The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Act
1965 replaced the Aborigines Preservation and
Protection Act 1939 and the Department of
Aboriginal and Islander Affairs (DAIA) was
established. It was intended to work itself out
of a job with ‘reserves’ being temporary training
camps which would serve as springboards for
Aboriginal people to be assimilated into the
wider community. 5
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The next policy era, during the 1950s, was
assimilation which is based on a philosophy of
making society and different cultural groups the
‘same’ as the dominant group, in this case
Anglo-Saxon heritage. The core aim of
assimilation is to have the same language, the
same religious beliefs etcetera. It was not
intended to integrate Aboriginal people nor for
them to maintain their own distinct cultures,
beliefs and values. 4
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Queensland, Parliament, Department of Native
Affairs Annual Report , 1963, Parliamentary Paper 1061,
Brisbane 1963/64. .
5
Miller, B., The Aspirations of Aborigines Living at
Yarrabah in Relations to Local Management and Human
Rights, 1986, (p.17), Human Rights Commission, Canberra.
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4
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The numerous government reserves were
established under the Aboriginals Protection and
Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897, and the
majority of Aboriginal people became wards of
the State and had to have work permits to work
outside the reserves. Their income was
managed by the State. Mixing of the races was
controlled and Aboriginal women or men who
wished to marry required the permission of the
Chief Protector. The Aboriginals Preservation and
Protection Act replaced the former Act in 1939, the
Chief Protector becoming the Director of the
Department of Native Affairs (DNA).
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In the late 1890s, Aboriginal people were used
as a cheap labour pool, being employed as
station hands or crewmen for fishing and
pearling boats. Child labour, sexual
exploitation of Aboriginal women by nonAboriginal men, disease, drunkenness and drug
addiction led to the Queensland Government
policy and practice of forced relocation of the
majority of Aboriginal groups and families from
their traditional lands onto foreign lands where
government reserves and or church run
missions were established. In addition, many
Aboriginal family groups were split up and sent
to different reserves. Fantome Island off Palm
Island is infamous for being a place of
punishment where Aboriginal people who dared
to ‘defy’ government authority were sent.
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Then followed a period of isolation and
protection as the government realised that
Aboriginal people were not going to die out as a
race and decided that they needed to be both
isolated and ‘protected’ from white society.
This was the “out of sight out of mind”
solution.
Pr o t o c o l s f o r Co n s u l t a t i o n a n d Ne g o t i a t i o n w i t h Ab o r i g i n a l Pe o p l e
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