Aboriginal Women

The visibility of Aboriginal women is even less distinct than that of their white sisters. It is noticeable that the number of images does not increase in the same way as for white women. For example, to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of Western Australia an influential book on W.A. women, Reflections: profiles of 150 women who helped make Western Australia's history was published by Carrolls in 1978. Of the 150 women included, only 4 are Aboriginal. Venereal disease was viewed in moral terms, as a punishment for depraved behaviour.  Those who succumbed were not treated with great sympathy. Between 1909 and 1917, 426 North-West and Central Desert women with venereal disease were rounded up and isolated in the Lock Hospital on Dorre Island.  One hundred and sixteen of them died.