WEEK 7 TUTORIAL: Assimilation

(26 April – )

Tutorial question

Did the policy of ‘assimilation’ have the same meanings for Aborigines as for immigrants in the 1950s?

Why did governments pursue ‘assimilation’ policies in relation to immigrants and Aboriginal people in the 1950s? Are the experiences of Aborigines and immigrants the same in the 1950s? What logic led to the same policy approach being adopted? Is it possible to define what the policy of ‘assimilation’ meant? What were the alternatives in the 1950s? What did its adoption as a policy say about Australian society? What kinds of policies did it replace? How successfully was it implemented? What were its limits? Why did it fall out of favour? What impacts did it have on Aboriginal cultures? How did Australian society come to terms with the new immigrants? What sort of conflicts arose in the relationship between migrants and their Australian-born children? How has immigration changed Australian society since World War II? How did questions of gender and class affect the assimilation process? To what extent are the issues in the immigration debate the same today as they were in the 1950s? Have attitudes to diversity changed? Why? Or why not?

Essential reading

Wells, Julie T & Michael F Christie ‘Namatjira and the Burden of Citizenship’ Australian Historical Studies 31(114) April 2000
Tavan, Gwenda ‘"Good Neighbours": Community Organisations, Migrant Assimilation and Australian Society and Culture, 1950-1961’ in John Murphy and Judith Smart (eds) The Forgotten Fifties: Aspects of Australian Society and Culture in the 1950s Melbourne 1997 (special issue of Australian Historical Studies 28(109) October 1997

Additional reading

Haebich, Anna Broken circles : fragmenting indigenous families 1800-2000 Fremantle, 2000 ch 7
Bringing them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families Sydney 1997 esp ch 2-3
Karskens, Grace Holroyd: A Social History of Western Sydney Sydney 1991 pp.207-220
Murphy, John Imagining the fifties : private sentiment and political culture in Menzies' Australia Sydney, 2000 ch 5, 11

Other

Aboriginal Policies:

Attwood, Bain and John Arnold (eds) Power, Knowledge and Aborigines Melbourne 1992
Beckett, Jeremy ‘The Past in the Present; the Present in the Past: Constructing a National Aboriginality’ in Jeremy Beckett (ed) Past and Present: the Construction of Aboriginality Canberra 1988
Beresford, Quentin and Paul Omaji Our State of Mind: Racial Planning and the Stolen Generation Fremantle 1998
Broome, Richard Aboriginal Australians: Black Response to White Dominance 1788-1980 Sydney 1982
Elkin, A P ‘Australian Aboriginal and White Relations: A Personal Record’ Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 48(3) July 1962
Edwards, Coral and Peter Read The Lost Children Sydney 1989
Goodall, Heather Invasion to Embassy: Land in Aboriginal Politics in NSW Sydney 1996
**Heather Goodall ‘Aboriginal History and the Politics of Information Control’ Oral History Association of Australia Journal 9 1987 (in White & Russell (eds) Memories and Dreams)
Hardy, Jane, JVS Megaw & M Ruth Megaw (eds) The Heritage of Namatjira : the watercolourists of Central Australia Melbourne, 1992.
Healey, Justin (ed) The stolen generations Sydney, 2001
Kidd, Rosalind The Way we Civilise Brisbane 1997
Marcus, Julie The indomitable Miss Pink : a life in anthropology Sydney, 2001
Markus, Andrew Governing Savages Sydney 1990
Markus, Andrew Australian Race Relations 1788-1993 Sydney 1994
*McGregor, Russell Imagined Destinies: Aboriginal Australians and the Doomed Race Theory 1880-1939 Melbourne 1997 ch 5-6
Peterson, Nicolas & Will Sanders (ed) Citizenship and Indigenous Australians: Changing Conceptions and Possibilities Cambridge 1998
Read, Peter The Stolen Generations: the Removal of Aboriginal Children in NSW 1883-1969 Sydney 1982
Read, Peter A Hundred Years War: The Wiradjuri People and the State ANUP 1988
Read, Peter A rape of the soul so profound: the return of the stolen generations Sydney 1999
*Rowse, Tim White Flour, White Power: From Rations to Citizenship in Central Australia Cambridge 1998

Immigration Policies:

Broome R The Victorians: Arriving Sydney 1984 ch.8
*Castles S et al (eds) Mistaken Identity: Multiculturalism and the demise of nationalism in Australia Sydney 1990
Collins J 'The Political Economy of Post-War Immigration' in Wheelwright E & K Buckley (eds) Essays in the Political Economy of Australian Capitalism vol.1 Sydney, 1975.
Collins J Migrant Hands in a Distant Land: Australia's post-war immigration, Sydney 1988
Lack, John & Jacqueline Templeton Bold Experiment: A Documentary History of Australian Immigration since 1945 Melbourne 1995
de Lepervanche M 'Working for the Man: Migrant Women and Multiculturalism' in K. Saunders and R. Evans (eds) Gender Relations in Australia: Domination and Negotiation Sydney 1992
Hage, Ghassan White nation : fantasies of white supremacy in a multicultural society Sydney, 1998.
Jayasuriya, L & J Cook 'A Struggle for Equality' in V Burgmann & J Lee Making a Life, Melbourne 1988.
*Jordens, Ann-Mari Alien to Citizen: settling Migrants in Australia 1945-75 Sydney 1997
*Jordens, Ann-Mari Redefining Australias: Immigration, Citizenship and National Identity Sydney 1995
Jupp J (ed.) The Australian People: an encyclopaedia of the nation, its people and their origins , Sydney 1988
Jupp, James and Marie Kabala (eds) The Politics of Australian Immigration Canberra 1993
Kunz E Displaced Persons: Calwell's New Australians Canberra 1988
*Lack, John and Jacqueline Templeton (eds) Bold Experiment: A Documentary History of Australian Immigration since 1945 meblourne 1995
*McCalman J Struggletown: Public and Private Life in Richmond1900-1965 Melbourne 1984 Ch 9
Markus A 'Everybody Become a Job: Twentieth Century Immigrants' in V Burgmann & J Lee (eds) A Most Valuable Acquisition Ringwood 1988
*Martin A 'The People' in A Curthoys et.al. (eds) Australians Since 1939 Sydney 1987 ch.3
Martin J The Migrant Presence: Australian Responses 1947-1977 Sydney 1978
*Pettman J Living in the Margins: Racism, Sexism and Feminism in Australia Sydney 1992 ch.3
Stratton, Jon Race Daze: Australia in Identity Crisis Sydney 1998
Sherington G Australia's Immigrants 1788-1978 Sydney 1980
* White R 'The Australian way of life' Historical Studies 18 (73) October 1979
Wilton J & R Bosworth Old Worlds and New Australia: the Post-War Migrant Experience Ringwood 1984 ch.4

Among many on particular ethnic groups:

Appleyard R Ten pound immigrants London 1988
Buckley V Memory Ireland: insights in the contemporary Irish condition Ringwood 1985
Castles, S et al (eds) Australia's Italians: culture and community in a changing society Sydney 1992
Cresciani G (ed) Australia, the Australians and the Italian Migration Milan 1983
Isaacs E Greek Children in Sydney Canberra 1976
Richardson A British Immigrants and Australia Canberra 1974
Sluga G Bonegilla Melbourne 1988
Viviani N The Long Journey: Vietnamese Migration and Settlement in Australia Melbourne 1984

Migrant literature and oral history:

Gunew S Displacements: Migrant Story Tellers Bundoora 1982
Hawthorne L Making It In Australia Melbourne 1988
Kraus P The Not So Fabulous Fifties: Images of Migrant Childhood Kenthurst 1985
Liverani M The Winter Sparrows Melbourne 1975
Loukakis A For the Patriarch St Lucia 1981
Lowenstein W & M Loh The Immigrants Ringwood 1977
Martin D The Young Wife London 1962
O'Grady J They're a Weird Mob Sydney 1957
Panich C Sanctuary? Remembering Post-War Immigration Sydney 1988
Skrzynecki P Immigrant Chronicle St Lucia 1975