Draft:New Deal for Aborigines

The New Deal for Aborigines (or Aboriginal New Deal) was a landmark Australian federal government policy statement on Indigenous Australians. The policy was announced in September 1938 by interior minister John McEwen and detailed in a white paper released in February 1939. It provided for Indigenous people to be granted full civil rights in conjunction with a process of cultural assimilation.

The New Deal policy

Department of the Interior (1939–1972) Department of the Interior (1932–1939)

Background

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New Deal

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Aims and provisions

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The New Deal "aimed to convert Aboriginal people from their traditional, nomadic inclinations to a settled life".[1]

It envisioned a whole-of-government approach whereby state governments would cooperate with the federal government.[2]

detribalisation

Implementation

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The initial steps taken by McEwen to effectuate the New Deal included the establishment of a Native Affairs branch within the Department of the Interior, based in Darwin.

The implementation of the New Deal stalled with Lyons' death in April 1939, which saw Robert Menzies become prime minister and McEwen's Country Party leave the governing coalition. McEwen's successor as interior minister was Harry Foll, who . The new cabinet referred the matter to a subcommittee on "Citizenship Rights for Australian Aborigines".[3] World War II and the failure of the 1944 referendum also contributed to delays in its implementation.[2]

Reception and analysis

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Contemporary reaction

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The New Deal was "enthusiastically received" by the Australian Aborigines' League (AAL) and Aborigines Progressive Association (APA). William Ferguson [4]

Later in 1939, communist leader Tom Wright published New Deal for the Aborigines, a critique of the government's policy.[5]

Anthropologist Donald Thomson, who supported the creation of Aboriginal reserves, felt that the government had misrepresented his views.[6]x

Legacy and analysis

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The New Deal has been described as a "classic statement of assimilationist thinking".[7]

Later writers have noted that, outside of administrative changes,

In the Bringing Them Home report around the Stolen Generations, the New Deal is identified as the turning point where the government moved from a policy of "protection and segregation" – where Indigenous people were confined to reserves and had limited legal and civil rights – to an assimilationist policy [8]

References

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  1. ^ Arabena, Kerry (2005). "Not fit for modern Australian society: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the new arrangements for the administration of Indigenous affairs" (PDF). Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. p. 15. ISBN 0855754788.
  2. ^ a b Arabena 2005, p. 16.
  3. ^ Murphy 2013, p. 216.
  4. ^ Murphy 2013, p. 215.
  5. ^ Holland 2005, p. 92.
  6. ^ Holland 2005, p. 93-94.
  7. ^ Holland 2005, p. 87.
  8. ^ "Chapter 9 Northern Territory | Bringing Them Home".

Sources

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  • Silverstein, Ben (2018). Governing Natives: Indirect Rule and Settler Colonialism in Australia's North. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526100047.
  • Murphy, John (2013). "Conditional Inclusion: Aborigines and Welfare Rights in Australia, 1900–47". Australian Historical Studies. 44 (2): 206–226. doi:10.1080/1031461X.2013.791707.

Further reading

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