assimilation

Prior to the 1960s, state governments had sole responsibilities for Aboriginal affairs, thus Aboriginal education policies differed across Australia. There was, however, a perception common to all state policies that Aboriginal people were inherently inferior and should receive minimal schooling. This perception was consistent with the general policy of excluding Aboriginal people from contact with non-Aboriginal people and the specific policies in some states of excluding Aboriginal children from government-run schools which persisted into the 1950s. Indeed, estimates suggest that only a very small proportion of Aboriginal children in Australia in the 1940s were being educated in state schools. In total, only about a quarter were receiving any sort of formal education, mostly in institutions and particularly in Christian missions. It has been well documented that the educational experiences of Aboriginal children in missions were far from ideal. Education often had a greater focus on Christian principles than formal education, with very little attention given to Aboriginal culture and languages. Source: Chapter 2 Educating Aboriginal Children – Issues, Policy and History www.telethonkids.org.au/globalassets/media/documents/abor...

"1913 — The Dormitory system is expanded to include Mothers and their children. A policy of rescuing young women and children is introduced. It is not enough to remove them to a settlement for better care and protection, they have to be placed in a controlled environment. The dormitory system, which continued until the 1980s is a strict form of segregation and discipline." Source:http://cherbourgmemory.org/group-of-women-with-children-at-barambah-aboriginal-settlement-1911/

Persistent white politics of assimilation through segregation and isolation of Indigenous Peoples.