What was the Assimilationist era?

The Assimilationist era in Australia was the period from about 1937 to 1969 when the explicit goal of federal, state, and territory Aboriginal policy was the absorption of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians into mainstream white Australian society. The era saw the most intensive operation of the Stolen Generations removal policy, the expansion of mission and reserve life, and the continuing exclusion of Aboriginal people from federal voting and the census.

Key institutional features operated through the era. State Protectors of Aborigines (later renamed Native Welfare directors or similar titles in various jurisdictions) had extensive powers to control Aboriginal lives. Missions run by various Christian denominations and government settlements housed much of the Aboriginal population in many states, with the missions providing limited education, religious instruction, and work while restricting language, ceremony, and traditional culture. State departments removed Aboriginal children from families under the Stolen Generations practices, particularly targeting lighter-skinned children of mixed descent.

The era saw growing Indigenous resistance. William Cooper's Australian Aborigines' League (founded 1936) and the Aborigines Progressive Association under William Ferguson and Jack Patten organised the 26 January 1938 Day of Mourning at Australia Hall in Sydney, the 150th anniversary of the First Fleet landing, attended by about 100 Aboriginal Australians. The 1946 Pilbara strike of Aboriginal stockmen, led by Don McLeod and others, was the longest-running strike in Australian history. The 1965 Freedom Rides led by Charles Perkins through New South Wales country towns highlighted segregation in public spaces.

The era ended with the 1967 referendum, which Aboriginal campaigners including Faith Bandler, Jessie Street, and many others had worked toward for years. The referendum, carried with 90.77 per cent Yes, allowed Aboriginal people to be counted in the census and gave the federal Parliament power to make laws specifically for them. Prime Minister Harold Holt appointed the Council for Aboriginal Affairs in 1968 as a first step toward post-assimilation policy. The 1972 establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy outside Parliament House in Canberra, the Whitlam government's reforms from 1972, and the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (passed under Fraser) formalised the shift to self-determination. The 1997 Bringing Them Home report and the 2008 National Apology have since documented and acknowledged the harm caused by the assimilationist era.