Ruqayyah Snyder
Australian Aboriginal people are one of the two distinct Indigenous cultural groups of Australia, with a history of colonisation and forced removal of their children. Since the European invasion of Australia in 1788, the Aboriginal people have been oppressed and forced into a world unnatural to their existence. The basic structure of Aboriginal society was unchanged until the arrival of the British, who brought with them diseases that decimated the immediate population of the Sydney tribes. From the 19th to the mid-20th century, government policy removed many mixed-heritage children from Aboriginal communities, with the intent to assimilate them into the majority white culture. In 1967, Australians voted that federal laws would also apply to Aboriginal Australians, and in 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a formal apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples for the suffering caused by the Stolen Generations. However, in 2023, Australians rejected a national referendum that would have recognised Aboriginal people in its constitution.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| British colonisation of Australia began | 1788 |
| First Fleet led by | Governor Arthur Phillip |
| First Fleet instructed to | "Live in amity and kindness" with the Aboriginal population |
| First act of land ownership by Europeans | Men from the HMS Sirius cleared land to gain access to fresh water |
| Population of Aboriginal people in 1788 | 750,000 |
| Year of smallpox epidemic | 1791 |
| Year of forced removal of Aboriginal children | 1910-1970 |
| Percentage of children removed | 10-33% |
| Year Aboriginal Australians got voting rights | 1965 |
| Year of referendum to recognise Aboriginal people in the constitution | 2023 |
| Year Australia's top Indigenous organisation, The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), was abolished | 2004 |
| Year of the first National Apology to the Stolen Generations | 2008 |
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What You'll Learn
British colonisation of Australia in 1788
The British colonisation of Australia began in 1788 with the arrival of the First Fleet in Botany Bay, Sydney Cove, in January of that year. The fleet was comprised of 11 vessels, carrying around 730 convicts and 250 free persons, including the first governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip. Governor Phillip formally proclaimed the colony on 7 February 1788, claiming the territory of New South Wales for Britain, which included more than half of mainland Australia and many islands in the Pacific. The colony was intended to be a penal colony, with convict labour being employed on government farms, while former convicts would subsist on their own small plots. This was in line with the British government's aim to relieve pressure on its prisons, particularly after the loss of its American colonies, which had previously accepted transported convicts.
The colonisation of Australia had been proposed prior to 1788, notably by Emanuel Bowen in 1747, who promoted the commercial and strategic benefits of colonising the country. However, no attempts at colonisation were made until the arrival of the First Fleet. The British considered the land to be 'terra nullius', or wasteland, as there were relatively few 'natives' along the coast, and they believed that European culture was superior. This assumption of superiority and the notion of 'terra nullius' were central to the dispossession and colonisation of Aboriginal land.
The Aboriginal population in the Sydney region at the time of the First Fleet's arrival is estimated to have been around 3,000 people. The colonisation process had a devastating impact on this population, with the introduction of diseases such as smallpox, influenza, and measles, as well as violent conflict and dispossession of their traditional lands. An outbreak of smallpox in April 1789 killed about half of the Aboriginal population in the Sydney region, and the spread of venereal diseases also impacted fertility rates. Competition for resources and occupation of Aboriginal lands led to friction and conflict between the colonists and the Aboriginal people, with the latter often being forced off their lands and into the territory of other tribes, leading to an increase in inter-tribal violence.
The British established military forces in the colony from the outset, with the commandant of Norfolk Island, Phillip Gidley King, ordering his free male settlers to practise musketry in December 1788. These forces were used to suppress convict rebellions and civil unrest, as well as to protect the colony from potential French settlement. The colony of New South Wales also served as a strategic base for British sea power and economic exploitation in the region.
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The Stolen Generations
The removals were sanctioned by various government policies, which aimed to assimilate Indigenous children into white society. These policies were based on the racist belief that Indigenous Australians should be allowed to ""die out" or be assimilated into white communities. Children of First Nations and white parentage, known as "half-caste" children, were particularly vulnerable to removal as authorities believed they could be more easily assimilated due to their lighter skin colour.
Once removed, the children were raised in institutions or adopted into white families. They were often denied access to their families, communities, and cultures, and were taught to reject their Indigenous heritage in favour of white culture. Many were forbidden from speaking their native languages and had their names changed. Abuse and neglect were common in the institutions where they were placed.
The legacy of trauma and loss resulting from these policies continues to affect Indigenous communities, families, and individuals today. Members of the Stolen Generations have experienced higher rates of adverse outcomes, including poor health, mental health issues, poverty, and unstable family situations. The intergenerational trauma has also impacted the descendants of the Stolen Generations, who have higher rates of stress, poor mental health, and substance use.
In recent years, there have been efforts to address the injustices of the Stolen Generations. In 1997, the Bringing Them Home report described the Australian policies of removing Aboriginal children as genocide. The following year, the first National Sorry Day was held, with reconciliation events attended by over one million people. In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologised to the Stolen Generations, expressing regret for the deep pain, suffering, and injustices caused by decades of discrimination. Despite these acknowledgements, the failure of a 2023 national referendum to recognise Aboriginal people in Australia's constitution was a blow to many Indigenous Australians.
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Lack of citizenship and voting rights
Aboriginal Australians have a long history of being denied citizenship and voting rights, with many discriminatory practices and policies enacted against them.
From the late 1800s to 1965, Aboriginal people in Queensland were disqualified from voting in state elections. In 1885, the Queensland Elections Act specifically denied voting rights to any "aboriginal native of Australia", and this restriction was extended to include Torres Strait Islander people in 1930.
In Western Australia, the Natives (Citizenship Rights) Act 1944 granted Aboriginal people the right to vote, but only if they met certain conditions. These included speaking English, having "industrious habits", and not having certain medical conditions. This law was considered offensive to Aboriginal identity and freedom of association, and was referred to as the "dog-collar act" or "dog-act".
The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, the first federal electoral Act, effectively denied Aboriginal people the right to vote in federal elections. While it did not explicitly prohibit Aboriginal voting, it stated that "no aboriginal native of Australia... shall be entitled to have his name placed on an Electoral Roll unless so entitled under section forty-one of the Constitution". Section 41 of the Constitution was ambiguous, and it is unclear whether it was intended to be an ongoing provision or an interim measure. This Act also denied the vote to native people of Asia, Africa, and the Pacific Islands (except New Zealand).
In the Northern Territory, the situation was even more dire. In 1957, the Northern Territory Welfare Ordinance declared almost all Aboriginal people to be 'wards of the state', which excluded them from voting.
The fight for citizenship and voting rights was led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activists, who established political associations such as the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA). Their campaigning led to the Australian Government setting up a select committee to investigate Aboriginal voting rights in 1961. The committee found that 30,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were not allowed to vote in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, and Queensland.
In response to the committee's findings, the Menzies government amended the Commonwealth Electoral Act in 1962 to enable all Indigenous Australians to enrol to vote in federal elections. However, it was not until 1966 that Queensland removed restrictions on Indigenous voting, and 1984 when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were finally treated like other voters and required to enrol and vote in elections.
Despite these changes, Australia has never made a treaty with its Indigenous people, and in 2023, Australians rejected a national referendum that would have recognized Aboriginal people in its constitution and established an advisory group to weigh in on relevant issues in Parliament.
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The 1967 Referendum
The referendum sought to change two sections of the Australian Constitution, which discriminated against Indigenous Australians. The Constitution is a living document that shapes Australia and is notoriously challenging to alter. Since 1901, only eight changes have been agreed upon out of 44 proposed changes across 19 referendums.
The first question, known as the 'nexus question', aimed to adjust the balance of numbers in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The second question, which pertained to Indigenous Australians, asked voters whether the Commonwealth Parliament should be empowered to make laws for them, and whether they should be included in official population counts for constitutional purposes.
The referendum received overwhelming public support, with 90.77% of voters saying 'Yes' to the changes. This was the highest 'Yes' vote ever recorded in an Australian referendum. The result led to the establishment of the Office of Aboriginal Affairs by the Holt government in 1967, and the implementation of various schemes to benefit Aboriginal people, including those for housing, loans, emergency accommodation, and tertiary education allowances.
It is important to note that Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory were not allowed to vote in the referendum. Additionally, while the referendum is often associated with granting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples the right to vote, this was not the direct outcome. Instead, it brought about the application of federal laws to these communities, meaning they were now subject to laws made by the Australian government.
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The fight for recognition
The colonisation of Australia by the British in 1788 brought about a world unnatural to the Aboriginal way of life, which had continued for thousands of years. The immediate reaction of the Eora to the arrival of the British was first surprise and then aggression. The Eora were offended by the British entering their lands and taking advantage of their resources without asking permission. The early Europeans also looked down upon the Aboriginal way of life.
The British also brought with them diseases, which decimated the immediate population of the Sydney tribes. It is estimated that over 750,000 Aboriginal people inhabited the island continent in 1788. Massacres, frontier armed conflicts, and competition over resources with European settlers also contributed to the decline of the Aboriginal population. Numerous scholars have classified elements of the colonisation process as constituting genocide against Indigenous Australians.
From the 19th to the mid-20th century, government policy removed many mixed-heritage children from Aboriginal communities, with the intent to assimilate them into the majority white culture. These "Stolen Generations" were put in adoptive families and institutions and forbidden from speaking their native languages. Their names were often changed. Most First Nations people did not have full citizenship or voting rights until 1965.
In 1967, Australians voted to transfer responsibility for Aboriginal Affairs to the Federal Government and to remove discriminatory provisions regarding the national census from the Australian Constitution. Following this, the Office of Aboriginal Affairs was established. In 1972, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established on the steps of Old Parliament House in Canberra to demand sovereignty for the Aboriginal Australian peoples.
In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologised to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia for their mistreatment under earlier Australian governments. In 2023, Australians rejected a national referendum that would have recognised Aboriginal people in its constitution and established an advisory group to weigh in on relevant issues in Parliament.
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Frequently asked questions
The Aboriginal Australians are the Indigenous people of Australia and are believed to have been living on the continent for over 65,000 years. They are one of two distinct Indigenous cultural groups in Australia, the other being the Torres Strait Islanders. The basic structure of Aboriginal society was based on kinship with the natural environment, with family groups linked to larger language groups with distinct territorial boundaries.
The British colonisation of Australia began in 1788, and the Aboriginal Australians were subject to human rights abuses and massacres. From 1910 to 1970, the Australian government forcibly removed between 10 and 33 percent of Aboriginal children from their homes, placing them in adoptive families and institutions. This period is known as the "Stolen Generations".
In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a national apology for the country's actions towards the Stolen Generations. In 2023, a national referendum that would have recognised Aboriginal people in the constitution and established an advisory group to weigh in on relevant issues in Parliament was rejected by over 60 percent of Australians.
While some progress has been made, such as the establishment of a framework for treaty negotiations in the state of Victoria, Australia has never made a treaty with its Indigenous people, making it the only country in the British Commonwealth not to have done so. Aboriginal Australians continue to face social disparities and fight for recognition and restitution from the Australian government.
