Abstract
IT is to be hoped that no apparent difference of opinion among anthropologists as to the ultimate fate of the Australian aborigines will be allowed to obscure the plain present duty of the Commonwealth Government in the matter of reform of policy and methods of administration. The report of Dr. Donald F. F. Thomson, research fellow of the University of Melbourne, to the Commonwealth Government on his observations as a special patrol officer for a period of fifteen months among the natives of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territories is uncompromising in its directness. He recommends, according to a dispatch of the Canberra correspondent of The Times in the issue of December 30, that the remains of the tribalized natives of the Northern Territories, who come under the control of the Commonwealth Government, should be segregated in an inviolable reserve; and that legislation similar to that in force in New Guinea for the protection of natives should be imposed in their interest. Watering depots for pearlers on the coast of Arnhem Land should be abolished. The policy of administering native justice should be revised; the police should not be allowed to act as protectors; and special courts for the aborigines should be established. It is recommended further that the Commonwealth Government should set up a Department of Native Affairs under a trained protector and staffed by men trained to apply anthropological methods; while eventually the administration of native affairs throughout Australia should be brought under one control. The Arnhem Land natives should not be permitted to leave the reserve, and missions should be requested to remove their stations to the outskirts of the reserve to prevent the entry of outside influence.
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Policy and the Aborigines in Australia. Nature 141, 68–69 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141068c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141068c0