Aboriginal settlements : a survey of institutional communities in Eastern Australia

Abstract

About half of the full-blood Aboriginal people of Australia and one in three of those who described themselves in the 1961 Census as having Aboriginal ancestry live in settlements - institutional communities established and managed by governments and church missions and to a large extent isolated from the rest of the community. Conditions in the settlements vary, but in most the standard of housing is poor and overcrowding common, there is little work available, and the life tends to perpetuate the dependence of the inhabitants on outside authority. This is a report on a twelve-months{u2019} survey of such settlements. It includes a brief history of Aboriginal settlements in each state, detailed descriptions of those in the more closely settled parts of eastern Australia, and a chapter on remote settlements in far north Queensland. The range and variety of problems which these communities pose for the future of Aboriginal citizens in Australia are discussed, together with steps being taken to effect a greater measure of self-support.