CITIZENS OF THEIR WORLD - AUSTRALIAN FEMINISM AND INDIGENOUS RIGHTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT, 1920S AND 1930S

Inter-war Australia saw the emergence of a feminist campaign for indig enous rights. Led by women activists who were members of various key A ustralian women's organizations affiliated with the British Commonweal th League, this campaign proposed a revitalized White Australia as a p rogressive force towards improving 'world' race relations. Drawing upo n League of Nations conventions and the increasing role for the Domini ons within the British Commonwealth, these women claimed to speak on b ehalf of Australian Aborigines in asserting their right to reparation as a usurped people and the need to overhaul government policy Opposin g inter-war policies of biological assimilation, they argued for a hum ane national Aboriginal policy including citizenship and rights in the person. Where white men had failed in their duty towards indigenous p eoples, world women might bring about a new era of civilized relations between the races.