Occupational deprivation: A consequence of Australia's policy of assimilation

Abstract

Wilcock (2003) has recently reminded our profession of the importance of understanding the occupational experiences of the past, in order to recognise how historical events impact on the health of individuals and communities today. One area of Australia’s history we have found to be notably absent from occupational therapy and occupational science literature is that of the forced removal of indigenous children from their families. However, we believe this period of Australian history holds many lessons for our profession. Hence, within this paper we aim to give a brief overview of Australia’s policy of assimilation of indigenous Australians and how enactment of this policy deprived indigenous youth of engagement in culturally significant occupations. We argue that this lack of engagement of culturally significant occupations is a clear example of occupational deprivation. Whiteford (2000) describes occupational deprivation as ‘a state of preclusion from engagement in occupations of necessity and/or meaning due to factors that stand outside the immediate control of the individual’ (p. 201). Within this paper, we analyse how the forced removal of children from their families and communities, through the Commonwealth policy of assimilation, was indeed an external force of control that deprived indigenous children of culturally significant occupations. This paper outlines our analysis of three aspects of occupational deprivation we believe resulted from children being forcibly removed from their families. (i) in Deprivation of a culturally significant social environment, we discuss how indigenous children were denied access to their families, and consequently prevented from learning their cultures and their associated roles and occupations; (ii) in Spiritual deprivation of one’s land and story, we examine how children were prevented from engaging in occupations relating to the stories of their people, their land and their role within society (the Dreamings, the Dreamtime and/or the Dreaming); (iii) in Deprivation of initiation processes, we analyse how children were denied their rightful place in initiation processes, ceremonies, and occupations, leading to the preclusion of the establishment of culturally significant roles within their community. We will examine evidence of these significant forms of occupational deprivation in an attempt to gain some insight into an area of occupational justice which, so far, has been left untouched within occupational therapy literature.