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https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-too-many-aboriginal-babies-australias-secret-history-of-aboriginal-population-control-in-the-1960s-189249>
"The 1967 referendum is celebrated for its promise that First Nations people of
Australia would be counted. But when they were, many white experts decided the
Aboriginal population was growing too fast – and took steps to stop this
growth. This was eugenics in the late 20th century.
The costs were borne by Aboriginal women who faced covert government
family-planning programs, designed ostensibly to promote “choice”, but
ultimately to curb their fertility.
For decades, Indigenous communities have spoken of the coercive practices of
officials and medical experts around birth control and sterilisation, and how
they experienced them. Now historians are finding evidence of these practices
in the government’s own records from as recently as the 1960s and ‘70s.
The history of birth control is not just a story of women’s emancipation. Birth
control has never been just about the rights of individual women to control
their fertility. It has also been a tool of “experts” and authorities as they
attempt to shape the population through the so-called “right kind” of babies.
The birth of children of colour, children with disability or children born into
poverty has, at various times, been considered by such “experts” as a problem
to be managed."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
