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‘The Aborigines Act of 1905, which was not repealed until 1963, imposed sweeping controls over the lives of Aboriginal people. The Act provided for the appointment of a Chief Protector of Aborigines who was the legal guardian of all Aboriginal and ‘half-caste’ (mixed race) children under 16. An amendment to the Act in 1911 increased the powers of the Chief Protector over all illegitimate half-caste children to the exclusion of the rights of their mothers…Families could be separated and children of mixed descent placed in hostels or institutions.’ Dennis, L. Australia since 1890, Addison Wesley Longman Australia, 1999, p.84
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‘It was common practice for part-Aboriginal children to be removed from their mothers and placed in institutions whose aim was to educate them to be assimilated into the white community. With regard to this practice, the WA Commissioner of Native Affairs said in 1937: “When they enter the institution, the children are removed from the parents who are allowed to see them occasionally…At first the mothers tried to entice the children back to the camps, but that difficulty has now been overcome.”’ Jacobs, C., Healing a Divided Nation. Land Rights – An Aboriginal Perspective, Veritas Publishing Company, Bullsbrook, Australia,1986, p.13, as quoted in Dennis, L. Australia since 1890 (see above)
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This material has been produced by UNITEC Institute of Technology
under contract to the Ministry of Education.
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