Categories of race: technologies of knowing and governing Australian aborigines^†

^†The term ‘Aborigines’ in this paper is used in relation to Indigenous peoples in the State of Victoria, while the term ‘Indigenous’ peoples refers to all Australian and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous peoples.

ABSTRACT

This article documents the first decades of the work of the Aboriginal Protection Board in Victoria, Australia in the mid-nineteenth century, as it oversees the establishment of mission stations to gather up Aboriginal peoples and provide protection from settler violence. It augments existing accounts of white settler governance of Aboriginal peoples by examining the social and historical conditions for the emergence of separations and distinctions between Aboriginal peoples through shifting governmental versions of the ‘Aboriginal problem’. The production of race-based categories of persons is highlighted in the State's management of the Aboriginal children through the mission systems and their effects on Aboriginal ties to community and identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Australian Aborigines
• identity
• children
• history
• sociology
• human sciences

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge and thank Jennifer Laurence for research assistance on this project, and also to thank Community, Identity and Displacement Research Network (CIDRN) and the Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit, Victoria University, for their collaboration and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^† The term ‘Aborigines’ in this paper is used in relation to Indigenous peoples in the State of Victoria, while the term ‘Indigenous’ peoples refers to all Australian and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous peoples.