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Enshrined in Law : Legislative justifications for the removal of indigenous and non-indigenous children in colonial and post-colonial Australia
Swain, Shurlee
Swain, Shurlee
Author
Abstract
While the completion of two different inquiries, along with separate apologies and reparation packages, might suggest that the policies justifying the removal of Indigenous and non-Indigenous children in Australia were distinct, the situation is far more complex. Both child and ‘native’ welfare were colonial and later state responsibilities, creating the potential for policies and practices to be informed by different forces and to vary by jurisdiction. However, by analysing the debates around legislation from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this article establishes commonalities as well as differences in both the arguments used to justify Indigenous and non-Indigenous child removal and the practices that evolved in the implementation of such legislation. By interrogating such arguments through the lens of whiteness and race, the article identifies the role which child removal was imagined to play in the process of building the settler colonial nation.
Keywords
Date
2016
Type
Journal article
Journal
Australian Historical Studies
Book
Volume
47
Issue
2
Page Range
191-208
Article Number
ACU Department
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as green open access
License
File Access
Open
Controlled
Controlled
Notes
This record includes an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Australian Historical Studies on 15 May 2016, available online:http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1031461X.2016.1153119