Lest we forget a cruel act of dispossession

Peter Lewis (many of us know through AboutFace and other places) and Richard Franklin have a remembering article in the Age about the Aborigines Protection Act 1869

It is an odd coincidence of history that the 11th day of the 11th month is a day of several anniversaries of great significance for Australian identity. The first anniversary that comes to mind is Armistice Day, marking the end of the First World War - a war where too many young Australian men met their deaths and the legend of the digger was born.

The next most remembered anniversary is the dismissal of the Whitlam government, which brought to an end a dramatic period of progressive government in Australia (if we ignore East Timor and the economy).

It is also the anniversary of the execution - in 1880 - of the legendary bushranger Ned Kelly. Kelly was either a villain or an imperfect embodiment of the Irish-Australian radical tradition, possibly both.

But an anniversary that has been forgotten is one that has even more relevance for understanding the ironies of Australian identity.

Eleven years before the hanging of Ned Kelly and 140 years ago this year, the Victorian colonial government passed an act ”To Provide for the Protection and Management of the Aboriginal Natives of Victoria”, more commonly known as the Aborigines Protection Act 1869.

This gave government control of where Aboriginal people could live, of how they would relate to Europeans, of their labour and earnings and of the ”care, custody and education” of all Aboriginal children.

It was this act that created the conditions for Aboriginal containment and assimilation, and its legal platform enabled policies that led to the stolen generations and stolen wages.

For us it raises an interesting question - why have we so rarely included this anniversary in our remembering?

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