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Dog licence
Aunty Dorrie MooreThe 'dog licence' was another name for Certificates of Exemption. It was a licence to live in a white man's world. It allowed an Aboriginal person to enter town, vote, and send their children to the local school.
Certificates of Exemption were seen by authorities as a key to 'assimilation', but could be withdrawn at any time. To get one, you were forced to renounce your culture, language and family who were still living on missions and reserves.
![](/https/www.abc.net.au/rightwrongs/assets/media/2017/03/certificate-of-exemption-walter-davis-1957-1024x683.jpg)
It was a licence to live in a white man’s world. It allowed an Aboriginal person to have some of the basic rights that non-Indigenous people took for granted. But holding a Certificate of Exemption meant effectively renouncing your culture and heritage.
![Aunty Dorrie Moore holds her father’s Certificate of Exemption](/https/www.abc.net.au/rightwrongs/assets/media/2017/03/aunty-dorrie-moore-holds-her-fathers-certificate-of-exemption-1024x683.jpg)
Moruya elder Aunty Dorrie Moore has kept her father Walter Davis’s Certificate of Exemption, issued by the Aboriginal Welfare Board in 1957, in recognition of its significance as a symbol of a time of social and political transformation in Australia.
Ms Moore said, “I was working at the Adelaide Hotel in Moruya at the time. My father got me the job. Everyone in our family worked, from fishermen to saw millers, and the women worked as domestics. But without this Certificate of Exemption, my dad, my brothers, my grandfather, other members of my family, were not allowed into the hotel where I worked.
![An archival Certificate of Exemption Walter Davis, 1957](/https/www.abc.net.au/rightwrongs/assets/media/2017/03/cu-photo-walter-davis-certificate-of-exemption-1024x683.jpg)
“They used to call them the dog’s licence.”
The application for the certificate included a personal report signed off by a welfare officer who examined Mr Davis’s employment, family and financial status, and character, with entries on general conduct, living standards, drinking habits, thrift and morality.
![An archival Certificate of Exemption for Walter Davis](/https/www.abc.net.au/rightwrongs/assets/media/2017/03/certificate-of-exemption-application-1024x683.jpg)
![An archival Certificate of Exemption for Walter Davis](/https/www.abc.net.au/rightwrongs/assets/media/2017/03/certificate-of-exemption-application-personal-report-1024x683.jpg)
Ms Moore’s niece, Maureen Davis, said, “It was a licence that stripped us of our culture, our language, our family. Because once this licence was issued, you couldn’t visit your family who remained on Wallaga Lake Mission. You couldn’t speak the language, or practise the culture. Our elders did practise the culture, but it was all kept under lock and key with these licences. It impacted on many families, and even with a Certificate, we were still restricted in many ways. Alienated on our lands.”
Despite the freedoms offered by the Certificate of Exemption, of the 14,000 Aboriginal people eligible in NSW, only 1,500 chose to apply.
![Portrait of Bob Davis](/https/www.abc.net.au/rightwrongs/assets/media/2017/03/bob-davis-1024x683.jpg)
Ms Moore’s brothers, Bob (Bobby) and Ted Davis, were wharf workers in Wollongong. With miner and trade unionist Fred Moore, Bobby founded the South Coast Aboriginal Advancement League in 1961, leading the struggle for equal rights and improved living conditions for Aboriginal people.
With the support of trade unions, they applied direct pressure on businesses that practised segregation and refusal of service by restricting supply to cafes, cinemas and hotels.
“There were a lot of workers. They would cut the transport from bringing the supply down. That’s what they could do,” Ms Moore said.
“They used to fight all along the coast, go to Canberra and everywhere.
And that’s how they got rid of these [licences].”
PHOTOS SUPPLIED: Aunty Dorrie Moore. Thanks to Aunty Dorrie Moore and Maureen Davis
Hear Aunty Dorrie Moore tell her story on ABC Open
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