Aboriginal reserves

After the early battles over land between the Aboriginal people and settlers, the Aboriginal peoples were made to live on the edges of society. Some worked on outback sheep and cattle stations for very low wages, which in many cases were never paid. The colonial governments set up reserves where Aboriginal people could live, but these areas did not allow them to live their traditional lives. For example, they were not free to hunt and gather as they wished.

In the late 1800s, the colonial governments took away Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights. They controlled where Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders could live and who they could marry. They took many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children away from their parents, sending them to ‘white’ families or government orphanages. Such policies persisted until the mid-20th century. The issue of these ‘stolen generations’ remains a cause of deep sadness for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and other Australians, and was the subject of a national apology in the Australian Parliament in 2008.