Aboriginals Australians have been treated maliciously since the White Europeans first claimed this land as ‘terra nullius’. They were killed for doing no wrong, and were treated with disdain for their way of life. The government seemed to care, and put policies in place but truthfully, these policies just made things worse. From the protection policy to today’s self determination policy, things have always turned out for the worst.
The protection policy was most commonly known as the Aboriginal Protection Act. These were policies in the late 19th- and early 20th-century Australia that placed wide-ranging restrictions on the human rights of Aboriginal Australians. The first acts were first passed before federation of the colonies of Australia, supposedly to protect Aboriginal people from abuse and exploitation. After 1901, the acts were continued and expanded by the individual states. The protection acts restricted the movement of Aboriginal people, prevented them from owning property, allowed the government to take their children, and controlled their job opportunities and incomes. In some states the acts controlled with whom they could have sexual relations, whom they could marry, and whether they could drink alcohol.
The protection policy gave the government’s ‘Board for the Protection of Aborigines’
extensive powers over the lives of Aboriginal people including regulation of residence, employment and marriage. The Board’s policy was based on a belief that "protection" of Aborigines would lead to their "advancement" to the point where they would eventually fit into the white community.
Segregation was a key part of the policy. Aboriginal people were forced to live away from white Australians and onto reserves. This however didn’t work. These places were of control, and the rations they received were often withheld as a form a punishment. Children were often stolen away and raised as part of the white society. In 1911 the Board began to stop...