M2 - Learner Manual

9.3. Rationale of the Government of the Time

The rationale of the government of the time was not an innovation. A lot was around expediency and costs. Missions and reserves were expensive to run and they needed other ways to” civilise”, “protect” and to ‘Christianise’ the children and assimilate them into mainstream society. This largely happened through indentured work, in the pastoral industry or working for white families as ‘’domestic servants”. Some would argue that they were slaves, given the conditions forced upon them, with little or no pay and forced labour.

Children of mixed-heritage and those who had fair skin (the children of white men) were often taken away from their Indigenous mothers after birth and given to a white family, most often, as a servant. In this period, the definition of 'Aboriginal' was narrowed so that children who were thought to have more non-Indigenous ancestry than Indigenous, were no longer defined as Indigenous and therefore, did not qualify to live on the reserves. This cleared the path for hundreds of children to be taken away from their families. Although this has been happening since the Aboriginal Protection Board was set up in the 1880’s, the assimilation policy made it easier for government agencies to act.

In 1909 the Aborigines Protection Act (NSW) gives the Aborigines Protection Board power to assume full control and custody of the child of any Aborigine if a court found the child to be neglected under the Neglected Children and Juvenile Offenders Act 1905 (NSW). It was in 1940 that the NSW Protection Board lost its power to remove Indigenous children. The Board was renamed the Aborigines Welfare Board and was finally abolished in 1969.

It should be noted that with the roll back of Aboriginal reserves came new difficulties. The demands for land by a booming population in the post war years, elbowed more indigenous people out from their lands. This led to widespread homeless and poverty, leading to poor and ill health.