Indigenous Welfare in Australia
Indigenous Welfare in Australia Journal Article
Journal of Societal and Social Policy
- Author(s): Baldry, E, Green, S
- Published: 2002
- Volume: 1
Abstract: The invasion and subsequent colonization of what was to become known as Australia, by the British in 1788 marked the meeting of two utterly different societies and the beginning of ongoing destructive disruption to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of life. How have Indigenous Australian peoples fared since then? They have endured a series of welfare regimes driven by racist, eliminationist, exclusionist, assimilationist, integrationist and multiculturalist values over the last two centuries. Welfare policies for Indigenous Australians have been, and continue to be different from, although parallel to those for other Australians, and based upon the same values of individualism, the work ethic, deservingness and Christian morality imposed by the British upper and middle classes upon the poor. Controlling the lives of the very poor has been, and still is central to welfare policies for poor non-Indigenous Australians, but its manifestation amongst Indigenous Australians has been utterly pervasive and all encompassing. From invasion to contemporary times, Indigenous Australians were seen and treated as members of a “race” in extreme need of “civilizing.” No respect was shown to Indigenous social or cultural institutions and a template of British welfare-ism was imposed upon all Indigenous Australians.
- Urls: https://www.unsworks.unsw.edu.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay/unsworks_4614/UNSWORKS (there is a link to a Word version of the document here)