Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander records

Bringing Them Home name index

Many of the records about Northern Territory and Victorian Indigenous people held by the National Archives have been indexed in the Bringing Them Home name index.  To have a search made of the index, or for further advice in searching for information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, please ask us a question.

National Archives' holdings

The National Archives does not hold large quantities of records relating to Indigenous people in all offices.

Until the 1967 Referendum, the Commonwealth could not make laws relating to Aboriginal people.  Aboriginal affairs functions were administered by the states and records generated are held by the relevant state archives or state government department.  Therefore, until the early 1970's, the Commonwealth does not hold material relating to Aboriginal affairs except for:

• the Northern Territory which the Commonwealth administered from 1911 to 1978; and
• Victoria, because when Victoria legislated to hand over functions relating to Aboriginal people to the Commonwealth in 1975, it also handed over the Aboriginal affairs records dating back to 1860.

These Aboriginal affairs records include welfare material that is like that held in state archives and state departments - except that there are a few case files in the Northern Territory for individual Aboriginal people.

References to Aboriginal people and issues are, of course, found in the range of records from Federation to date - although the fact that individuals referred to are Aboriginal is not always noted in the records.  They are referred to in records about, for example:

• British nuclear testing at Maralinga, South Australia;
• Social Security: applications for pensions in precedent cases (eg, covering Purfleet, NSW when pensions were extended to those on reserves in about 1955); and
• War service personnel files for World War I, World War II etc servicemen and women.

Further information about records and resources relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can be found in the Archives’ A-Z for researchers.