Brass Discs, Dog Tags and Finger Scanners: The Apology and Aboriginal Protection in the Northern Territory 1863-1972
Details:
Title
Brass Discs, Dog Tags and Finger Scanners: The Apology and Aboriginal Protection in the Northern Territory 1863-1972,
Creator
Gray, Stephen J,
Collection
E-Publications,
E-Books,
PublicationNT,
Date
2011,
Description
Is the history of Aboriginal protection essentially something to be celebrated, albeit with some well-intentioned mistakes? Or is white treatment of Aboriginal people, as Justice Brennan commented in the Mabo case, a legacy of unutterable shame ? Was self-determination an excuse for avoiding responsibility, as some have claimed? And in pursuing the Northern Territory Emergency Response, are we just repeating the mistakes of the past using brass discs and dog tags to protect Aboriginal people from themselves? The purpose of this book is to assess these questions by looking at Northern Territory policy towards Aboriginal people from 1863 to the beginning of self-determination in 1972. It looks closely at men like Baldwin Spencer, Cecil Cook and Harry Giese, assessing them in light of recent public debates about frontier violence, sexual abuse of Aboriginal women and children, and the Stolen Generations.,
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-224) and index.,
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).,
Table of contents
Foreword and Acknowledgments -- 'Good intentions' and the dangers of repeating the past -- Red in tooth and claw: the frontier during the South Australian period -- Social Dawinism, progress, evolution and the purse-strings: Baldwin Spencer and the period to 1918 -- Eugenics, Capricornia-style: Chief Protector Dr Cecil Cook -- The dominance of the bloody-minded professor: Aboriginal policy during and after World War II -- 'Giese's empire': assimilation prior to the Equal Wages case -- The end of assimilation: after the Equal Wages case 1966-1971 -- Conclusion: best intentions and the stolen generation -- Bibliography -- Index,