Arguing about assimilation: Aboriginal policy and advocacy in Australia

In Australia in the 19505 and 1960s 'assimilation' was a capacious word. It was used not only by governments to refer to a disparate array of practices and programs but also by numerous individuals and organisations,\ud Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to designate an even greater diversity of projects in Aboriginal affairs. This point was made as long ago as 1971 by the pioneering historian of Aboriginal policy, Charles Rowley: More recently, several historians have extended Rowley's analysis of the varied\ud objectives and strategies that clustered under 'assimilation'. Yet other historians continue to construe assimilation in remarkably narrow terms, as if it denoted little more than a concerted assault on Aboriginality