A new project is exploring the untold stories of Aboriginal exemption policies in Australia.
“Exemption was a policy imposed by state governments on some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia during the twentieth century,” explains Associate Professor Katherine Ellinghaus.
“The policy allowed the government to ‘exempt’ individual Indigenous people from oppressive state legislation.”
“At a time when most Indigenous people were unable to access education, social welfare, housing and employment, Aboriginal exemption policies offered some individuals freedom from controls over where they lived, who they could marry or be employed by, and benefits such as the age pension.”
“However, exempted individuals could not associate with other Indigenous people, which resulted in family dislocation and lost kin, culture and language,” she says.
These little-known stories are now being brought to light, thanks to an Australian Research Council Discovery Project that brings together an Elder-led team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars.
The project team is led by Elders Aunty Judi Wickes and Aunty Kella Robinson, who both have family histories of exemption. It includes historians Kat Ellinghaus, Ashlen Francisco and Jennifer Jones, sociologist Lucinda Aberdeen, postdoctoral fellow Jodi Cowdery and administrative assistant Maryanne Williams.
The project will enable Indigenous people to tell their own stories and to share these within their communities, as well as the wider Australian community. There is also a PhD scholarship available for a student wishing to research some aspect of the history of exemption policies.
Aunty Judi Wickes, who was the first scholar to write about the policies, said the project will help people learn the truth about its impact.
“We believe it is vital for the community to know and understand how widespread and destructive the exemption policies were.”
“This project will help to deliver culturally safe spaces where Aboriginal individuals can tell their stories and find out more about their family history," she says.
Aunty Kella Robinson said it is vital that Elders play a role in ensuring these stories are shared.
"I believe that using Elders in such an important project will bring back, encourage and demand much of the respect that has been dispossessed over the past 250 years.”
“This can only occur by allowing our Elders to return to yarning circles and to show respect for our culture."
Dr Ellinghaus says there is no “one story” of Aboriginal exemption.
“For some people, it gave them freedom from government surveillance and the opportunity to protect children from removal. But exemption could also result in pain, silence and separation from family, language and community.”
“Our project will support truth-telling about the wide-ranging effects of these policies, an aspect of our past that is not well known. We also hope it will assist families affected by exemption to research their family history,” she says.
“It will also educate mainstream Australians about our nation’s history of attempts to assimilate Indigenous people, hopefully leading to a better understanding of the diversity of Aboriginal identities today.”
People who wish to find out more about exemption can visit this website to find out more, and can contact the team at: Aboriginal.Exemption@latrobe.edu.au.
