Australian Aborigines and Institutional Racism

1. Australian Aborigines and Institutional Racism

2. Australian Aborigines and Institutional Racism • Aborigines arrive in Australia 40-60,000 years ago • 1788. Britain establishes prison colony in Sydney • British possession justified on the basis of “terra nullius” (no man’s land) • Contact with European civilization brings disease, death through war, massacres, cultural disintegration

3. Australian Aborigines and Institutional Racism • 19th Century. Aborigines seen by European racial theory as subhuman – destined to die out • 20th Century. Assimilation policy: Aboriginal culture deemed inferior to white culture • Aborigines must “assimilate”. Adopt white cultural and social practices

4. Australian Aborigines and Institutional Racism • Aborigines placed in reservations controlled by white administrators • All aspects of life – work, marriage, movement, social and cultural practices - controlled by white administrators • Aboriginal children (particularly half-castes) taken from their parents and tribes • The “stolen” children educated to become farm labourers and domestic servants

6. Aboriginal resistance • Wars and resistance against the invaders • Maintenance of culture despite suppression • Formation of Aboriginal organizations to fight for rights

8. Aboriginal Resistance • Fight for citizenship (achieved in 1967) • Strikes by Aboriginal workers in big cattle farms • Agitation for land rights High Court of Australia overturns “terra nullius’ in the Mabo and Wik cases in the 1990’s

9. Aboriginal Resistance • Agitation for recognition of “the stolen children”. Acknowledged in the “Bringing them back home” report • Official apology by the Rudd government

10. Cathy Freeman, 2000 Olympic Games Gold Medallist in Sydney, shows the Aboriginal Flag

11. But… • Aborigines still have • The highest death rate of all Australians • The highest infant mortality rate • The lowest income • The worst health • The highest imprisonment rate