Book chapter
‘Because of her, we can’: Gender and diaspora in Australian exemption policies
Routledge Companion to Indigenous Global History, pp.399-418
Routledge
2022
Abstract
When historians have documented the creation of Indigenous diasporas through coerced removals in Oceania, they have largely focused on the removal of children by missionaries and assimilation policies, the impact of wars and frontier violence, and the enforced movement of Indigenous groups onto missions and reserves under the guise of ‘Protection’. This chapter adds the important and under-researched story of exemption policies to this narrative. Like other settler states, Australia incorporated a final assimilative step into the legislation which controlled of Indigenous peoples in the twentieth century. Queensland (1897), Western Australia (1905), the Northern Territory (1936), South Australia (1939), and New South Wales (1943) all offered a new legal status for recipients who could demonstrate their acculturation, thriftiness, morality, and education. Being exempt from protectionist legislation meant different things to Aboriginal people from different states, depending on what controls were imposed on them by their state’s protection legislation. It could affect where they lived and how much money they earned, whether they were eligible for social security or the old age pension, were entitled to vote or to be publicly served alcohol. Being exempt also meant continuing government surveillance and it required outwardly cutting ties with family and community. This chapter will examine the centrality of Australian policies of exemption to the creation of Aboriginal diasporas in Australia.
Details
- Title
- ‘Because of her, we can’: Gender and diaspora in Australian exemption policies
- Authors
- Lucinda Aberdeen (Author) - La Trobe UniversityKatherine Ellinghaus (Author) - La Trobe UniversityKella Robinson (Author)Judith Wickes (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Indigenous Services - Legacy
- Contributors
- Ann McGrath (Editor) - Australian National UniversityLynette Russell (Editor) - Monash University
- Publication details
- Routledge Companion to Indigenous Global History, pp.399-418
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Date published
- 2022
- DOI
- 10.4324/9781315181929-22; 10.4324/9781315181929
- ISBN
- 9781315181929
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Indigenous Services - Legacy; School of Law and Society
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99571603902621
- Output Type
- Book chapter
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