Policies and Legislation

The policies protectionism and paternalism had a major impact on the freedoms and rights of indigenous people. The major impact was the government controlling the aboriginal’s way of life. Protectionism meant that aboriginals were removed from contact with the white Australians, and they were required to live in reservations or in missions with restrictions on their movement and their way of life. The other policy paternalism was about white Europeans acting in a fatherly way to the indigenous people. They felt the need to help other races less fortunate than them. This left aboriginals with little or no independency.
In the 1930s the government realised that the aboriginal race was not dying out, they decided to implement a new policy called assimilation in 1951. The government felt that this new policy would help aboriginals shape their own lives. The aim was for aboriginals to become absorbed into a community leaving their traditions and cultures to die out and adopt Australian ways. Although aboriginals were given the chance to become citizens they were forced to abandon their values and community life to become Europeanised.

Integration referred to two or more things coming together to make a whole.it aimed to recognise the significance of indigenous heritage, this meant that Aboriginals were allowed to maintain their traditional cultures but still be a part of the wider Australian community. In 1972 the government introduced self- determination because the policies integration and assimilation failed. The self-determination policy let aboriginals have a say in the policies that affected them. This finally gave them the rights and freedoms they truly deserved

The Gurindji wave hill walk off was the start of aboriginals demanding for their proper rights and freedoms. In 1966 the aboriginal men protested for equal wages at Newcastle’s water station. The strike focused national attention on the entitlements of workers, and the appalling working standards