Jasper Jones

Aboriginal people are rarely mentioned in Jasper Jones, but their status in 1960s Australian society is central to the plot of the novel. There are two groups of Indigenous people in Australia: Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people. Jasper is half Aboriginal, and because of that, he is largely shunned by society. Even his own white grandfather believed that his birth would be a stain on the family name. Indigenous people lived in Australia for centuries before European settlers first set foot on the continent, but once the settlers arrived, the Indigenous people were generally treated unfairly, and their land was taken from them. They were not allowed full access into white society, and as such, their markers of commercial success such as employment rates, lifespan, and education were generally less than that of their white counterparts. This lack of equality becomes apparent in the novel when Jasper Jones is called a “half-caste.” This term is a highly offensive term today, but it was used at the time to refer to people who are of half-Aboriginal and half-European descent.

The fight for rights for Indigenous people in Australia intensified in the 1960s, the decade during which this novel is set.