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Derivative and indigenous in the history and historiography of child welfare in Australia: Part One

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Shurlee Swain*
Affiliation:
Australian Catholic University, St Patrick’s Campus, and Department of History, University of Melbourne Email: [email protected]

Abstract

This article traces the history of child welfare in Australia, showing the ways in which policies and practices, deriving primarily from Britain, were adopted and adapted in a nation in which jurisdiction was split between colonies/states and further divided, within states, on the basis of race. It argues that child welfare has always been part of the nation-building project, central to national objectives when children could be constructed as future citizens, marginal, and more punitive, when they were more easily understood as threats to social stability. In this first part it examines the history of welfare provision for non-indigenous children in Australia from 1788 to 1939. The second part, to be published in a subsequent issue, will discuss post-war developments in services for non-indigenous children, indigenous child welfare services and the historiography of child welfare in Australia.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

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