The Impact of Asian - Aboriginal Australian Contacts in Northern Australia

Abstract

The long history of Asian contact with Australian Aborigines began with the early links with seafarers, Makassan trepang gatherers and even Chinese contact, which occurred in northern Australia. Later contact through the pearling industry in the Northern Territory and Kimberley, Western Australia, involved Filipinos (Manilamen), Malays, Indonesians, Chinese and Japanese. Europeans on the coastal areas of northern Australia depended on the work of indentured Asians and local Aborigines for the development and success of these industries. The birth of the Australian Federation also marked the beginning of the “White Australia Policy” designed to keep non-Europeans from settling in Australia. The presence of Asians in the north had a significant impact on state legislation controlling Aborigines in Western Australia in the first half of the 20th century, with implications to the present. Oral and archival evidence bears testimony to the brutality with which this legislation was pursued and its impact on the lives of Aboriginal people.