Policies of assimilation and integration

Policies of assimilation and integration. The Welfare Board moves Aboriginal people to Aboriginal Stations where they are to be prepared for absorption into the general community. This means individual families are persuaded to share town life with whites. Earlier policies had relocated Aboriginal people from their homelands to reserves, known as stations or missions. The assimilation policy aims to break up these reserves and “encourage” people to replace seasonal and casual work with regular wage labour (yet wages remain unequal). The stations are seen as “stepping-stones to civilisation”. The assimilation policy denies Aboriginal people their basic rights. It stops them from raising their own children, freedom of movement, access to education, award wages, marrying without permission, eating in restaurants, entering a pub, swimming in a public pool or the right to vote.