The idea of ‘genocide’ in the Australian context 1959-1978

Abstract

This study attempts to trace the meaning of the word ‘genocide’ in its use in the Australian context. Adopting an historical contextualist approach. the study finds that ‘genocide’ emerged in 1959, in the assimilation critique of Stanley F. Davey, where it was used to condemn the perceived psychological effects of assimilation policy upon Aborigines as an emergent social collectivity. This idea of ‘genocide’ was predominant in Australian discourse throughout the 1960s and 1970s, gaining recognition as ‘the Aboriginal perspective’. As such, it encountered the obstacle of European Australians who maintained an objective understanding of Aboriginal identity, contained in visions of both ‘assimilation’ and ‘integration’. I examine the case of Tasmanian discourse history, where these two perspectives on Aboriginality and ‘genocide’ came into direct conflict over the claim of Tasmanians’ extinction. The study concludes by raising the question of how scholars may approach the identification and discussion of this Aboriginal concept of identity genocide in a scholarly context, given that its meaning is predicated on subjective historical experiences and feelings.