Student Research
Katie Goldhammer 2007 (Masters of Museum Studies: ELS802 Special Research Project)
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Object 4: Not Slaves, Not Citizens
Booklet: Not Slaves, Not Citizens- Condition of the Australian Aborigines
in the
Northern Territory by Yvonne Nicholls
The Australian Council for Civil Liberties, Melbourne, 1952
(Object 41002145, Australian History Museum, Macquarie University)
Context of Object
"Whatever Australians may feel about the aborigines- whether we are concerned with how we treat them or how they behave- certain deplorable facts cannot be denied" opening sentence of booklet, Y. Nicholls (Object 41002145, AHU, MU, 3).
Council Findings
In the booklet, Not Slaves, Not Citizens, Nicholls describes that "The Northern Territory natives are discontented, are disease-ridden, and are rapidly dying out," (Nicholls, 1952, 3) and that "attributes of slavery," pervade their daily life. She sites a lack of voting, land and citizenship rights for all Aboriginal peoples in Australia who have little freedom of movement, compensation for labor, or freedom to marry at will. If on a station or reserve, an Aboriginal person "shall be under the control and supervision of the Superintendent" (Nicholls, 1952, 20). However, Nicholls foresees that "When people of goodwill become aware of how the aborigine is ruled and how he is obliged to live, they will wish to redress some of the wrongs for which Australian administrators are responsible" (Nicholls, 1952, 5).
Further Research
Australian Council for Civil Liberties
In 1935, historical writer and political activist, Brian Fitzpatrck, along
with Max
Meldrum, Sir
John Barry, Sir
Eugene Gorman, and other prominent citizens, lawyers and writers,
formed the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, a safeguard for
human rights of Aboriginal as well as other peoples in Australia such
as Jewish immigrants (Serle, 1996, 178). The Council lobbied
for civil rights, working conditions, a main tool for communitcating
their views being the publication of booklets, such as Not Slaves, Not Citizens,
in 1952. Branches of the
Council formed in every state.
Government Act and Policy
The Australian Coucil for
Civil Liberties was formed in reaction to a time period in which the idea
of assimilation of part-Aboriginals into white society was at a height. Aboriginal
girls over age fourteen were forbidden from missions by 1916, in an attempts
to discourage marriage within the culture, while in 1935 Aboriginal peoples
on reserves gained the right to participate in local sport. The Aboriginies
Protection Board allowed this participation as they found it reflected a
growth from a primative state to common standards of white men (Parbury,
1986, 101).
The 1936 Act:
With the Depression came more restrictions
on the rights and freedoms of Aboriginal peoples. A new Aborigines Protection
Act in New South Wales allowed for any Aboriginal person (determined on sight)
to be removed by court order to a reserve; it became illegal to help an Aboriginal
person leave a reserve as well. Furthermore, any part Aboriginal could
be taken for examination at any time for any amount of time as the 1936 Act
aimed at protecting Australian society from threats to health common during
the Depression (Parbury, 1986, 102).
White Awakening
In 1925, the first Australian School of Anthropology was established at Sydney
University. As well as booklets about the state of Aboriginal rights
and freedoms produced by the Australian Coucil for Civil Liberties, anthropologist,
A.P. Elkin, assisted the process for white Australians to see the value
in Aboriginal culture and society becoming a professor in 1933. Elkin
argued that Aboriginal culture was not inferior but adapted to its environment,
with its own system of social code and morality, and that a continuation
of current policy would be the obliteration of a valuable and unique culture
in Australia (Parbury, 1986, 102). In Not Slaves, Not Citizens,
Nicholls writes that, "The Aborigines possess a fine and complex
mythology, and codes and institutions, both religious and political, which
serve their needs well and regulate their conduct," (Object 41002145,
AHM, MU, 21).
Civil Liberties Today
The
former Melbourne arm of the Council for Civil Liberties is now the Liberty-
Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, Inc. active in Aboriginal rights
and issues today (Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, 2007).
Contact Us
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