Backbencher

Before the influx of Europeans to Australia, the average aboriginal woman had not experienced the oppression that she has since colonization. She shared a relatively equal position of power with men within her clan. Some have argued that her position within the clan was higher than that of males. Women were responsible for not only childbirth and rearing but also food gathering and other domestic responsibilities. These contributions 'made them indispensable to their men folk "(Bell, pg. 46). Over time, the government began issuing rations to the aboriginal settlements and thus delegating women to the role of wife and mother.

As the contacts with aboriginal women and white men increased, the rate of bi-racial children increased as well. There were few white women in the vast emptiness of the outback and because of this, relations between black women and white men increased. These relationships were not always in the best interests of the women. The term "black velvet" was often used by men to indicate sexual relations with aboriginal women. According to Miriam Dixson the "Australian male experiences with Aboriginal women have contributed an early layer to the general low esteem in which women are held in our country" (Dixson, 1999.).

As the number of liaisons between black women and white men grew, white women became increasing hateful toward the black woman. "In frontier and pastoral areas black women frequently worked as prostitutes and concubines, putting sexual labor in tandem with domestic work"(Woollacott,2001.). Discrimination of black women by white women was often perpetrated under the guise of protection but their real intentions were to gain power and control over them. Their consensus was that white women were superior in every moral way to the blacks and thus, aboriginal women needed protection from their immoral culture and instinctual ways. Abuse thrived under such an ideology not only by white men and women but by the government as well.

During the 1920's and 1930's, the concept of eugenics began to evolve. Eugenics was "the science that taught that one of the responsibilities of the contemporary state was to improve a nation's racial stock by breading programs was… extremely influential" (Manne,online). The Australian government thought that it was possible to breed out the aborigine and thus create an entirely white Australia.

The government felt strongly that children of aboriginal and white decent should not be raised within aboriginal society. It was thought that by removing them from their aboriginal mothers, much of their immoral blackness could be removed as well. Although they would clearly not be equal with whites, they could be raised in such a way as to be useful as domestic servants. Many of the children, known as the "stolen generation" were sent to mission schools. One such school, run by Kimberley pastoralists,, was accused of wide spread abuse of Aboriginal girls. In a recent book review, Ros Kidd states that "monks blamed the scarcity of women and children among groups who occasionally visited the mission on the practice of 'promised marriage', particularly to elderly men, which led to illicit dalliances for which women suffered severe punishment. In extending 'loving protection' to women and children, Catholicism would supplant such savagery".

The sexual abuse and exploitation of the stolen girls was rampant. This abuse was often perpetrated by priests or other men that came in contact with the girls. In the report "Bringing them Home" from the Australian Federal Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission a women writes about the abuse that she suffered. "The saddest times were the abuse. Not only the physical abuse, the sexual abuse by the priests over there. They were the saddest because if you were to tell anyone, well, the priests threatened that they would come and get you. Everyone could see what they were doing but we were told to just keep quiet and just everyday you used to get hiding with the stock-whip"(Pattel-Grey,1999). Another girl went on to write about how she was sent to work and subsequently gang raped repeatedly by the farmer and his employee. After returning home, she told the "matron" and was severely punished and was threatened into silence. Instead of protecting her, the nun again sent her to the farm and the abuse continued.

Although the stories of abuse are widely accepted as historical fact, many Australians prefer to acknowledge a much milder view of the abuse of women and young girls. In an editorial comment in the National Observer, Senator Herron submitted that he had originally denied that there even was a generation of stolen children and that in denying this fact he was "insensitive and mean spirited". Many others believe that the government should not proceed with reconciliation efforts due to the difficulty of differentiating full aboriginals from part aboriginals. Still others feel that the atrocities committed against the aboriginal woman could be considered traditional. In 2002, a northern territory judge ruled that "a 15 year old aboriginal girl knew what was expected of her and didn't need protection when a 50 year old man committed statutory rape against the girl and shot a gun into the air when she complained about it…expert testimony submitted by an anthropologist in the case called the man's arrangement with the girl 'traditional' and therefore 'morally correct'" (Shah,2002.) With the continued oppression of these women within the Australian society and legal system the Aboriginal woman faces many future hurdles in their fight for equality.




References:

Bell, Diane. Daughters of the Dreaming. McPhee Gribble, 1983.

Dixson, Miriam. The Real Matilda. University of New South Wales Press. 1999.

Woollacott, Angela, The Meanings of Protection. Indiana University Press, Vol.14 No. 4. 2003.

Kidd, Ros. Mission Girls and Loving Protection. Australian Humanities Review. March, 2002.

Shah, Sonia. Judge Rules Rape of Aboriginal Girl “Traditional”. Women’s E-News. May, 2006.

Pattel-Grey, Anne. The Hard Truth: White Secrets, Black Realities. Australia Feminist Studies, Vol.14, No30, 1999.

Editorial Comment, The Hypocrisy of Aboriginal Claims. National Observer. Winter2000. Issue 45.