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Sequence 2—Dismantling the White Australia Policy: The 1970s
Around 1970 the Australian government position on the racist White Australia policy was changing. In 1966, Peter Heydon, Secretary of the Department of Immigration, and the Immigration Minister Sir Hubert Opperman, persuaded the Holt government to liberalise the restrictive immigration policy by basing assessment on ‘the ability to integrate readily’ and having ‘qualifications useful to Australia’. This wasn’t the end of racial discrimination in migrant selection but another turning point.
The Federal Labor government of Gough Whitlam was elected in 1972 and it began to formally dismantle the White Australia policy through legislation and the Universal Migration Scheme.
There were approximately 960,000 migrant arrivals in the 1970s. The highest number of settlers to arrive in any one year since World War II was 185,099 in 1969–70. The lowest number in any one year was 52,752 in 1975–76 after a crisis in the world economy — a hard time to boost migrant numbers but a time to change the selection process.
In this teaching and learning sequence students have the opportunity to focus on:
- Dismantling the White Australia policy (The Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act 1975; Indo-Chinese migration experiences; Australia as a Multicultural Society Charter (1977)
- New Humanitarian program in action.
Dismantling the White Australia policy
A number of government actions supported the dismantling of the White Australia policy in the 1970s. Develop a class timeline with historical examples to provide the overview of the decade.
Examine these sources from the history timeline as evidence of the government support for a multicultural Australia: Credo for a Nation (1974) and the booklet by A J Grassby, ‘Australia’s Multicultural Society’ (1975). Have students create a headline and a few taglines for a news report on the key points of the arguments.
Provide a teacher explanation about the first signs and reasons for the change (including ‘recognising Asia’)
Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act (1975)
A major milestone in further dismantling the White Australia policy happened in 1975 when the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act was accepted by the Australian parliament and applied to all Australians. Find a Teacher overview of the Act.
Teaching note: EAL/D learners may need an explanation of vocabulary or a summary of a selection of the key provisions to help 'build the field' knowledge (terms and concepts) for this topic.
Focus: Significance for immigration policy and recognition of cultural heritage: brief background to legislation; key features; designing and presenting a History or school forum.
Briefly outline the background — why this legislation at this time?
The focus of the discussion should be changing public attitudes and new government initiatives; and steps towards dismantling of the White Australia policy. For example, Australia’s obligations under the 1966 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Now have students get a broad overview by using the Guide to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. Be prepared to explain: ethnic origin, jurisdiction, trade union, conciliation, and use an example to clarify ‘goods and services’ and ‘access to places and facilities’
Display and analyse a few specific articles of the Act such as Article 2 (a) — ‘Each State Party undertakes to engage in no act or practice of racial discrimination against persons, groups of persons or institutions and to ensure that all public authorities and public institutions, national and local, shall act in conformity with this obligation.’
In groups, identify and discuss the key features and a few Articles which supported anti-racism through law — for instance: grounds for unlawful discrimination (race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin); areas of life covered (for example, access to places).
Guided discussion
How important is government action against racism? What other action apart from legislation can governments take? Point out that some countries have made racial discrimination a criminal offense.
In concluding this part of Sequence 2
Conduct a class forum or discussion about how this Act can apply to the school and what more could be done to implement its spirit as well as key features.
Consider a further activity
Using primary and secondary sources, students create a ICT presentation (Informative text) explaining the key features and significance of the 1975 Act from a range of perspectives (if Power point preferably with audio and images) for Year Assembly or History classes forum. (Learn how to covert PowerPoint files to Flash with Adobe Presenter.)
Extension activities — dismantling the White Australia Policy
Find activites to extend teaching and learning for this part of Sequence 2.
Indo-Chinese migration experiences — overview
The wave of Indo-Chinese refugees had major impacts on Australia’s immigration policy because the languages and cultures of these refugees were markedly different from previous waves of refugees from Europe. The refugees had lived with discrimination in their homelands and had to deal with discrimination in Australia, as they struggled with community acceptance, language, employment and maintaining their cultural heritage. Their success in establishing themselves here is demonstrable.
Focus: The migration experiences of Indo-Chinese refugees, including discrimination, public reaction and the impact on Australian identity.
The following sources and investigation questions provide an overview and some detail about the key features and significance for the topic focus. Begin by asking students to explore the Timeline: Vietnamese immigration to Australia (Pre 1975-2011) and answer the overview questions. The final question requires guidance or further information:
- About how many Vietnamese people were in Australia before 1975?
- Why did the ‘wave’ of Vietnamese refugees begin in 1975?
- What and where was the first boat arrival from Vietnam?
- What was the Orderly Departure Program (ODP)?
- Explain the term ‘nationalisation’
- By 1981 what percentage of Vietnamese arrivals had come by boat?
- What might be some reasons why some thousands of Vietnamese-born Australians did not declare their country of origin on the Census of 2001 and 2006?
Ask students to locate relevant information and make summary points from Short history of Vietnamese immigration to Australia (.pdf 132 kB) which includes statistics and graphs. Go to pages 51–53.
Ask students to view a Prezi presentation about Vietnamese immigration to Australia (use this very simple summary and illustration of how Prezi works).
Using one or more of the following sources, ask students to locate photographic sources which are ‘evidence’ of Indo-Chinese immigration to Australia in the 1970s. Have students briefly explain why these images would be useful to an historian studying Australian immigration and how they could use them.
- 1970 — refugees from our region, (Image 9 Vietnamese boat people Darwin 1977, Image 11 Indo-Chinese families arriving by plane 1979); have students briefly explain why these images would be useful to an historian studying Australian immigration and how they could use them.
- Vietnamese boat people, Darwin, November 1977 (National Library of Australia, 15 images — you may save or print these images for research and study)
- Once upon a time migration timeline from SBS — forty days in the history of the Vietnamese community from The Vietnam War 1961 to 2012, including a focus on the Cabramatta Vietnamese community and social issues
Consider using the Step Inside: Perceive, Know about, Care about approach to explore some of the images in the sources above. From the site, this routine: ‘helps students to explore different perspectives and viewpoints as they try to imagine things, events, problems, or issues differently. In some cases this can lead to a more creative understanding of what is being studied.’
Case studies of Indo-Chinese migration experiences
With the overview covered, now guide student exploration of one or more experiences of Indo-Chinese refugees from the following sources or your own selection:
- Fishing Boat KG4435 — the first arrival
- Mai Ho’s story — account and paintings
- Hieu Van Le — survivor and inspiration
- Cambodian refugees
- Minh Tam Nguyen’s ‘dàn tre’ (bamboo musical instrument) — cultural heritage and history
Fishing Boat KG4435 — the first arrival
On April 26, 1976 Fishing Boat KG4435, with the first Vietnamese refugees, landed in Darwin. They had navigated the last section from Timor using a page torn from a school atlas. Those aboard were accepted on humanitarian grounds. By 1981 a total of 56 boats with 2,100 people had reached Australia.
Ask students to read and take point notes from the extract about KG4435 from The Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975–1992 by Nghia M Vo, including distance traveled and places along the way.
Nghia M Vo relates other examples (page 140) – Case 2 The PK504 and Case 3 the Song Be 12 to which you could refer. Nghia M Vo also explains the reasons why most Indo-Chinese refugees did not come by sea (page 140). Would most Indo-Chinese refugees have stayed in Asia if they had been accepted by another Asian country? The term ‘diaspora’ is used. It is a large group of people with a similar heritage or homeland who have since moved out to places all over the world.
In this SBS Report Lam Tac Tam recounts the journey on the anniversary of the first arrival of the Vietnam boat people.
Media report activity
Organise students into small groups to create a one page, two-column media article on the arrival, reaction of locals in Darwin and looking back at the historical significance of the event for Australia and the refugees. This could be print or web-design format or layout.
Some support materials include:
- Creating newspapers in the classroom
- Newspaper templates
- Google newspaper templates
- Design a web page with Tools 4U Microsoft Word 2007 (includes a demonstration of website creation).
Mai Ho’s story — account and paintings
Have students read the migration experience of Mai Ho, a Vietnamese ‘boat person’ in the 1970s, and view the paintings of the journey. Pose the question: What do these sources reveal about Mai Ho's migration experiences?
Hieu Van Le — survivor and inspiration
The inspirational story of Hieu Van Le illustrates the life of a refugee, including the importance of cultural heritage and overcoming some public discrimination, to have become a major success in Australia.
Have students read the profile of Hieu Van Le and answer the inquiry questions.
In 2011 Mr Le gave the annual speech on immigration and citizenship in Canberra. Have students explore some of his thoughts about his experience as a refugee and citizen of Australia. There are inquiry questions for guidance on each page.
- Thoughts on cultural heritage — Mr Le explains the importance to him and refugees of cultural heritage
- First experiences of Australia — Mr Le relates his experience of the immigration process and some racist responses in the early years of the Vietnamese refugee crisis
- Recognising government support in the 1970s — The Minister puts the government’s response to community concerns
- Short-term challenges — Mr Le’s perspective on how in time the refugee issue was only a short-term challenge for the refugees and the country
A few other inspirational excerpts could be chosen from the full speech (.pdf 56 kB) by Mr Le for a discussion which illustrates the positives of his experiences and overcoming what he calls ‘short-term challenges’.
Cambodian refugees
Following the Vietnam War Cambodia underwent a civil war and around one million Cambodians died under the Khymer Rouge regime of Pol Pot. Thousands of Cambodians fled to Malaysia and Thailand. Some made it to Australia.
Students can investigate one or more stories to develop an understanding of their search for human rights.
Leaving Cambodia relates some of the stories of Pol Pot survivors.
Minh Tam Nguyen’s ‘dàn tre’ (bamboo musical instrument) — cultural heritage and history
Ming Tam Nguyen’s life as a refugee to Australia is linked to his favorite musical instrument. It is also part of his cultural heritage. Explore the object and his story by reading the information and studying the images from the National Museum of Australia.
Ask students to find out and reveal to the class if their family has objects which are a part of their cultural heritage.
Australia as a Multicultural Society Charter (1977)
Background
By the 1970s more than a third of Australians had been born overseas, or were the children of those born overseas. In the decade of the 70s features of Australia’s British foundations were disappearing with ‘God Save the Queen’ just for regal events and ‘Advance Australia Fair’ the popular choice for the national anthem. Australian passports no longer stated ‘British subject’ and the British honours system was replaced with an Australian honours system. Multiculturalism was defined as a government policy.
Teacher note: EAL/D learners may need an explanation of vocabulary or a summary of a selection of the key provisions to help 'build the field' knowledge (terms and concepts) for this topic.
A submission called ‘Australia as a Multicultural Society’ (.pdf 438 kB) to the Australian Population and Immigration Council gave the first official definition of multiculturalism as ‘cultural pluralism’.
Guide students in identifying and briefly describing the three key features of the report (15 pages) — social cohesion, equality of opportunity and access and cultural identity. The description should be a ‘plain English’ version of no more than one page.
Explain to students that even nearly some 35 years later this policy statement guides Australian multiculturalism and illustrates continuity over time and changes of government.
Extension activities — Australia as a Multicultural Society Charter (1977)
Find activites to extend teaching and learning for this part of Sequence 2.
New Humanitarian program in action
Evacuees from East Timor (Timor Leste), Cyprus and Lebanon were accepted under the new humanitarian refugee policy (refer to immigration timeline for the 1970s). This action was part of the response to the Australia as a Multicultural Society Charter (Australian Ethnic Affairs Council, 1977) and its affirmation of multiculturalism and anti-racism.
East Timor
In 1975 Indonesia invaded East Timor, with United States support. It was occupied for the next 25 years. East Timor became formally independent on May 20, 2002 and renamed Timor Leste. Australia played a role in it’s occupation but also in providing support to refugees.
Ask students to identify and summarise 4–5 points about Australia–East Timor immigration history from History of immigration from East Timor.
Photo analysis
- Have students study the photograph of East Timorese refugees arriving in Darwin in 1975.
- Use the guide points and class discussion to evaluate its historical value as primary evidence for the topic. Have students compose a 20–30 word ‘exhibition’ description of the photo.
- Support students in locating other photographs relating to East Timor refugees and compose a similar evaluation.
Assessment for Sequence 2
In the rich assessment task for this sequence students create an informative text presentation with images and graphics.
Resources in Sequence 2
Find a summary list of resources used for each sequence in this unit, including additional teacher resources suggested for each sequence.
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