Summary

Note: This description below includes white superiority messaging. Such attitudes and beliefs are not condoned by Museums Victoria which considers them to be racist. Historical distance and context do not excuse or erase this fact.

Colour printed certificate, issued by the Australian Natives Association, post 1901. This type of certificate was issued by the Australian Natives Association to to recognise former presidents.

The Australian Natives' Association was established in Melbourne in 1871 as a non-partisan and non-sectarian friendly society for Australian-born, white men seeking to shape Australia's nationhood and identity. The ANA was a strong advocate for Federation and became an advocate for White Australia. It was a staunch supporter of trade protection and immigration restriction, and Prime Minister Alfred Deakin was a member.

The frequent use of a white map of Australia as the iconography for badges, medals, published materials and more, reinforced the desire of governments and organisations to create a trade-protected, white, predominantly British population. It also erases any presence of First Peoples and their rights, heritage, culture and sovereignty. Here an image of a First Peoples man is included as a symbol of a dispossessed people.

Physical Description

Colour printed certificate. Detail on certificates include Australian coat of arms, a male in working clothes and an image of an aboriginal watching the arrival of white settlers.

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