In 1928, after a white man was killed, a punitive party mounted a series of attacks on Aborigines northwest of Alice Springs. The party's leader admitted that 31 Aborigines were killed. One missionary in the area put the toll at 70; another at as many as 100.Since 1911, the administration of the Northern Territory had been the direct responsibility of the Commonwealth. In placing this event and others within the context of policies pursued by the national government, Governing ...

Shortlisted for the Victorian Community History Awards 2019They came from an old world to a new land. The Yiddish speakers from Eastern Europe brought few material possessions but clung to a language and a culture that defined who they were, a way of life that had endured pogroms, persecution and a genocide that pushed them to the brink of extinction. Melbourne gave them a second chance at life, an opportunity to rebuild a secular Yiddish world that sat at the core...

Australian Race Relations has been a subject of continuing controversy, whether focused on Aboriginal issues such as the High Court's Mabo decision, or the latest wave of immigrants. This book provides the historical context necessary for an understanding of contemporary issues in a society coming to terms with native title and multiculturalism.Based on over twenty years of research, Australian Race Relations is the first history of the subject that gives detailed...

In 2006 Australia's population was 20.7 million. It is projected to reach 23 million in 2014. What is driving this rapid population growth, and how is the Rudd government dealing with immigration at a time of recession?The diversification of the immigration intake over the last 50 years, from the British Isles to Europe and Asia, is widely recognised. But there is less understanding of the development of Australia's temporary program, which since 2000 is the major component of the ...

On 27 May 1967 an overwhelming majority of electors voted in a national referendum to amend clauses of the Australian Constitution concerning Aboriginal people. 27 May 2007 is the 40th anniversary of this landmark event. The referendum is commonly considered the turning point in Australian historical and cultural life. The historic moment when citizenship rights were granted — including the vote — and the Commonwealth finally assumed responsibility for Aboriginal affairs. This book explore...

Tim Soutphommasane boldly stakes a claim for the overwhelming success of multiculturalism in Australia. European governments are declaring multiculturalism a failure, with many conservatives in Australia hastening to agree. But is a multicultural approach to integration and diversity really as destructive as critics say? Have we been too quick to declare its demise? Offering an unflinching and informed defence of cultural diversity, Soutphommasane shows that multiculturalism is more than l...

This book explains everything that Australians need to know about the proposal to recognise Aboriginal peoples in the Constitution.It details how our Constitution was drafted, and shows how Aboriginal peoples came to be excluded from the new political settlement. It explains what the 1967 referendum – in which over 90% of Australians voted to delete discriminatory references to Aboriginal people from the Constitution - achieved and why discriminatory racial references remain.

Professor Marcia Langton's 2012 Boyer Lectures discuss the dependency of Aboriginal businesses and not-for-profit corporations on the resources industry and their resultant vulnerability to economic downturns.'My aim with the 53rd Boyer Lectures has been to inject new ideas and new ways of thinking about the status of Indigenous people in Australia and about the impact of the mining boom in the Aboriginal domain. My hope is that my interpretation of the economic impacts of the minin...

This major work reveals the dark heart of the history of the Stolen Generations in Australia. It shows that, from the earliest times of European colonization, Aboriginal Australians experienced the trauma of loss and separation, as their children were abducted, enslaved, institutionalized, and culturally remodeled. Providing a moving and comprehensive account of this tragic history, this study covers all Australian colonies, states, and territories. The analysis spans 200 years of white oc...

'If only', 'what if' and 'why didn't we' are phrases that often come to mind when we look back to the past. This exciting and stimulating book looks back at turning points and crucial moments in Australian history. Rather than arguing that there have been forks on a pre-determined road, the book challenges us to think about other paths or better paths that might have led to different outcomes. It shows that a decisive event often becomes so only in retrospect and that what seemed like a ma...

How distinctive is South Australia after all? South Australia has often been represented as "different": free of convicts, more enlightened in its attitudes toward Aboriginal people, established on rational economic principles, and progressive in its social and political development. Some of this is true, some of it is not, but mostly the story is more complex. In this book, eminent historians explore these themes by examining some key "turning points" in South Australi...

As Australia became a nation in 1901, no-one anticipated that 'Aboriginal affairs' would become an on-going national preoccupation.Not 'dying out' as predicted, Aboriginal numbers recovered and – along with Torres Strait Islanders – they became an articulate presence, aggrieved at colonial authority's interventions into family life and continuing dispossession. Indigenous and Other Australians since 1901 narrates their recovery – not only in numbers but in cultural confide...