How have the Rights and Freedoms of Aboriginal People

changed in the Post-War Period?

Today’s Lesson

1. Protectionism: Revision

2. Assimilation: Introduction

3. Source Analysis

4. Video

Assimilation•The policy of assimilation was based on the belief that the Aboriginal culture and way of life was inferior and it took little notice of the long heritage and traditional lifestyle of the Aboriginal people.

•The policy of assimilation encouraged many Aboriginal people to give up this traditional lifestyle and move to towns and cities to find work and to seek a lifestyle that did not involve a protector or government official making decisions for them.

How did the Assimilation Policy effect Aboriginal Australians?

It prevented them from: Raising their own children From freely moving Accessing education Receiving award wages

Marrying without permission Eating in restaurants Entering a pub Swimming in a public pool or having the right to vote.

The Assimilation policy denied Aboriginal people, their basic rights up until the 1960s.

Source Questions

Write these questions in your book and answer them for each of the three sources.

1. What aspect of the Assimilation policy is seen in the source?

2. What do you think white Australians were hoping to achieve by enacting this aspect of the policy?

3. What impact do you think it had on the Aboriginal people?

Assimilation: Source 1

Assimilation Video

Assimilation: Source 2

This photograph of Aboriginal boys on a tractor at Kinchela Boys Home in 1959 shows that they were not expected to aim higher than the work of a farm hand.(National Archives of Australia: A1200, L31986, 'Aboriginal boys on a tractor, Kinchela 1959')

Assimilation: Source 3 Aborigines of "mixed blood" to be

issued with Certificates of Exemption, releasing them from the provisions of the Act and its regulations.

These certificates, commonly known as "dog tags", came at a price as individuals were forced to relinquish family connections. They were not allowed to visit their own families and were gaoled if caught doing so.

Mary Terszak's (nee Woods) Certificate of Exemption from the Western Australian Department of Native Affairs. She has kept it as a reminder of the past.

Check your understanding

Fill in the second summary table on Assimilation.