Aboriginal Child Migrations

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The non-Indigenous settlement on Australia during the frontier period brought resistance between the Indigenous people and the non-indigenous settlers. Land was claimed for economic purposes by the European settlers spreading throughout Australia from Botany Bay during the late 1700s. Resistance started off low from the indigenous people, with early stages showing non violent cases, such as the refusal of the adoption of the European principles of religion and culture began the early stages of the resistance. Many aboriginal groups took livestock from the Europeans. Retaliations followed escalating to full on war over land because Europeans saw this as the aboriginals stealing. Aborigines fought with guerrilla tactics, destroying livestock,…show more content…
Aboriginal children were regularly removed from their families and were sent off to missions or government institutions. At these institutions the girls would be trained for domestic service whilst the boys studied low status laboring jobs. Some children were sent to be raised in white foster families depending on the colour of their skin. These children were often referred to as ‘half cast’. These Early child removals were often informal, however the Aborigines Protection Acts and various other pieces of legislation provided the legal framework for these practices to be done. The assimilation policy was designed to ensure that all indigenous people were adhering to the ‘same manner of living’ as the non-indigenous settlers. The assimilation policy focused on a close surveillance of Indigenous people, with District Welfare Officers appointed to observe and report on Indigenous life. The assimilation policy incorporated several ideas that aimed to ensure that Indigenous people lost their Identity as it was expressed through biology and through culture. The introduction of ‘Exemption certificates’ were awarded to aboriginals who were seen as deserving citizens allowing them access to other services which non-Indigenous people took for granted, such as education, housing and health. To receive a certificate, the chosen person had to agree to live separate from their family and community. John Chesterman and Heather Douglas argue, ‘the broad attraction of the policy of assimilation was the promise that it held for the 'ultimate absorption' (in a cultural, if not in a racial sense) of Aboriginality by white Australia, a promise that would end the myriad headaches being caused by the attempts to separate white and black. But just as
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