Australian Aboriginal Voting
So, what of the suggestion by our uninformed enemies that it also excluded Australian Aboriginal Men from voting, so is “discriminatory” and “racist”?
No doubt today, it would be.
However, again we need to understand the decisions made by our Founding Fathers in the appropriate historical context.
Before we allow our enemies to tell us that our Founding Fathers were “racists”, perhaps first we should find out sound reasons why they debated intensively about these issues. Including why the Australian Constitution initially did not permit Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Men to vote.
It is a little known fact that during Colonial times, a number of Australian Aboriginal Men actually did vote in Colonial elections. One of the Founding Fathers, specifically made reference to this in the Constitutional Debates. He boasted of over a hundred Men, perhaps two hundred of the Australian Aboriginal Men of his Colony to be voting.
However, there was a tendency of the vast majority of Australian Aboriginal Men to avoid the busy Colonial areas altogether. Yet a minority of others were actively involved in the local elections.
There was no generic “one type” of Australian Aboriginal Man as we have been led to believe by our enemies.
There were many different unique family groups and tribes. The desire to engage and vote appeared to depend very much on the various distinct “family” groups within the Aboriginal population. All had distinctions. Again, our enemies use denigrating stereotypes.
Our enemies want us to think of a generic “average” stereotype when we think of all Australian Aboriginal Men of the Colonial days. They paint a picture of a simplistic vulnerable helpless victim.
Few things could be further from the truth.
Most were multilingual speaking sometimes seven different Aboriginal languages. Most all had bush skills that defied comprehension. They could survive in remote conditions where others could not. They were often sought out to assist with tracking lost children and many Colonialists who went missing.
Many Australian Colonialists were in awe of their skills.
Logistics of Australian Aboriginal Voting in 1890’s
There were many concerns by the Founding Fathers about forcing the Colonial Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Men to vote. None of them related to racism, as our enemies would have us believe. All of these reasons were very practical in 1890.
Firstly, as the vast majority of them did not live in the vicinity of the busy Colonial areas, it would have been inconvenient.
Secondly, many did not have the same concept of dates, or months of the year. There were no telephones. Then there was the problem of exactly where you would send a letter to? However, most could not read English.
Thirdly, it presented an opportunity for criminals to endanger their women folk, whilst the Men were drawn a potentially long distance to vote.
Fourth, there was the opportunity for them to be coerced and take part in a voting scheme which they had no particular interest in. The politics of the local elections were concerned with the legislation for those who lived in the busy Colonial settlements.
There were other reasons, including the risk of criminal laws for non voting, which would have been entirely unjust.
There was another logistical problem.
None of the Australian Colonialists who were not Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islands had any clue where most of them were, and certainly did not have the skills to find them !
Careful provision was drafted into the Constitution to ensure that our Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders would get the right to vote when it won popular favour and could become beneficial for them, rather than detrimental. It was also important to ensure the timing of their right to vote would not be a source division or disharmony between Australians.
