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Assimilation
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Successive Australian governments tried to 'assimilate' indigenous Australians. There were two phases to this strategy, which was designed to destroy aboriginal identity and absorb indigenous people into the mainstream of white society.

In the first instance, aborigines viewed as 'half castes', or people of mixed blood, were to interbreed only with white people. The argument went that, after a few generations, their descendants would bear no trace of their ancestry.

The second phase of assimilation was training. It was believed that aboriginal people could be taught to live like whites, qualify for full citizenship rights, and forget their aboriginality.

Assimilation allowed no future for reserves and it was thought these last remnants of aboriginal land could soon be phased out.
Two phases of 'assimilation'
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1930-1949
assimilation, racism, Stolen Generation, Torres Strait Islanders, World War 2
The government's view of reserves: protection during a transitional period
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1951-1963
assimilation, FCAATSI, Hasluck, Paul, missions, Northern Territory, racism, reserves, Torres Strait Islanders
An alternative view of reserves: the conference of Aboriginal organisations
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1958
activism, assimilation, FCAATSI Federal Council For Aboriginal Advancement , Hasluck, Paul, land rights, racism, reconciliation, reserves, Torres Strait Islanders
Barbarism
Topic
 
barbarism, conquest, International law
Dispossession
Topic
 
colonisation, dispossession
The Age Of Paternalism
Topic
 
Chief Protector of Aborigines, colonisation, Federation, International law, paternalism, protection, terra nullius, White Australia Policy
Delegates to FCAATSI Conference
Image
1960s
Canberra, FCAATSI
Assimilation Policies Still Have Relevance
Newspaper
Jun, 18, 1999
assimilation