Black, White and Exempt

Uncovering all truths from Australia's dark histories is critical in healing, for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. The stories of exemptions are a part of this nation's history that needs to be told. This book provides detailed insights into the impact of the certificate of exemption on our people and indeed all Australians, making this a key historical text in understanding this aspect of our history for future generations. --Marnee Shay, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Senior Research Fellow, University of Queensland Black, white, and exempt: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives under exemption offers a new and important way into understanding Indigenous experiences in Australian history. Exemption policies have had a profound and often damaging impact on the lives of Indigenous Australians and Indigenous communities. The editors have brought together a collection of essays on this topic that are as diverse as they are intriguing. They range from the meaning of exemption in a segregated society to the multiple pathways that Indigenous people forged to escape the harsh legislative restrictions imposed upon them around the country throughout the twentieth century. As a collection, they show the interactions between the personal stories of individuals and the larger patterns of settler colonialism, and offer insightful and thoughtful analysis of exemption histories. Drawing upon archival records and oral histories, this edited collection reveals the full complexity of the lived experience of exemption for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with vibrancy, sensitivity and compassion. --Victoria Haskins, Professor, Purai Global Indigenous History Centre, University of Newcastle An 'Exemption' from the Aboriginal Acts declared that its holders 'ceased to be Aboriginal'. Far from a step towards emancipation that it might have been, such 'Exemptions' were couched in patronising and paternalistic frameworks of oppression and segregation. In this book, black and white writers link arms to explore the genealogy of that paradoxical instrument of assimilation; the lived experiences of people who took this 'poison chalice', and of their many descendants who became disconnected from their Indigenous ancestry as a result. Like countless descendants of Jewish ancestry all over Europe, Australians are awakening to personal histories that have been suppressed due to racism. --Regina Ganter, Professor Emerita, Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities