Protector of Aborigines

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The role of Protectors of Aborigines resulted from a recommendation of the report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Aborigines (British Settlements). On 31 January 1838, Lord Glenelg, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies sent Governor Gipps the report. The report recommended that Protectors of Aborigines should be engaged. They would be required to learn the Aboriginal language and their duties would be to watch over the rights of Aborigines, guard against encroachment on their property and to protect them from acts of cruelty, oppression and injustice. The Port Phillip Protectorate was established with George Augustus Robinson as chief protector and four full-time protectors.^[1]

While the role was nominally to protect Aborigines, particularly in remote areas, it has been suggested that the role included social control up to the point of controlling whom individuals were able to marry and where they lived and managing their financial affairs.^{[citation needed]}

As well as Robinson, A. O. Neville and Edward John Eyre were notable Protectors of Aborigines.

Matthew Moorhouse was the first Protector of Aborigines in South Australia.

The Protector of Aborigines position was phased out in the 1970s.

[edit] Protectors of Aborigines

Protectors of Aborigines around Australia included:

• Victoria (Port Phillip Protectorate, 1839-1849)
  • George Augustus Robinson
  • William Thomas, (Assistant Protector) 1839-1849
• Victoria
  • William Thomas, Guardian of Aborigines in the counties of Bourke, Mornington and Evelyn
• South Australia
  • Matthew Moorhouse
  • William Wyatt, 1837-
  • Daisy Bates
  • Edward John Eyre
• Northern Territory (part of South Australia until 1911)
  • Walter Baldwin Spencer
  • Francis James Gillen, 1892-
  • William Edward Harney, 1940 to 1947
  • Xavier Herbert
  • Cecil Cook^[2][3]
• Queensland
  • Walter Roth, 1898-1904,
  • Archibald Meston, 1898 to 1903
• Western Australia
  • A. O. Neville, see also the Moseley Royal Commission

[edit] References

1. ^ (1987) in Aplin, Graeme, S.G. Foster and Michael McKernan (eds): Australians:Events and Places. Fairfax, Syme and Weldon Associates, pages 47-8. ISBN 0-949288-13-6. 
2. ^ Reports on actions of Dr Cecil Cook.
3. ^ Dr Cook was the Chief Protector of Aborigines during the trial and appeal of Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda. The first Aboriginal Australian whose case was heard in the High Court (at the National Archives of Australia)

[edit] External links

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)

• An Index to the Chief Protector of Aborigines (Western Australia) Files 1898 - 1908 [PDF)]
• Black Robinson: Protector of Aborigines. Vivienne Rae-Ellis. A controversial study of George ('Black') Robinson, first Chief Protector of Aborigines in Australia Melbourne University Press
• George Augustus Robinson, was a NSW Chief Protector of Aborigines in the early 1800s, George Augustus Robinson
• NSW State Library Protector of Aborigines Heritage Collection - the journals and papers of George Augustus Robinson (1791-1866)
• Public Record Office Victoria online catalogue "VPRS 2895 Chief Protector of Aborigines: Outward Letter Book 1848–1850 ... VPRS 4399 Duplicate Annual Reports for the Chief Protector of Aborigines 1845– ..."