What were Assimilation policies?

Assimilation policies in Australia were the official approach of federal, state, and territory governments to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians from about 1937 to 1969. The policies aimed to absorb Aboriginal people into white Australian society by eliminating distinct Aboriginal communities, languages, cultures, and identity, replacing them with European Australian patterns of life.

The assimilation framework was formally adopted at the 1937 Aboriginal Welfare Conference of Commonwealth and State authorities. The 1951 Native Welfare Conference confirmed and extended the approach. The Commonwealth Native Welfare Conference of 1961 reformulated the goal as: 'the policy of assimilation means in the view of all Australian governments that all Aborigines and part-Aborigines are expected eventually to attain the same manner of living as other Australians and to live as members of a single Australian community'.

The policies operated through several specific mechanisms. The Stolen Generations: removal of Aboriginal children from their families and placement in missions, institutions, or non-Aboriginal foster homes continued from earlier decades and intensified under assimilation. About one in three Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were removed during the policy period, according to the Bringing Them Home report. Reserve and mission control: Aboriginal people lived under the control of state Protectors of Aborigines, with restrictions on movement, employment, marriage, education, and wages. Education programmes in missions and government schools emphasised European language, culture, and religion while suppressing Aboriginal languages and traditions.

Assimilation policies were officially replaced by self-determination from the late 1960s onwards. The 1967 referendum allowed Aboriginal people to be counted in the census and gave the federal Parliament power to make laws specifically for them. The Council for Aboriginal Affairs was established in 1968 under Prime Minister Harold Holt. The Whitlam Labor government from 1972 formalised the shift to self-determination, with the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (passed under Fraser) creating statutory land rights. The Bringing Them Home report of 1997 and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's National Apology of 13 February 2008 formally acknowledged the harm caused by assimilation. The policy's legacy continues to shape Aboriginal life through intergenerational trauma, loss of language and culture, and the continuing work of reconciliation that has extended through the post-2023 Voice referendum period.