History Essay Draft.

To what extent has the government policy towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders achieved justice since 1972

Many Aboriginal Australians of today would believe that the Australian government did not handle the indigenous land rights before 1972 well. The request for justice by the indigenous people of both Australia and Torres Strait Island was at a high and was fought to get back their traditional land.

As the new white culture integrated into the new surroundings of Australia they bought many new found diseases to the land which the Aboriginals of the time were not immune to, so there was a government policy put into play during the second half of the 1800’s to remove native tribes from there traditional lands and placed on reserves or missions. This was done on the belief that it was for their own protection as they were a ‘dying race’ anyway.

What many Australians really believed that it was a segregation camp where the traditional Aboriginal culture could be replaced by the new white culture so they could become more ‘civilised. This allowed the land previously occupied by Aboriginals to become pastoral land. As the white people integrated with the Aboriginal new ‘mixed blood’ ‘mixed race’ or more commonly known as ‘half cast’ babies were born, these children were taken from their families because they were believed they were at risk.

The Aboriginals were encouraged to ‘think white, act white, be white’ with the intent that they could eventually live like white Australians. In 1962 the ‘Menzies government amended the Commonwealth electoral act to enable all Aboriginals to vote. Even in this first feat for rights for the Aboriginals