Journal article
A Trans-generational effect of the Aborigines Act 1905 (WA): The making of the Fringedwellers in the South-west of Western Australia
eLaw Journal: Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, Vol.12(1-2)
2005
Abstract
The Aborigines Act 1905 (WA) was the basis of Aboriginal administration for half a century, and is arguably the most significant piece of legislation to affect people of indigenous descent in Western Australia. It emerged in response to international outrage over conditions in the northwest pastoral industry and claimed “to make provision for the better protection and care of the Aboriginal inhabitants of Western Australia”, but the well-documented consequences of the now infamous Act indicate that it did not result in any improvement to their welfare. However, extending the definition of ‘Aboriginal native’ to peoples of mixed descent and granting the Chief Protector sweeping paternal powers to intervene in the private sphere did control who each person could marry, parent, associate or live with. And, for more than half a century, it did control access to education and health services, employment, accommodation and property ownership. What this paper does is examine the impact of the Act on the emerging population of mixed descent in the south-west of Western Australia and to show how this provided the conditions for ‘fringedwellers’ to emerge as a particular form of Aboriginal identity in the twentieth century. But first I will outline the socio-political conditions associated with the emergence of this population of people of mixed descent.
Details
- Title
- A Trans-generational effect of the Aborigines Act 1905 (WA): The making of the Fringedwellers in the South-west of Western Australia
- Authors/Creators
- S. Delmege (Author/Creator)
- Publication Details
- eLaw Journal: Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, Vol.12(1-2)
- Publisher
- School of Law, Murdoch University
- Identifiers
- 991005545091707891
- Copyright
- 2005 Murdoch University
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Media, Communication and Culture
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher URL
- https://elaw.murdoch.edu.au/
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