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Assimilation policy (Australia)

The Assimilation policy in Australia refers to a series of government initiatives implemented primarily during the first three-quarters of the twentieth century aimed at integrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples into Western culture. These policies were rooted in misguided beliefs about racial differences and sought to erase Indigenous cultures, languages, and identities. A significant aspect of this policy was the forced removal of Indigenous and mixed-race children from their families, leading to the tragic phenomenon known as the "Stolen Generations." These children were often placed in boarding schools or foster homes with the intent of 'civilizing' them, which resulted in profound loss of cultural heritage and familial connections.

The assimilation policies began to decline in the 1960s and were officially discontinued in the early 1970s. However, their legacy has had lasting impacts, including educational deficits and increased mental health issues among those affected. In recognition of the harms caused, Australian governments have issued apologies and established reparations programs aimed at helping Indigenous peoples reclaim their cultural identities and support family reunification efforts. National Sorry Day, observed on May 26, serves as a poignant reminder of this history and the ongoing journey towards reconciliation in Australia.

Full Article

Assimilation policies in Australia were created by the government during the first three-quarters of the twentieth century and affected the rights and lives of the country’s Indigenous people. These policies, based on false notions of racial differences, limited where Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could live and work. In many cases, the children of Indigenous and families of mixed descent were removed from their homes and sent to boarding schools or foster care to assimilate them into Western culture. The policies created what came to be known as the Stolen Generations and caused financial and educational deficits among First Nations people of Australia. Assimilation policies were discontinued in the 1960s and early 1970s, and reparations were paid to many affected by them.

Background

When ships from Great Britain arrived in Australia in 1788, between 300,000 and one million First Nations people lived on the continent. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had long-established culture dating back at least 60,000 years and spoke an estimated 250 languages. During the late eighteenth century, Great Britain transported approximately 162,000 prisoners to the Botany Bay colony that it established in Australia’s New South Wales. During the mid-1800s, these Europeans were joined by thousands more when gold was discovered. In addition to the Europeans, thousands of Chinese people also arrived and established towns and cities. By 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was formed.

However, the arrival of all these people from outside Australia had a devastating effect on its Aboriginal people. European and other settlers brought diseases to which the Indigenous people had no immunity. Thousands died of smallpox, influenza, measles, and other diseases carried by the new arrivals. In addition, brutal massacres occurred as colonists sought land and other resources, sometimes taking it by force. During the 1800s, numerous efforts were made to address what became known to many non-Indigenous Australians as the “Aboriginal problem.”

From the 1820s to the 1830s, reserves or reservations were established by the colonial government through Aboriginal protection policies. In theory, these policies were to protect the Indigenous Australians from mistreatment by separating them from the settlers. However, when the Indigenous population largely refused to relocate from their ancestral lands to the reserves, force was applied to gain compliance. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations were attacked, and their food or water sources were poisoned to force them from areas where they were not wanted. According to estimates, more than 170 massacres of Indigenous people living in eastern Australia occurred between the 1790s and 1870s.

Aboriginal people were often mistreated or abused when working with or for Europeans. They could do very little about this because few, if any, penalties existed for flogging or otherwise assaulting them. They were also underpaid, not allowed to vote, and subjected to strict segregation rules, some of which remained in effect until the 1960s.

Overview

Beginning in the 1930s, the policies to address the “Aboriginal problem” were refocused on assimilating the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations into a European lifestyle. The goal was to eradicate the language, culture, religion, and other practices of the Aboriginal people and replace them with English culture and Christianity. These policies were promoted to better the lives of the Indigenous population but were undertaken without their input or approval. Ultimately, the government intended to blend the Aboriginal people into the Western culture so thoroughly that the Indigenous population would be indistinguishable from the people from other parts of the world. Many viewed this as a benefit to the Aboriginal people, whose numbers were in great decline because of European illnesses and attacks on their villages and ancestral lands.

Beginning as early as 1869, Australian officials attempted to speed up this assimilation process by “civilizing” children of part Aboriginal and part non-Aboriginal parentage. They thought that these children could be educated and trained to work like White people if they abandoned their Aboriginal ways of living. This was suggested to protect them when the Aboriginal population eventually became extinct, as many assumed it would. Over the next several decades, numerous laws were passed in different parts of Australia authorizing various government officials to remove both mixed-race and Aboriginal children from their families.

For example, The Native Administration Act 1936 gave the Commissioner of Native Affairs nearly complete control over the Aboriginal and mixed-race population in Western Australia. This commissioner had the authority to remove any Aboriginal child from their parents without justification. Other officials in other parts of the country held similar powers.

Officials used this authority to remove tens of thousands of children as young as infants from their parents. Many children were taken to boarding schools, often called missions, while others were placed in foster homes. Most of the boys were trained as agricultural workers, while the girls were taught to be domestic household help. It is uncertain how many children were removed from their homes as part of these assimilation policies, but it is estimated that at least one-hundred thousand children were taken from their homes between the late 1880s and the 1970s. They became known as the “Stolen Generations.”

Assimilation policies began to decline in the 1960s and ended completely in the early 1970s. However, the effects continued to linger into the twenty-first century. Information gathered by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) indicated that those removed from their homes by assimilation policies lost most connections with their ancestral heritage. They often lost any connection or claim to ancestral land and were unable to participate in religious and cultural rites that are important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. In many cases, their rights to their ancestral heritage were permanently lost. Studies determined that those removed due to assimilation policies were more likely to have missed at least some aspects of education, more prone to mental and emotional health problems such as depression, and more likely to have encounters with law enforcement.

In the late twentieth century, all Australian state and territory parliament issued apologies, while the Commonwealth government delivered a national apology in 2008. Resources were provided to assist with family reunification and help those affected regain the lost language and cultural and religious aspects of their heritage. In 2021, the Australian Government announced a $378.6 million (AUD) compensation scheme to compensate the Stolen Generations survivors who were removed as children in the Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory, and Jervis Bay Territory.  It included a one-time payment of  $75,000 (AUD) for non-economic loss, plus an additional $7,000 for healing assistance to those affected by the policies. Several states and territories also introduced their own reparation schemes. Victoria launched a Stolen Generations Reparations Package in 2022, offering up to $100,000 to eligible survivors along with access to healing programs and official apologies. Among other programs and initiatives, the government announced $3.5 million for community-led healing services through Healing Foundation in 2024. In 2025, Western Australia announced reparations of $85,000 (AUD) for Stolen Generations survivors for Aboriginal people removed from their families before July 1972.

Despite these efforts, a 2025 report titled Are You Waiting for Us to Die? revealed that only 6 percent of the recommendations from the 1997 Bringing Them Home report had been fully implemented. In response, the Healing Foundation called for a national healing package to ensure consistent, long-term solutions across all regions of Australia.


Bibliography

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture and History.” Victorian Public Sector Commission, 28 June 2022, vpsc.vic.gov.au/workforce-programs/aboriginal-cultural-capability-toolkit/aboriginal-culture-and-history. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples.” Parliament of Australia, www.aph.gov.au/Visit_Parliament/Art/Collections/Apology_to_Australias_Indigenous_Peoples. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“Assimilation (1940s to the 1960s).” Working with Indigenous Australians, June 2020, www.workingwithindigenousaustralians.info/content/History_5_Assimilation.html. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“Assimilation (1930s–1970s).” Find & Connect, 7 Oct. 2024, www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/wa/biogs/WE01387b.htm. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

Chang, Charis. “How Early Australians Treated Aboriginal People.” New Zealand Herald, 26 Jan. 2019, www.nzherald.co.nz/world/how-early-australians-treated-aboriginal-people/JNYWLQH37W2ENXQE44LASXB7UY. Accessed 13 Apr. 2025.

Collard, Sarah. “‘Are You Waiting for Us to Die?’: Stolen Generations Report Calls for Family Tracing and Police Apologies.” The Guardian, 11 Feb. 2025, www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/12/are-you-waiting-for-us-to-die-stolen-generations-report-calls-for-family-tracing-and-police-apologies. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

Hennessy, Annabel. “Western Australia Announces Reparations for the ‘Stolen Generations.’” Human Rights Watch, 27 May 2025, www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/27/western-australia-announces-reparations-stolen-generations. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“How Did the Assimilation Policy Affect Indigenous Peoples?” Evolve Communities, 20 Aug. 2023, www.evolves.com.au/how-did-the-assimilation-policy-affect-indigenous-peoples. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

McNicol, Sally. “Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme (Facilitation) Bill 2021 [and] Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2021.” Parliament of Australia, 19 Oct. 2021, www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2122a/22bd025. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

Mercer, Phil. “Australia to Compensate Indigenous Survivors of Forced Assimilation.” Voice of America, 8 Aug. 2021, www.voanews.com/a/east-asia-pacific_australia-compensate-indigenous-survivors-forced-assimilation/6209318.html. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.

“Smallpox Epidemic.” National Museum Australia, www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/smallpox-epidemic. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“The Stolen Generations.” RacismNoWay, racismnoway.com.au/teaching-resources/the-stolen-generations. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“Supporting the Healing of Stolen Generations.” Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio, 25 May 2024, ministers.pmc.gov.au/mccarthy/2024/supporting-healing-stolen-generations. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

Full Article

Assimilation policies in Australia were created by the government during the first three-quarters of the twentieth century and affected the rights and lives of the country’s Indigenous people. These policies, based on false notions of racial differences, limited where Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could live and work. In many cases, the children of Indigenous and families of mixed descent were removed from their homes and sent to boarding schools or foster care to assimilate them into Western culture. The policies created what came to be known as the Stolen Generations and caused financial and educational deficits among First Nations people of Australia. Assimilation policies were discontinued in the 1960s and early 1970s, and reparations were paid to many affected by them.

Background

When ships from Great Britain arrived in Australia in 1788, between 300,000 and one million First Nations people lived on the continent. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had long-established culture dating back at least 60,000 years and spoke an estimated 250 languages. During the late eighteenth century, Great Britain transported approximately 162,000 prisoners to the Botany Bay colony that it established in Australia’s New South Wales. During the mid-1800s, these Europeans were joined by thousands more when gold was discovered. In addition to the Europeans, thousands of Chinese people also arrived and established towns and cities. By 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was formed.

However, the arrival of all these people from outside Australia had a devastating effect on its Aboriginal people. European and other settlers brought diseases to which the Indigenous people had no immunity. Thousands died of smallpox, influenza, measles, and other diseases carried by the new arrivals. In addition, brutal massacres occurred as colonists sought land and other resources, sometimes taking it by force. During the 1800s, numerous efforts were made to address what became known to many non-Indigenous Australians as the “Aboriginal problem.”

From the 1820s to the 1830s, reserves or reservations were established by the colonial government through Aboriginal protection policies. In theory, these policies were to protect the Indigenous Australians from mistreatment by separating them from the settlers. However, when the Indigenous population largely refused to relocate from their ancestral lands to the reserves, force was applied to gain compliance. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations were attacked, and their food or water sources were poisoned to force them from areas where they were not wanted. According to estimates, more than 170 massacres of Indigenous people living in eastern Australia occurred between the 1790s and 1870s.

Aboriginal people were often mistreated or abused when working with or for Europeans. They could do very little about this because few, if any, penalties existed for flogging or otherwise assaulting them. They were also underpaid, not allowed to vote, and subjected to strict segregation rules, some of which remained in effect until the 1960s.

Overview

Beginning in the 1930s, the policies to address the “Aboriginal problem” were refocused on assimilating the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations into a European lifestyle. The goal was to eradicate the language, culture, religion, and other practices of the Aboriginal people and replace them with English culture and Christianity. These policies were promoted to better the lives of the Indigenous population but were undertaken without their input or approval. Ultimately, the government intended to blend the Aboriginal people into the Western culture so thoroughly that the Indigenous population would be indistinguishable from the people from other parts of the world. Many viewed this as a benefit to the Aboriginal people, whose numbers were in great decline because of European illnesses and attacks on their villages and ancestral lands.

Beginning as early as 1869, Australian officials attempted to speed up this assimilation process by “civilizing” children of part Aboriginal and part non-Aboriginal parentage. They thought that these children could be educated and trained to work like White people if they abandoned their Aboriginal ways of living. This was suggested to protect them when the Aboriginal population eventually became extinct, as many assumed it would. Over the next several decades, numerous laws were passed in different parts of Australia authorizing various government officials to remove both mixed-race and Aboriginal children from their families.

For example, The Native Administration Act 1936 gave the Commissioner of Native Affairs nearly complete control over the Aboriginal and mixed-race population in Western Australia. This commissioner had the authority to remove any Aboriginal child from their parents without justification. Other officials in other parts of the country held similar powers.

Officials used this authority to remove tens of thousands of children as young as infants from their parents. Many children were taken to boarding schools, often called missions, while others were placed in foster homes. Most of the boys were trained as agricultural workers, while the girls were taught to be domestic household help. It is uncertain how many children were removed from their homes as part of these assimilation policies, but it is estimated that at least one-hundred thousand children were taken from their homes between the late 1880s and the 1970s. They became known as the “Stolen Generations.”

Assimilation policies began to decline in the 1960s and ended completely in the early 1970s. However, the effects continued to linger into the twenty-first century. Information gathered by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) indicated that those removed from their homes by assimilation policies lost most connections with their ancestral heritage. They often lost any connection or claim to ancestral land and were unable to participate in religious and cultural rites that are important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. In many cases, their rights to their ancestral heritage were permanently lost. Studies determined that those removed due to assimilation policies were more likely to have missed at least some aspects of education, more prone to mental and emotional health problems such as depression, and more likely to have encounters with law enforcement.

In the late twentieth century, all Australian state and territory parliament issued apologies, while the Commonwealth government delivered a national apology in 2008. Resources were provided to assist with family reunification and help those affected regain the lost language and cultural and religious aspects of their heritage. In 2021, the Australian Government announced a $378.6 million (AUD) compensation scheme to compensate the Stolen Generations survivors who were removed as children in the Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory, and Jervis Bay Territory.  It included a one-time payment of  $75,000 (AUD) for non-economic loss, plus an additional $7,000 for healing assistance to those affected by the policies. Several states and territories also introduced their own reparation schemes. Victoria launched a Stolen Generations Reparations Package in 2022, offering up to $100,000 to eligible survivors along with access to healing programs and official apologies. Among other programs and initiatives, the government announced $3.5 million for community-led healing services through Healing Foundation in 2024. In 2025, Western Australia announced reparations of $85,000 (AUD) for Stolen Generations survivors for Aboriginal people removed from their families before July 1972.

Despite these efforts, a 2025 report titled Are You Waiting for Us to Die? revealed that only 6 percent of the recommendations from the 1997 Bringing Them Home report had been fully implemented. In response, the Healing Foundation called for a national healing package to ensure consistent, long-term solutions across all regions of Australia.


Bibliography

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture and History.” Victorian Public Sector Commission, 28 June 2022, vpsc.vic.gov.au/workforce-programs/aboriginal-cultural-capability-toolkit/aboriginal-culture-and-history. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples.” Parliament of Australia, www.aph.gov.au/Visit_Parliament/Art/Collections/Apology_to_Australias_Indigenous_Peoples. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“Assimilation (1940s to the 1960s).” Working with Indigenous Australians, June 2020, www.workingwithindigenousaustralians.info/content/History_5_Assimilation.html. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“Assimilation (1930s–1970s).” Find & Connect, 7 Oct. 2024, www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/wa/biogs/WE01387b.htm. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

Chang, Charis. “How Early Australians Treated Aboriginal People.” New Zealand Herald, 26 Jan. 2019, www.nzherald.co.nz/world/how-early-australians-treated-aboriginal-people/JNYWLQH37W2ENXQE44LASXB7UY. Accessed 13 Apr. 2025.

Collard, Sarah. “‘Are You Waiting for Us to Die?’: Stolen Generations Report Calls for Family Tracing and Police Apologies.” The Guardian, 11 Feb. 2025, www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/12/are-you-waiting-for-us-to-die-stolen-generations-report-calls-for-family-tracing-and-police-apologies. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

Hennessy, Annabel. “Western Australia Announces Reparations for the ‘Stolen Generations.’” Human Rights Watch, 27 May 2025, www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/27/western-australia-announces-reparations-stolen-generations. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“How Did the Assimilation Policy Affect Indigenous Peoples?” Evolve Communities, 20 Aug. 2023, www.evolves.com.au/how-did-the-assimilation-policy-affect-indigenous-peoples. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

McNicol, Sally. “Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme (Facilitation) Bill 2021 [and] Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2021.” Parliament of Australia, 19 Oct. 2021, www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2122a/22bd025. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

Mercer, Phil. “Australia to Compensate Indigenous Survivors of Forced Assimilation.” Voice of America, 8 Aug. 2021, www.voanews.com/a/east-asia-pacific_australia-compensate-indigenous-survivors-forced-assimilation/6209318.html. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.

“Smallpox Epidemic.” National Museum Australia, www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/smallpox-epidemic. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“The Stolen Generations.” RacismNoWay, racismnoway.com.au/teaching-resources/the-stolen-generations. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

“Supporting the Healing of Stolen Generations.” Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio, 25 May 2024, ministers.pmc.gov.au/mccarthy/2024/supporting-healing-stolen-generations. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

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