Black, white and exempt : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives under exemption / edited by Lucinda Aberdeen and Jennifer Jones ; contributions by Lucinda Aberdeen [and 10 others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Aberdeen, Lucinda, editor.

Jones, Jennifer, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aboriginal Australians--Government policy--History.

Aboriginal Australians.

Australia--Race relations--History.

Australia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (152 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Canberra, A.C.T. : Aboriginal Studies Press, [2021]

Summary:

In 1957, Ella Simon of Purfleet mission near Taree, New South Wales, applied for and was granted a certificate of exemption. Exemption gave her legal freedoms denied to other Indigenous Australians at that time: she could travel freely, open a bank account, and live and work where she wanted. In the eyes of the law she became a non-Aboriginal, but in return she could not associate with other Aboriginal people – even her own family or community.It ‘stank in my nostrils' -- Ella Simon 1978.These personal and often painful histories uncovered in archives, family stories and lived experiences reveal new perspectives on exemption. Black, White and Exempt describes the resourcefulness of those who sought exemption to obtain freedom from hardship and oppressive regulation of their lives as Aboriginal Australians. It celebrates their resilience and explores how they negotiated exemption to protect their families and increase opportunities for them. The book also charts exemptees who struggled to advance Aboriginal rights, resist state control and abolish the exemption system.

Contents:

Introduction: Histories and Lived Experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Exemption in Australia

1. Exemption: The Official and Unofficial Impact

2. The Poisoned Chalice: Exemption Policies in Twentieth Century Australia and the Writing of 'History'

The Genealogy of Exemption Policies

The 'Lived Experience' of Exemption

The Archives of Exemption and Their Challenge to the (my) Writing of 'History'

3. Creating the Space for Exemption in New South Wales

4. 'Playing the Game': Aboriginal Exemption in Queensland and New South Wales

5. 'I intend to go off the Board's hands altogether'

'We would all rather battle on out among white people'

6. Destination of Pupil 'Unknown': Indigenous Mobility Between Schools in Victoria and New South Wales

7. Ella Simon's Certificate of Exemption

8. Emigration, Mobility and Exemption: Indigenous Australian Women's Marriages to American Servicemen in World War Two

9. Smash the Exemption System!

Notes

References

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781925302349

1925302342

OCLC:

1241424888