Aboriginal Rights and Freedom and Stolen Generation

History of the Australian nation – State Library of NSW

This essay is based on how aboriginal people got freedom from British imperialism.

The first people on the land of Australia were the Aboriginal people and Torres Strait
Islanders. Aboriginals came to Australia from the islands of Indonesia through boats and
settled in all parts of Australia. Aboriginal people’s lifestyle was simple and they lived their
lives by hunting and fishing. But in 1770, a British sailor captain James cook found the fertile
east coast of Australia. Captain Cook called this coast New South Wales and claimed this
land for Britain. An Englishman Matthew Flinders published his map of the coast in 1814
called it Australia for the first time, and this was name was formally adopted by the
authorities. British started bringing their people to Australia and the people were the
prisoners of Britain. British wanted to use Australia as prison colony. About 160 000 convicts
were brought to Australia from 1788 until 1868. Also free immigrants started arriving in the
1790s. This was the start of British rule in Australia.

British started occupying all parts of Australia. During the first 62 years of British rule the
aboriginal population drastically reduced and the British population started increasing. The
reduction of the aboriginal population claims that the British population was a bad influence
on Aboriginal people. They were not allowed to celebrated their traditions and culture.
British wanted to abolish aboriginal culture. British started torturing and treating Aboriginal
people badly. They started killing aborigines. Their lives were controlled by British. Stolen
generation is the evidence of this. Because British wanted to wash out the aborigines and
their culture they started stealing the Aboriginal children. They started to take the children
away from families and put the children in schools and try to make them “white”. As a result
when aboriginal children will grow they won’t recognise their families.

The aboriginal people in 20th century were totally controlled by the government. They
couldn’t do anything on their own. They had to live the way government wanted them to.
The place where they lived called “the missions” was sometimes a place for refuges but
moreover it was a jail for aboriginal people. They had to live there even if they do not want
to. JW bleakly (chief protector of aborigines) in 1928, was asked by the prime minister to
investigate about the living conditions of nearly 2100 indigenous people, living in central
and northern Australia. Bleakly was shocked by finding out the extent of diseases,
malnourishment and unsanitary housing. He also found out that most of the children were
unschooled and most of the adults were unpaid of their work. This is a part of series when
missions force the indigenous people to give up their tradition, their custom and religion.
They were forced to convert to Christianity. The missionaries provided food, shelter,
clothing, medical assistance and training of young people as domestics and stockmen. The
missionaries were criticized to force these indigenous people to convert to Christianity.
Bleakly after seeing this assimilation, appealed for the rights of these indigenous people and
his recommendations were impelled. The aboriginal people were controlled awfully in the
missions. They had to ask if they had to leave the mission and go somewhere, they also had
to ask if they wanted to do a job and even to get married. Their lives were in the control of
the government. The government thought they are doing really well with the aboriginal
people by giving them place to live in the mission but for the aboriginal people it was worse.
They were not allowed to own a land or buy a house they didn’t have much facilities in the
missions. Their life style was ridiculous and everything was controlled by the government.

After all some aborigines started raising their voices against, government started noticing
the conditions a bit and then the protection policy was introduced in 1869. The protection
policy didn’t really make the condition any better. This protection policy for aboriginals was
actually based on paternalism (to make them white) and also breed out black. The white
people were killing aboriginal community and they realised they would breed out. So they
stopped killing them and discovered a new way of treating them, called paternalism. They
though the aboriginal people were not able to handle themselves on their own. So, they
started treating them childlike. They thought all the Australian people should be white. They
should become like them. The aboriginal people were provided food, shelter, clothes, work
and education for children but it wasn’t all free. They had to be “white” for that. They had
to give up their own religion, culture and traditions. This protection policy wasn’t really a
better thing for indigenous people. In fact, it hurt them more. Indigenous people were still
not accepted in the society. They had to give up their selves to become like the white
Australians, which they didn’t want to.The aborigines were still considered inferior. The
protection policy was majorly based on paternalism. Traditional celebrations were still
banished. The aboriginals even had to apply to marry someone and their application could
be refused too. The policy ended in 1937.

After the protection policy another policy was introduced in 1937. Assimilation in this
situation means “look white, act white”. Through this policy the aboriginal people were
encouraged to become white. They had to give up their own culture and they had to
become like white. This certificate was issued on the mistaken belief that aboriginal people
wanted to become like white people and they wanted to give up their culture and customs.
The dog tag was originally “license to be white” and the certificate of exemption meant that
aboriginal people are no more aboriginals. The general certificate of exemption that was
issued on 10th of March, 1951 was another name of assimilation policy. The assimilation
policy was meant to be in favour of aboriginal people. They thought they are giving
aboriginal people freedom and they are doing something good with the aboriginal people.
Actually assimilation policy was another way of discriminating aboriginal people. They can
live freely in their own land but they had to give up their own cultures, customs and
traditions. The certificate gave the aboriginal people the right to leave the reservation or he
mission they lived in or to go to work. This shows that aboriginal people were not even
allowed to leave the place without the permission of white people. There were some
additional benefits included in this this policy too and they were allowed

• To walk freely through town without being arrested and still the curfews were
applied.

This means that if the aboriginal people came out of their houses or go to the streets or the
towns they will be arrested.

• They were given the permission to enter a shop or hotel.

But they might not be served by the proprietor discretion.

As shown above the rights that were given to the aboriginal people are the basic rights of
humans. Any person living anywhere should be allowed to go freely to the town, streets or
shops or hotels. But even these things didn’t come for free there were some conditions
applied to this too and they were even worse. These conditions included:

• They were prohibited to speak in their native language. They were forced to speak
English.

• They had to give up their traditions and culture to become white. They were
prohibited to engage in dance, rituals and native customs.

• The worse condition was that they were not even allowed to meet with their fellow
indigenous people and including family.

The certificate included that if they follow this policy they will be classified as Australian
citizens (even though it was their right to be Australians) and so they can live unsupervised.
The certificate had this line written on it “This is your chance to be free of the Aborigines
Protection Act and live like a White man.”

The Aborigines were forced to act like white people. The

Aboriginal people wanted freedom and rights but not on the cost of giving up their culture
and not being aboriginals. Aboriginal people were moved off their reserves and missions to
the fringe of the towns. They were forced to shift in the towns but it was difficult for them
to find jobs among white community due to severe discrimination. This lead to poverty
among aborigines. Moreover the aborigines were refused to go to swimming pools,
hospitals, services and venues. Their children were taken away from them that were more
adaptable in their views that can adopt white ways of living or act like white Australians.
This was called stolen generation. The aboriginal people were assisted to become like white
people. The aboriginal people weren’t even happy with this policy instead they were
disappointed with it. The assimilation policy ended in 1965.

From 1965- 1972 was the period of integration. Integration meant that the aboriginals were
the part of white community but unlike protection policy they were allowed to celebrate
their culture.

In 1972 aboriginals were given self-determined and were included in decision making. This
was till 2005. Also the interracial relationships started getting better. Australians started
recognising past mistakes but not completely. Aboriginals started gaining improvement in
health, education and living standards.

In 2007 government sent the army into remote areas in northern territory. They wanted to
protect children from abuse and neglect.

Aboriginals had to fight a lot to get proper recognition. The Australia day 26TH January was
considered as a day of celebration by the white people but for aboriginal people it was a day
of mourning. On this day many of their people were killed by the white Australians. Their
land was occupied by the white people. They were being badly tortured by the white
people. So on 26th January 1938 the aboriginal people decided to protest against this and
they demanded for their rights. Aboriginal conference declared it a peaceful day of
mourning. This march was also for citizen rights. On 26 January 1938, while the white
Australian celebrated sesquicentenary (150 years) of European settlement, the aboriginal
people announced a protest and declared this day as a mourning day. About 100 men,
women and children gathered in the 50–152 Elizabeth Street in Sydney, known as the
Australian Hall and protest against the white people. They appealed for new policies to give
the aboriginal people full citizenship and equality in the community. They also demanded
for education for their children and care for the aboriginal people. Another event occurred
on this day was re-enactment of invasion. The government brought 26 men from Brewarrina
and Menindee and forced them to stay at Redfern police cells. 4 of these 26 men include
Hera Black, Archie Boney, Anzac Williams and Jimmy Wongram. This was the first time that
aborigines did something for the unjust towards them. This was the first aborigine’s activist
group. This event drew attention of many people. The prime minster and his wife met the
organisers of this protest but nothing resulted out. This event was the considered as an
annual day of mourning and till now it is still considered as Day of mourning by aboriginal
people. The Australian Hall has become very significant to Indigenous people, and is listed
on the National Register of heritage places. This event also led to major reforms of the
Protection Boards, and to the 1967 Referendum, which approved the counting of Aboriginal
people in the national census and gave the Commonwealth power to legislate for them,
overruling state law.

A young university student also contributed in the fight to get freedom rights. Charles
Perkins was a university student who led freedom ride. • Charles Perkins was a half caste
was born in Alice spring on 16 June, 1936.He studied in university of Sydney. He was the first
aboriginal men to be graduated from university. Charles was an aboriginal activist. He was a
soccer player. He married Eileen Munchenberg on 23 September 1961 and had two
daughters and a son .He died on 19 October, 2000 at the age of 64 in Sydney. Charles Perkin
led the freedom ride to see the miserable conditions of aboriginal and to make the
government realise this. The freedom riders protested in front of RSL club and swimming
pool in Moree both of these places had restricted aboriginal people from entering. This was
the example of segregation in Moree. The aboriginal question in Moree meant that they will
protest against the segregation in Moree. The ride was against segregation and Moore was
the first place where segregation was seen by the freedom riders so they wanted to discuss
about it and solve this problem. They demanded for equal rights. The freedom riders were
absolutely shocked by the discrimination. Mainly they encountered discrimination in the
following ways:

Aboriginal people were not allowed to go to public places like swimming pools, clubs, hotels
and public toilets.

Segregation even existed at schools and aboriginal people were not offered jobs and if they
had jobs they were seasonal.

Aboriginal people were forced to live in reserves and mission and weren’t allowed in towns
and they lived at the fringe of towns where the living conditions were terrible. There were
just only little reserves like electricity, gas or water.

They encountered discrimination in the picture cinemas too. They saw that the cinemas
were partially and aboriginal people had to buy tickets separately. If an aboriginal person is
late and the picture has started they couldn’t enter the cinema. This happened in
Bowraville. RSL refused membership for aboriginal veterans and they were not allowed to
enter in RSL on ANZAC Day in Walgett. In Moree when the freedom riders asked to be
allowed to the pools they allowed aboriginal people to go to the pools but a week later they
were again restricted to the pools.

The freedom ride led by Charles Perkins was inspired by American civil rights movement. In
the freedom ride the students of a university went to different areas of NSW to get the
insight of the living conditions of aboriginal people. The students protested for the rights of
aboriginal people. They found that the most of the places were extremely segregated. In
1965 the aboriginal people were included separately in the census and the human’s rights
were thoroughly ignored. The freedom ride helped aboriginal people gain publicity and also
gave them awareness to stand for themselves and resist discrimination. The freedom ride
also put a peer pressure on the government. It exposed the racial segregation and
discrimination towards aborigines. After the freedom ride most of the segregation was
reduced and a referendum was held after it in 1967. The referendum was about the
aboriginal rights. In the referendum there were 90.77% “yes” votes which led to
amendments to two clauses in Australian constitution. From the result of this aboriginal
people were given the status of Australian citizens and they were included in census too. A
minor short-term result was the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board publicly announced that it
would spend sixty-five thousand pounds on housing in Moree. The freedom ride was really
effective as after it there was a national debate too for the aboriginal people. The aboriginal
rights were discussed by the government. The freedom ride also provided legal the federal
government to provide welfare to the indigenous population and it also allowed Aborigines
greater access to justice and the legal system, which helped break down the social barrier
between the indigenous and white populations. The Freedom Ride also contributed in the
breakdown of the White Australia policy in 1972 by Gough Whitlam. The Ride ended with
Charles Perkins becoming a national leader of Aboriginal affairs.

In the steps to native title aboriginals had to go through a whole process. Another person
whole led this process was Eddie Mabo. He fought for the rights of aboriginal people and
also that they should be the custodian of their own land.

The Mabo case led to the “Native Title Act”. The native title act is the guarantee of rights
and interests in land and water. Native title is only available to indigenous people where
they were able to prove a continuous link with the land and have ceremonies and customs
associated with land. 1992 the Mabo decision stated that the native title only existed in the
land where aboriginals had special connection with. 1993, native title act complemented the
Mabo decision by attempting to make the concept of native title workable. It set up a claim
process for native title rights, and regulated future government acts affecting naïve title
land.

The aboriginals finally got recognition in 2008 when the prime minister of Australia Kevin
Rudd gave a sorry speech for everything that aboriginals have faced in past and majorly for
the stolen generation. Aboriginals were finally recognised and they won in their fight of
freedom.