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On the 26th of January 1938 (Australia Day), aborigines held a meeting to form a document. The name of this document is ‘Aborigines Claim Citizen Rights’. This national protest was featured in papers and were starting to be recognized by white Australians. Australia day is a day of mourning because it commemorates 150 years of pain and inequality white invaders inflicted on the Aborigines. -
Aborigines fought for their country Australia during World War II. Because a large number of aborigines worked in wartime industries and fought in the armed forces, they gained more recognition from the white Australians. It was then thought that Aboriginals deserved fairness if they fought and died for Australia.
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Charles Perkins, an Aboriginal activist, led a group and made a bus tour going through New South Wales. As they were going around, the protested and spread awareness about discrimination towards aborigines in shops, theatres, bars, clubs, and swimming pools. -
Around 200 workers demanded a better deal, walking off the Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory. The aim of this was to get better conditions, better wages, and to get their traditional lands returned to them. Action was finally taken place in 1985 when ownership of the area was gained by the Gurindji. -
Indigenous Australians were given the right to vote after 90% of citizens voted ‘yes’ for them. The indigenous Australians were then counted in censuses and the protection policy finally came to an end. -
Aboriginal activist Bobby Sykes set up an embassy in Canberra to fight against problems surrounding education, health, police victimisation, and people getting locked up. They aimed to protest against the government’s bad decisions and the fact they they refused to help the blacks in these aspects. -
Justice Woodward recommended that aboriginals should be provided land as compensation for being deprived of their rights. -
The Northern Territory law only provided aboriginals useless land. Other times that land claims would benefit the aboriginals, those claims would be thrown out by the courts.
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In 1992, After deciding in the High Court that Britain claiming Australia’s land was wrong and racist because Torres Strait Islanders had inhabited Murray Islands for thousands of years. Following this agreement, Indigenous Australians were allowed to claim land rights after the 1993 Native Title Act. -
Cathy Freeman was a former runner from Australia. Australia was joyful when she won the 400 metres at the Sydney Olympics (1994 Commonwealth Games). During this event, she lifted both the Australian and Indigenous Australian flags. At this point in time, there were still issues, but this was a big step of improvement. -
In December, up to 400,000 people marched and carried signs and banners. They criticised the Prime Minister for refusing to apologise to indigenous Australians for their prolonged wrongdoings. Both marches aimed to have people apologise for mistreating Aborigines, improve Aborigines’ living standards, provide fair land rights, and to uplift their culture. -
250,000 Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians walked across Sydney Harbour bridge on May 28 2000. This aim of this was the reconciliation of the people in Australia, trying to get rid of the divide.