Marching for Assimilation: Indigenous Identity, Sport, and Politics

The policy of assimilation of Aboriginal people in Australia had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. The Australian states, which were primarily responsible for Aboriginal affairs, adopted many different forms of assimilation. In Queensland, assimilation was predominantly carried out through the extensive system of missions and settlements that the state had heavily invested in since the late colonial era. This paper examines the role of extra-curricular activities, particularly sport, that emerged out of Queensland's Aboriginal institutions in the government-driven strategies to promote assimilation. The focal point is the women's only sport of Marching Girls and the marching teams that were formed at the government settlement of Cherbourg, north-west of Brisbane. Using spatial history and document analysis, the Marching Girls are a case study to examine the complexity of assimilation as the policy was filtered through the Queensland government apparatus, to investigate the intersection between sport, gender and assimilation, and to explore how women's participation in extra-curricular activities provides insights into the assimilation project at local, state and even national levels.