Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rights

By leahmccallig

  • 1945

    • Aboriginal cattle workers strike for a pay rise in Port Hedland, Western Australia. They were successful.
    • An investigation shows that aboriginal people on Vesteys NT cattle station had terrible living conditions and were paid less than the minimum wage. In later years, the gurindji strike took place on this cattle farm to protest the wage the workers recieved from Vesteys, but this action was not taken for several decades.

  • 1949

    Aboriginal people are given the right to enrol and vote at federal elections provided they are entitled to enrol for state elections or have served in the armed forces. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is ratified by Australia.
  • Period: to

    Indigenous rights from 1945-present

  • 1948

    • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted by the newly-formed United Nations and supported by Australia.
    • The Commonwealth Citizenship and Nationality Act makes all Australians, including all Aboriginal people, Australian citizens. At a state level they still suffer from discrimination

  • 1950

    The first formal schooling for Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory is provided. Lack of facilities is rationalised by the claim that children "beyond the age of 10 couldn't keep up with white children anyway". Aboriginal children assimilate into NSW local schools, if all other parents agree. This right is removed in 1960.

  • 1951

    Assimilation policy is established.

  • 1957

    • The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders is set up. This group brings together a number of civil rights and Aboriginal welfare organisations. Its work plays a large part in bringing about the 1967 referendum.
    • Formation of the NADOC - National Aboriginal Day Observance Committee.

  • 1961

    December, The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies is formed in Canberra

  • 1962

    The Commonwealth Electoral Act is amended to give the vote to all Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory are given the right to vote in Federal elections. In NSW, the ban on alcohol for aboriginal people was removed.

  • 1963

    The Western Australian Native Welfare Act revokes the 1905 Act and alters the definition of an Aboriginal person and eligibility for aid.

  • 1964

    The Northern Territory Social Welfare Ordinance replace the welfare ordinance which is supposed to make aboriginal Australians equal to other Australians but this is proven not the case.

  • 1965

    Integration Policy is introduced, meaning Aboriginal people are supposed to have more control over their life and society.

  • 1966

    In August 1966, stockmen and women at Wave Hill walk-off in protest against inhumane working conditions and inadequate wages. The South Australian Prohibition of Discrimination Act is the first of its kind in Australia and bans all types of race and colour discrimination in employment, accommodation, legal contracts and public facilities.

  • 1967

    The 1967 referendum is passed. This allegedly ends constitutional discrimination against Aboriginal people and they are now counted in the national census.

  • 1969

    The Federal Government establishes the National Aboriginal Sports Foundation to help finance sports activities. An Aboriginal delegation goes to New York and presents a statement on Australian Aborigines to the Office of the UN Secretary-General.

  • 1971

    Aboriginal flag is created and flown for the first time in Adelaide. The Australian chapter of the Black Panther Party is formed (an anti-racism left wing US organisation)

  • 1972

    The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is pitched outside Parliament House in Canberra, demonstrating for land rights. 14 July: On National Aborigines Day there are Australia wide strikes and marches by Aboriginal people. The White Australia Policy is abolished by the Whitlam Government

  • 1975

    1 June: Racial Discrimination Act is passed in the federal parliament. The Australian Senate unanimously endorses a resolution put up by Senator Neville Bonner acknowledging prior ownership of this country by Aboriginal people and seeking compensation for their dispossesion. The National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation is set up.

  • 1976

    Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency is established, rapidly achieving a 40% reduction in the number of Aboriginal children in children’s homes. Other states including South Australia, Western Australia and the city of Darwin follow suit.

  • 1977

    Nationwide Aboriginal Education Advisory Groups are set up. National Aboriginal Education committee formed.

  • 1983

    Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NSW) recognises dispossession and dislocation of NSW Aboriginal people, sets up local-regional-State land council network with land tax funding as compensation.

  • 1989

    Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) is established as main Commonwealth agency in Indigenous affairs.

  • 1992

    The High Court of Australia hands down its landmark decision on Eddie Mabo's land rights. It rules that native title exists over particular kinds of lands and that Australia was never terra nullius or empty land.

  • 1994

    Darwin brings together more than 600 Aboriginal people taken from their families as children to discuss common goals of access to archives, compensation, rights to land and social justice.

  • 1995

    May: The National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families is established in response to efforts made by key Aboriginal agencies and communities.

  • 1997

    26 May: The 700-page report of the ‘Stolen Children’ National Inquiry ‘Bringing Them Home’, is tabled in federal parliament. The report concludes that the forcible removal of children was an act of genocide, contrary to United Nations Convention on Genocide, ratified by Australia in 1949. Australians are shocked by the report’s details.

  • 2000

    28 May: More than 300,000 take part in the People’s Walk for Reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

  • 2004

    The Commonwealth government establishes a memorial to the Stolen Generations at Reconciliation Place in Canberra.

  • 2008

    13 February: The Australian Parliament apologises to the Stolen Generations. Both the government and the opposition support the apology and say ‘sorry’ to Aboriginal people who were taken away from their families from 1900 to the 1970s.

  • 2016

    25 July: ABC’s Four Corners broadcasts Australia’s Shame, a documentary on abuse of children in NT detention centres, sparking shock nationally and internationally. Within a day the Prime Minister forms the Royal Commission into the Child Protection and Youth Detention Systems of the Northern Territory.

  • 1981

    Michael Anderson, the only surviving founder of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, becomes the first Aboriginal Australian to address the United Nations.