Citizens without Rights: Aborigines and Australian Citizenship

John Chesterman; Brian Galligan

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511518249

This is the first comprehensive study of the ways in which Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have been excluded from the rights of Australian citizenship over the past 100 years. Drawing extensively upon archival material, the authors look at how the colonies initiated a policy of exclusion that was then replicated by the Commonwealth and State governments following federation. The book includes careful examination of government policies and practice from the 1880s to the 1990s and argues that Aboriginal people have been central to notions of Australian citizenship by virtue of their exclusion from it. It overturns many assumptions and misunderstandings, arguing that there was never any constitutional reason why Aborigines could not be granted full citizenship. The authors show that citizenship was an empty term used to discriminate systematically against Aboriginal people.

‘This is an impressively detailed exposition of the legislative and administrative regimes that excluded indigenous Australians form ellective citizenship … Chesterman and Galligan (not forgetting Tom Clarke) set out to disclose how Aborigines were rendered citizens without rights; they succeed admirably.’

Russell McGregor Source: Australian Historical Studies

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Citizens without Rights

Aborigines and Australian Citizenship

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-v

List of Tables
pp vi-vi

Acknowledgments
pp vii-viii

Abbreviations
pp ix-ix

Dedication
pp x-x

Introduction
pp 1-10

1 - The Citizenship Divide in Colonial Victoria
pp 11-30

2 - Under the Law: Aborigines and Islanders in Colonial Queensland
pp 31-57

3 - Is the Constitution to Blame?
pp 58-83

4 - The Commonwealth Defines the Australian Citizen (in association with Tom Clarke)
pp 84-120

5 - The States Confine the Aboriginal Non-citizen
pp 121-155

6 - The Slow Path to Civil Rights
pp 156-192

7 - From Civil to Indigenous Rights
pp 193-222

Notes
pp 223-255

Bibliography
pp 256-268

Index
pp 269-277

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Citizens without Rights

Aborigines and Australian Citizenship

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