Archibald meston and aboriginal legislation in colonial Queensland∗

Thorpe, W.

doi:10.1080/10314618408595692

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…A Scottish-born explorer and journalist, Meston had spent time with and taken particular interest in the lives of Aboriginal people throughout Queensland. 32 At the request of the colonial secretary, Meston prepared and provided two reports detailing the condition of Aboriginal people in Queensland, which were published as the 1896 Report. 33 Thus, Meston's ideas about Aboriginal people were instrumental in the formation of the 1897 Aboriginals Protection Act.…”

Section: The Ideology Underpinning Exception From Removal In Queenslandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Another Form of Aboriginal Exemption — Employment as Protection Against Removal

Lawrence

2023

Aus J of Politics History

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The Queensland Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897, which introduced the system of exemption certificates, also initiated another form of “exemption” — one based on employment. The Act permitted “lawfully employed” Aboriginal people to be “excepted” from forcible removal to reserves. Those placed on an Aboriginal reserve faced a restrictive life of disconnection from Country, kin networks, and traditional practices and way of life. Many Aboriginal people found employment in the pastoral industry and thus avoided the Act's provision of removal to a reserve. This paper interrogates government records and reports to provide an understanding of the development and implementation of this legislation and the racial ideologies underpinning it. The 1898 diary of a Queensland pastoralist who employed Aboriginal men on his station is also examined to obtain an understanding of the roles, experiences, and position of Aboriginal people in the pastoral industry during this period. These findings reveal that despite hardships faced in the pastoral industry, Aboriginal people found advantages in this form of employment. Through their highly sought‐after pastoral skills and expertise, and strategic engagement with Europeans, Aboriginal people excelled in the pastoral industry, and many achieved significant levels of freedom and success.

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Section: The Ideology Underpinning Exception From Removal In Queenslandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Another Form of Aboriginal Exemption — Employment as Protection Against Removal

Lawrence

2023

Aus J of Politics History

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“…His position was shaped, according to historian Bill Thorpe, by his capacity to romanticise, his politics of colonial settlercapitalism, his obsession with male physique, strength and weaponry (the 'Noble Savage'), his racist views on the Chinese, his evolutionism and authoritarianism, worship of force, but yet all with a humanitarian sentiment which he largely drew from L.E. Threlkeld's views of the inappropriateness of missions (Thorpe 1978;Thorpe 1984, pp. 52-67).…”

Section: The Reports Of Meston and Parry-okedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Where is the Aboriginal Act?’: Archibald Meston and the Emergence of the Aboriginal Policy in Queensland

Memmott,

Richards

2021

mqmc

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Queensland Parliament passed The Aboriginals Protection and Sale of Opium Act in the last weeks of 1897, forcing Indigenous people onto reserves under strict control and stopping the sale of opium to them. The amalgamation of these two legislative elements has not been properly explained in the historical literature, and there has not been, to date, an overview of other preceding, connected Acts that imposed European values and ideologies on Indigenous people. Journalist Archibald Meston’s role is worth carefully investigating to understand the influences underlying this legislation. His co-authors William Parry-Okeden, Arthur Rutledge and Horace Tozer never publicly reflected on their part in the Act’s drafting, but Meston was to later successfully pose as the Act’s sole architect. Meston’s contribution to the Act demands critical inquiry because our research shows that his self-proclaimed “expertise” was mostly opportunistic propaganda. This paper examines the political background to the 1897 Act so as to understand the socio-economic influences that led to the creation of the first legislation that affected all Indigenous people in Queensland, and which was to become the largest and longest-lasting disrupter of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Queensland after the frontier wars – a significant longitudinal process in Queensland’s history, still reverberating into contemporary times.

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“…80 While the 1865 Act had focused on exclusively on child removal, the 1897 Act promoted the removal of all Indigenous peoples regardless of age as a means of dealing with this section of the population. 81 In a very real sense, under this 1897 legislation, the Queensland government treated all Aboriginal people as children by awarding itself guardianship and control of Indigenous people regardless of their age.…”

Section: Genocide and Indigenous Child Removalmentioning

confidence: 99%