Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 The Citizenship Divide in Colonial Victoria
- 2 Under the Law: Aborigines and Islanders in Colonial Queensland
- 3 Is the Constitution to Blame?
- 4 The Commonwealth Defines the Australian Citizen (in association with Tom Clarke)
- 5 The States Confine the Aboriginal Non-citizen
- 6 The Slow Path to Civil Rights
- 7 From Civil to Indigenous Rights
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - The States Confine the Aboriginal Non-citizen
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 The Citizenship Divide in Colonial Victoria
- 2 Under the Law: Aborigines and Islanders in Colonial Queensland
- 3 Is the Constitution to Blame?
- 4 The Commonwealth Defines the Australian Citizen (in association with Tom Clarke)
- 5 The States Confine the Aboriginal Non-citizen
- 6 The Slow Path to Civil Rights
- 7 From Civil to Indigenous Rights
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
A licence to employ aboriginals shall not entitle the holder thereof to employ under that licence any male half-caste of any age whatsoever, notwithstanding that that half-caste is an aboriginal within the meaning of the word ‘aboriginal’ in section three of the Aboriginals Ordinance …
Northern Territory Regulation, 1930While the new Commonwealth parliament had been defining the Australian citizen, the States and Territories retained and exercised the power to determine the citizenship rights of ‘aboriginal natives’. In this chapter we provide an overview of the citizenship status of Australian Aborigines in the various State and Territory jurisdictions between the years 1901 and 1948, after which the Australian citizen became a legal entity. Our central argument is that the States became increasingly more authoritarian in their dealings with Aborigines, reaching a low point in the 1930s. This contributes to one main theme of the book by challenging the view that the various Australian parliaments began their dealings with Aborigines in hostility and moved progressively to adopt more liberal positions. It further illustrates a second main theme, that under Australia's federal Constitution the States are as significant as the Commonwealth in determining citizenship rights and entitlements.
Our focus in this chapter will largely be on the extraordinary amount of legislation passed in the various State and Territory jurisdictions in the first four decades of this century.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Citizens without RightsAborigines and Australian Citizenship, pp. 121 - 155Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997