Aboriginals: Homicide Or Genocide?

When white Europeans first settled in Australian during the 18th century their relationship with the aboriginal peoples was peaceful. However, tensions began to rise between the two groups when Europeans moved to gain more power, by abusing the aboriginals. Many people do not know that a genocide was committed in Australia during the 19th and 20th centuries. A genocide is defined as the mass extinction of a whole group of people; an attempt to destroy an entire population and wipe them out of existence. Although there were no mass murders at the time, the actions taken against the aboriginals classify it as a genocide. Aboriginals were kidnapped, forced to abandon their culture and laws were passed forbidding them from procreating; in an attempt …show more content…
So, the government believed they would be helping the aboriginals if they forced them to act more like Europeans. This was the start of the first era of assimilation, the Assimilation era, which lasted from 1910 until 1953. During the mid-20th century, black aboriginal men had a life expectancy 20 years shorter than white Australians, aboriginal females were expected to live 17 years less than white Australians. Aboriginal unemployment rates were three times higher than white Australians and crime and alcoholism rates were also much higher. Aboriginals had lesser living conditions, they lacked the technology and medical knowledge that the European Australians had, so their homes were less …show more content…
This was the era when the majority of children were forcibly removed from their homes. The goal was that children would be brought to schools where they would essentially be taught how to be white. Aboriginal communities were aware of the kidnappings and would do their best to hide their children when the Welfare came by, the Welfare was the division of government responsible for finding and kidnapping the children between 1940 and 1980. The Welfares were relentless, if they could not find the child they came looking for they would keep coming back or take others. They were particularly interested in smart girls and half-castes. They believed half-castes would be easier to assimilate. According to Geoffrey Partington: The most pressing problem was that part aboriginal children who in many cases were not acceptd fully, and sometimes not at all, in the tribal structures into which they were born. In the absence of a father, many girls in particular were vulnerable to abuse of various kinds. The available choice was between evils. When he became Minister of Territories in the 1950s, Hasluck considered then that the least evil policy was to transfer part- aboriginal children to places where they could gain as far as possible the same education received by other Australian