ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates some campaigners had a different future for Aboriginal people in mind. Aboriginal spokespersons in particular were in the forefront of articulating a perspective that diverged from part of the Commonwealth government’s assimilationist dream. In 1951 Nicholls bitterly criticised the Melbourne City Council’s plans for the 50th anniversary of the nation’s founding because these denied Aboriginal people a place. Wright insisted that the problems of ‘mixed-blood’ people in Southeastern Australia were very different from those of Aborigines in Central and Northern Australia. The Council for Aboriginal Rights secretary, Shirley Andrews, similarly emphasised the importance of regarding Aborigines as a people. The only white advocates who seriously questioned the policy of assimilation at this time seem to have both known Aboriginal people well and been familiar with international discourses regarding race and indigenous rights. Campaigners for Aboriginal rights found such ‘expert’ opinion invaluable in their criticisms of the policy.
