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

Wilcock (2003) has recently reminded our profession of\udthe importance of understanding the occupational\udexperiences of the past, in order to recognise how\udhistorical events impact on the health of individuals\udand communities today. One area of Australia’s history\udwe have found to be notably absent from occupational\udtherapy and occupational science literature is that of\udthe forced removal of indigenous children from their\udfamilies. However, we believe this period of Australian\udhistory holds many lessons for our profession. Hence,\udwithin this paper we aim to give a brief overview of\udAustralia’s policy of assimilation of indigenous\udAustralians and how enactment of this policy deprived\udindigenous youth of engagement in culturally significant\udoccupations. We argue that this lack of engagement\udof culturally significant occupations is a clear example\udof occupational deprivation. Whiteford (2000) describes\udoccupational deprivation as ‘a state of preclusion from\udengagement in occupations of necessity and/or meaning\uddue to factors that stand outside the immediate\udcontrol of the individual’ (p. 201).\ud\udWithin 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.\ud\udThis paper outlines our analysis of three aspects of\udoccupational deprivation we believe resulted from\udchildren being forcibly removed from their families.\ud(i) in Deprivation of a culturally significant social environment, we discuss how indigenous children were denied access to their families, and consequently prevented from\udlearning their cultures and their associated roles and\udoccupations; (ii) in Spiritual deprivation of one’s land and\udstory, we examine how children were prevented from\udengaging in occupations relating to the stories of their\udpeople, their land and their role within society (the\udDreamings, 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\udto the preclusion of the establishment of culturally\udsignificant roles within their community. We will examine\udevidence of these significant forms of occupational\uddeprivation in an attempt to gain some insight into an\udarea of occupational justice which, so far, has been left\uduntouched within occupational therapy literature