Governing Savages

In Governing Savages, Andrew Markus explores the value system that provided the justification for the treatment of Aborigines during the early decades of the twentieth century, and analyses the views of academics and writers of the period as well as pastoralists, missionaries, politicians, judges and public servants. Governing Savages investigates the expectation of white Australians that Aborigines would become extinct and the impact of this view on public policy. It examines changing attitudes to Aborigines from the late 1920s as clerics, humanitarians and Aboriginal activists challenged the dominant value system. This book is intended for general readers, and for students and researchers in Australian and Aboriginal studies.