This is the first comprehensive study of the ways in which Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have been excluded from the rights of Australian citizenship over the past 100 years. Drawing extensively on archival material, the authors look at how the colonies initiated a policy of exclusion that was then replicated by the Commonwealth and State governments following federation. The book includes careful examination of government policies and practice from the 1880s to the 1990s. It argues that there was never any constitutional reason why Aborigines could not be granted full citizenship.

Introduction; 1. The citzenship divide in colonial Victoria; 2. Under the law: Aborigines and islanders in colonial Queensland; 3. Is the constitution to blame?; 4. The Commonwealth defines the Australian citizen with Tom Clarke; 5. The states confine the Aboriginal non-citizen; 6. The slow path to civil rights; 7. From civil to indigenous rights.