‘Playing the Game’: Aboriginal Exemption in Queensland and New South Wales

Lucinda Aberdeen; Kella Robinson; Judith Wickes

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‘Playing the Game’: Aboriginal Exemption in Queensland and New South Wales

Lucinda Aberdeen, Kella Robinson and Judith Wickes

Black, White and Exempt: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives under Exemption, pp.62-84

Aboriginal Studies Press

2021

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Abstract

Aboriginal Australians

Aboriginals, Australian

Aborigines, Australian

Australia

Australian aboriginal people

Australian aboriginals

Australian aborigines

Australians, Aboriginal

Australians, Native (Aboriginal Australians)

Government policy

History

Native Australians (Aboriginal Australians)

Race relations

In 1957, Ella Simon of Purfleet mission near Taree, New South Wales, applied for and was granted a certificate of exemption. Exemption gave her legal freedoms denied to other Indigenous Australians at that time: she could travel freely, open a bank account, and live and work where she wanted. In the eyes of the law she became a non-Aboriginal, but in return she could not associate -with other Aboriginal people – even her own family or community. It ‘stank in my nostrils’ -- Ella Simon 1978. These personal and often painful histories uncovered in archives, family stories and lived experiences reveal new perspectives on exemption. Black, White and Exempt describes the resourcefulness of those who sought exemption to obtain freedom from hardship and oppressive regulation of their lives as Aboriginal Australians. It celebrates their resilience and explores how they negotiated exemption to protect their families and increase opportunities for them. The book also charts exemptees who struggled to advance Aboriginal rights, resist state control and abolish the exemption system. [Book Synopsis]

Details

Title: ‘Playing the Game’: Aboriginal Exemption in Queensland and New South Wales
Authors: Lucinda Aberdeen (Author) - La Trobe University
Kella Robinson (Author)
Judith Wickes (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Indigenous Services - Legacy
Contributors: Lucinda Aberdeen (Editor) - La Trobe University
Jennifer Jones (Editor) - La Trobe University
Publication details: Black, White and Exempt: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives under Exemption, pp.62-84
Publisher: Aboriginal Studies Press
ISBN: 9781925302349
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Indigenous Services - Legacy; School of Law and Society
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99569201902621
Output Type: Book chapter

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