TY - JOUR
T1 - To eliminate colour prejudice
T2 - The WCTU and decolonisation in Australia
AU - Holland, Alison
PY - 2008/6
Y1 - 2008/6
N2 - From the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Australia played a key role in the articulation and development of human rights for Aborigines. They provided practical and political support and scaffolding while developing an important ideological base, and they formed alliances across class, gender, race, religious, and political lines to achieve their goal of racial equality. Their activism coincided with the period associated with decolonisation. It has been argued that, in Australia, the end of empire coalesced with the rise of the labour movement in the 1940s. However, this article argues that as a means of understanding WCTU involvement in defending and shaping an Aboriginal rights agenda, the rise of labour is an important but partial explanation. It downplays the role of gender and religion in formulating an ideological position while masking its political implications. Here, I explore the politics of WCTU reform, particularly connections between gender, religion, and race, and trace the Union's defence of Aboriginal human rights in post war Australia.
AB - From the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Australia played a key role in the articulation and development of human rights for Aborigines. They provided practical and political support and scaffolding while developing an important ideological base, and they formed alliances across class, gender, race, religious, and political lines to achieve their goal of racial equality. Their activism coincided with the period associated with decolonisation. It has been argued that, in Australia, the end of empire coalesced with the rise of the labour movement in the 1940s. However, this article argues that as a means of understanding WCTU involvement in defending and shaping an Aboriginal rights agenda, the rise of labour is an important but partial explanation. It downplays the role of gender and religion in formulating an ideological position while masking its political implications. Here, I explore the politics of WCTU reform, particularly connections between gender, religion, and race, and trace the Union's defence of Aboriginal human rights in post war Australia.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=61049179517&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-9809.2008.00710.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-9809.2008.00710.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:61049179517
SN - 0022-4227
VL - 32
SP - 256
EP - 276
JO - Journal of Religious History
JF - Journal of Religious History
IS - 2
ER -