed openly by Paul hasluck, Federal Minister for the Territories. “Assimilation means, in practical terms, that, in the course of time, it is expected that all persons of aboriginal blood in Australia will live like other white Australians do”
Video on Aboriginal treatment 1788-1988 Watch and answer Q's
Video by NSW Aboriginal Education
ACTIVITY: Watch Minutes 3:17-8:45 and answer the questions
1. This video comes from a specific perspective? What group of people do you think made this video? Why do you think that?
2. What is Terra Nullius?
3. What atrocities were committed against aborigines in Australia?
4. What Universal Human Rights were not given to aborigines?
5. What is protectionism?
6. What is Assimilation?
ACTIVITY: Watch Minutes 3:17-8:45 and answer the questions
1. This video comes from a specific perspective? What group of people do you think made this video? Why do you think that?
2. What is Terra Nullius?
3. What atrocities were committed against aborigines in Australia?
4. What Universal Human Rights were not given to aborigines?
5. What is protectionism?
6. What is Assimilation?
Assimilation in Case Study: Albert Namatjira & Charles Perkins
ACTIVITY: Watch the video and answer the questions. You can also find the answers in the textbook in class,
Jacaranda, History Alive 10 pp 128-129
1. In what ways was Albert Namatjira assimilated into the white community?
2. In what ways did he preserve his Indigenous heritage?
3. Why was his style of painting so unusual at the time?
4. In 1957, how many aboriginal persons were Australian citizens?
5. In what ways was Australian citizenship bad and good for Albert Namatjira?
6. Why did Albert get citizenship when others did not? What made him special?
7. From the video and some of the pictures in the book, what do you think his relationship with white Australians was like?
Jacaranda, History Alive 10 pp 128-129
1. In what ways was Albert Namatjira assimilated into the white community?
2. In what ways did he preserve his Indigenous heritage?
3. Why was his style of painting so unusual at the time?
4. In 1957, how many aboriginal persons were Australian citizens?
5. In what ways was Australian citizenship bad and good for Albert Namatjira?
6. Why did Albert get citizenship when others did not? What made him special?
7. From the video and some of the pictures in the book, what do you think his relationship with white Australians was like?
ACTIVITY: Watch the video and answer the questions.
1. Where was Charles Perkins born?
2. From the age of 10, where did he grow up? Using your historical knowledge, why would he have grown up somewhere different than where he was born? What might have happened to him?
3. What was he famous for overseas?
4. What was he the first Indigenous Australian to do?
5. If he wasn’t famous do you think he would have been able to achieve what he did? Why or why not?
6. In what ways did he assimilate into the white community?
FROM Jacaranda, History Alive 10, p 130
Charles Perkins was born in 1936 in the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Aboriginal Reserve. When he was 10, his mother arranged for him to be taken to an Anglican Boys’ Hostel in Adelaide to have, in his words, ‘the colour washed out of him’. His sporting talent as a soccer player opened doors of opportunity for him: in 1965 he became the first Indigenous Australian to graduate
US Civil Rights Movements that affected the Australian Civil Rights Movement
"Strange Fruit" is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. Written by teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem and published in 1937, it protested American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the South at the turn of the century, but continued there and in other regions of the United States. Meeropol set it to music and, with his wife and the singer Laura Duncan, performed it as a protest song in New York venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden. - SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Fruit
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"I Have a Dream" is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28, 1963, in which he calls for an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream
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