# Travel >> Destinations >> Australia

Australia's Indigenous Peoples After Federation (1901): Exclusion, Assimilation, Resistance

The 1901 Federation of Australian colonies created a nation that explicitly excluded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Constitution denied them citizenship, voting rights, and census counting. What followed was a century of systemic marginalization.

1. Constitutional Exclusion & Discrimination

Section 127: "Aboriginal natives shall not be counted" (repealed 1967)
Section 51(xxvi): "Race power" allowed discriminatory laws (amended 1967)
State laws controlled movement, employment, marriage, wages
Voting rights: Queensland (1965), WA (1962), federal (1962)—full equality 1967

2. Assimilation & The Stolen Generations

Official policy (1937–1970s): "absorb the Aboriginal race." 10–33% of children forcibly removed from families (1910–1970). Placed in missions, foster homes, institutions—culture, language, identity severed. Bringing Them Home report (1997) documented trauma.

3. Protection & Segregation

"Protection Acts" (state-based) confined people to reserves/missions—controlled by white superintendents. Permits needed to leave. Wages withheld ("stolen wages"). Segregated schools, hospitals, cinemas.

4. Land Dispossession Continued

Post-1901: soldier settlement schemes, mining leases, pastoral expansion on traditional lands. No consent, no compensation. Native Title Act 1993 (post-Mabo) began redress—slow, partial.

5. Health & Social Crisis

Life expectancy gap: ~8–10 years. Chronic disease, incarceration (adults 13×, youth 24× non-Indigenous rates), suicide, child removal (still high). Closing the Gap targets (2008) mostly unmet.