ipl-logo

How Did The Western Australia Assimilation Policy Originate?

748 Words3 Pages

1. How did the Western Australia Assimilation Policy originate? - In 1931 the Western Australian Assimilation Policy was passed by the Australian Government. It stated that Aboriginal people of mixed ancestry were to be placed into white society whether they wanted to or not, until they are 16. -The concept was that once you breed a half-caste child with a white person and keep doing that for around 3 generations, then the Aboriginal blood would be purged out of the childs system. This process was called assimilation. -A fringe benefit for the government was that if you take a half-caste child and place it into white society then it may cut off the ties that the child has with their culture, their land and their parents. These …show more content…

Neville, Western Australian Chief Aboriginal Protector

2. How did the Western Australia Assimilation Policy impact the Aborigines, and how did they react? -Obviously, the Aborigines were not okay with this policy, as half-caste children were taken by the government and placed into reserves and into white societies. -The Aborigines were sad about the forced removal of their children, but they couldn’t do much about, as it was the law. They couldn’t protest against it, as that would involve leaving their tribe. So most just attempted to resist the removal of their children
-The movie “Rabbit Proof Fence” is a true story about three half-caste girls who escape from Moore River Camp in Western Australia. -Two of the three girls in the movie were successful in their escape, but many were not. Cruel and unnecessary punishments were used on attempted escapees. -Meanwhile, back in the Aboriginal tribes, the mothers of the half-caste children (most half-caste children were born because of sexual abuse from white men) were terribly affected. They had lost their children in a brash and useless attempt to purge the Aborigines from …show more content…

-The Western Australia Assimilation Policy was ended in 1970, 3 years after the introduction of the Aborigines Referendum.
- However, in todays world, the Aboriginal people and half-castes are still discriminated against by racists, white supremacists and other people of this type.
- The Policy was so ingrained in Western Australia that it had the lowest percentage of people voting for the Aborigines Referendum in 1967.
-Even though they were released in 1970, most half-caste people continue to feel inferior due to the forced removal of their identity and their culture.
-Molly, one of the girls that made it back in the Rabbit Proof Fence, had a daughter. One of them was taken away by officials and she was never seen again.
-In the reserves or white societies, half-castes learned white culture and had a lack of acknowledgement towards Aboriginal culture. If they were released and went into their tribes, they would feel inferior as they knew nothing of their own culture or racial identity.
-Half-castes who began to feel very inferior got depressed and turned to suicide as a

Show More
Related
598 Words | 3 Pages

It was finally discontinued in 1970, and the Australian government has since issued a formal apology to the Aboriginal peoples affected. The Stolen Generations remains a significant part of Australia’s history. It serves as a reminder of Indigenous peoples’ ongoing struggles regarding their treatment and rights.

Read More
644 Words | 3 Pages

How did the White Australia Policy limit the growth of multiculturalism in Australia during the 1900’s? The immigration Act 1901 was an act of the Parliament of Australia which limited immigration, and tried to exclude all non-Europeans from living and working in Australia. The “White Australia” policy was the name given to a group of laws that stopped non-Europeans from coming to live in Australia. As a non-European, to live in Australia you had to pass a dictation test to prove if you could speak the European languages.

Read More
1583 Words | 7 Pages

Here, the Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 (VIC) was made to establish an inclusive scheme of control over the lives of First Australians (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, 2014). New South Wales’ equivalent to this was the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW) which was to provide protection and care of Aboriginal People but rather legislated for the control of their lives. The policies of assimilation directly related to and relied on segregation and protectionism policies. This policy reflected the views of all governmental bodies of Australia, in that they thought it necessary that Aboriginal people were to eventually exercise the equivalent method of living as non-Indigenous Australians and to live as members of a sole community appreciating the same rights and freedoms, accept the same responsibilities, observing similar duties and be predisposed to the same loyalties, hopes and

Read More
790 Words | 4 Pages

In 1966 in the Menzies Government, the Immigration Minister announced a change in the immigration policy, which opened the door for chosen non-European migration. Asian migrants who were pretty skilled or valuable to Australia would be allowed to settle in the country. After a great effort of serious debates, the Australian Labour Party annual convention in 1966 had been removed officially from its immigration policy words about maintaining White Australia. Both political parties were those the ones who still had believed in the White Australia Policy, and those who identified its political unacceptability, as well as those who had a genuine idea of the opposition to the

Read More
508 Words | 3 Pages

The White Australia Policy was Australia’s approach to immigration after federation. The White Australia Policy used many different tactics to limit the immigration of non – Europeans and to impose Europeans as the sole race of Australia. Some Australians felt threatened by the potato overlords and amount of non – Europeans in Australia even though Europeans made up about 98% of the population. There was also a huge surge of nationalism at the time which made people want Australia for what they considered the Australians. The nationalism caused them value a ‘pure’ race of Australians in which there was no room for the migrants who had been living in Australia happily until that point.

Read More
278 Words | 2 Pages

The ‘White Australia Policy’ was first put in place by the federal government in 1901. The overall aim of the policy was to limit non-white immigration, especially Asians. At the time, 98% of Australia’s population were white; Australia wanted to maintain this number, and aim to have the country mainly consist of British people. With most of the country already white, the majority of Australians supported the policy when it was first introduced; this is because the white Australians were concerned about losing their jobs to non-white workers. They believed a restrictive immigration policy was the only way to ensure a secure future.

Read More
544 Words | 3 Pages

1 - What were the means used in the extermination of the Australian Aborigines and why would you or would you not call it genocide? Cultural genocide. I would call it a genocide, the intentions were pretty clear, the settler trying to westernized the aboriginals, and the way they do it was wrong as well, the aboriginals weren’t informed where their children went, they knew they left for school but were never brought back, causing suffering and pain within the heart. The children taken away were also not very well taken care off. I learned from the documentary mentioned (Being Them Home) that there are cases that if the families that take in by white families didn’t work out, instead of being sent back to their original home, they were transferred from one foster home to another, causing pain and confusion, and most

Read More
1742 Words | 7 Pages

In the post-war period, more than 15,000 people of mixed descent were allowed into Australia on ‘compassionate grounds, and close family relations’. Action was taken by the Australian Government against this, but the bills that had been drawn up to deport war refugees such as Ms O’Keefe were not implemented as the government had been voted out and replaced by Robert Menzies and his Liberal

Read More
953 Words | 4 Pages

One discriminating point that has dependably been maintained a strategic distance from by the antiquarians of the Stolen Generations is that full-blood Indigenous children were once in a while, and in numerous spots never, expelled from their guardians (Reynolds, 2005). By the early many years of the twentieth century, most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in the southern a large portion of the Australian mainland were individuals of part descent, yet in the northern half, full descent populaces prevailed. In the Northern Territory, half-caste constituted a little minority of Indigenous individuals (Reynolds, 2005). It turned out to be clear the full-blood Indigenous people was not ceasing to exist as beforehand thought, but rather was

Read More
1190 Words | 5 Pages

Abstract Being an aborigine in a white dominated society is a complicated identity. Australia, one of the white governed nations, also owns many aboriginal tribes. They lived harmonious lives in the early period. But European colonization has made a profound effect on the lives of Aboriginals in Australia, which led to the total demolition of their native culture, identity and history. As a result the new generation Aboriginals have lost their Aboriginal heritage and have been accepted neither by Aboriginals nor by whites.

Read More
416 Words | 2 Pages

One Australian minority group that has been effected drastically is that of Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australians are the traditional custodians of the land and have living in Australia for over 40,000 years. Since the arrival of white settlers in the late 18th century, their culture has been subject to a high degree scrutiny. Using the Australian ethnocentrism scale, it has been concluded that white Australians held negative attitudes towards Indigenous Australians (Beswick, Hills 1972). A popular negative attitude that can be viewed in today’s society is that

Read More
698 Words | 3 Pages

The Assimilation Policy failed its aim of improving the lives of Indigenous Australians by placing them into white society. This was because white society did not accept Indigenous people as equals, even after indigenous people’s efforts to live like white society. The Assimilation Policy was a huge contributor to the Stolen Generations, this was because the Australian government made it a law to take Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander descent children and move them into white society. Children taken from their parents were taught to reject their Indigenous heritage, and made to adopt white culture. Their names were changed, and they were forbidden to speak their traditional language.

Read More
741 Words | 3 Pages

Their life in those missions had affected them greatly that members of the Stolen Generation had turned towards alcohol and drug abuse. Many Aboriginal women had offsprings and they were most likely taken away to be put in the systems since of their mother’s inability to take care of them properly due to the fact that they did not witness any type of parental caring behaviour during most of their early life (Read 2006, p.25). A quote from an anonymous (??) mentioned in the Bringing Them Home: Report, explains how much damage was made to the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s sense of identity and

Read More
607 Words | 3 Pages

Australia has always been filled with racism, starting with the treatment of indigenous people in the past. Many Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families as a result of numerous government policies. Most of the indigenous children were adopted into white families. They wanted to create a white society.

Read More
542 Words | 3 Pages

“Survival can be summed up in three words- never give up. That’s the heart of it really. Just keep trying,” (Bear Grylls). People go through many hardships in life that set them back, whether it is emotionally or physically. Sometimes they may give or other times they may keep fighting.

Read More

More about How Did The Western Australia Assimilation Policy Originate?

Related Topics

Open Document