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Assimilation: Aboriginal People In Australia

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Assimilation, in context of post 1788 Australia, refers to the forced breeding and other integration processes that were used to attempt to slowly remove Aboriginal people from Australia (Partington, 1998). Assimilation followed the protection era – a time at which legislation was introduced to ‘protect’ Indigenous individuals; a pretext under which the government were able to control and exert power over the Aboriginal population. From these acts stemmed assimilation policies on the other hand were aimed at the younger generation of the Aboriginal population as they were seen more fit and able to fully integrate into post-settlement Australia (Gibson, 2015). This notion meant that many, if not most Aboriginal children were forcefully taken …show more content…

There are many recounts of stolen generation stories out there, some heard and some, which remain unheard even to this day. Whilst some stories have been recounted in books and research papers, Stolen Generation Testimonies is a website that has compiled digital transcripts of recounts from Indigenous individuals who were directly affected by the protection acts and assimilation policies (Stolengenerationstestimonies.com, 2015). The website acts as an aid through which the stolen generation can make their stories known and their voice heard and websites and projects such as these not only allow stories to be shared but also create awareness. Many of the stories share similar experiences of confusion of identity and displacement. A particular story of Joan Saylor (Stolengenerationstestimonies.com, 2015), taken away by the native welfare officers at 9 months of age, recounts stories of growing up in a mission and later, a foster home. Joan’s mother was of Aboriginal descent while her father was a settler, thus she was targeted by the native welfare workers as were other mixed race children (Stolengenerationstestimonies.com, 2015). Growing up in the Moore River Mission, Joan was often told that the whereabouts and details of her family was unknown and that she would not be allowed to leave the mission – a theme prevalent in many accounts of stolen generation stories (Stolengenerationstestimonies.com, 2015). As missions were run by Christian groups, children were often forced to participate in services and rituals without any regard for their personal preferences. Food and nutrition as missions are often documented being ‘sparse’ or simple, often consisting of water, soup and bread (Stolengenerationstestimonies.com, 2015). Children in

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