Book review of "The protectors: a journey through whitefella past" by Stephen Gray, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Abstract

[Extract] Stephen Gray invites us to contemplate the moral ambiguities of the protectionist policies and practices imposed upon Aboriginal people for much of the twentieth century. Combining historical narrative and biographical snippets with anecdote and personal reminiscence, he recounts the careers of three senior administrators of Aboriginal affairs in the Northern Territory (Baldwin Spencer, Cecil Cook, and Harry Giese), a Commonwealth minister (Paul Hasluck), a patrol offi cer (Colin Macleod) and several missionaries. These men, he argues, were impelled by motives both benign and malign, though the consequences of their actions were, almost without exception, disastrous for Aboriginal people. The argument is delivered in an easily accessible style, which owes more to Gray's vocation as a novelist than to his other career as a legal scholar. His book is a welcome contribution to post-Apology and post-Intervention debate over Indigenous affairs.