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Aboriginal Claim Citizen Rights
A meeting of the Aboriginal people was held in Sydney. And a document called 'Aboriginal Claim Citizen Rights' were circulated. THis declaration was the first time Aboriginal people had made a m=national protest -
freedom riders demand equal treatment
A group led by Aboriginal activists Charles Perkins made a bus tour through New South Wales. They protested about discrimination in shops, theaters, bars, clubs and swimming pools -
Gurindji people demand a better deal
200 workers walked off the Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory. They wanted between wages and conditions and their traditional lands back. The Gurindji eventually gained ownership of the area in 1985. -
White voters demand a better deal for the first Australians
After a 90% 'yes' vote the government gave Indigenous Australians the right to vote and be counted in censuses and ended the protection policies. -
Aboriginal tent embassy set up in Canberra
The Embassy said that blacks were not going to get us and fight back on the issues of education, health, police victimization, locking people up. -Bobby Sykes, Aboriginal activist- -
Land rights to be granted to first Australians
A government commission recommended that Aboriginals should get back the land where they now lived and had traditionally lived. -
First Aboriginal Land Right Act.
However this Northern Territory law only gave the indigenous people some areas of arid and largely useless land. Other land claims were often thrown out by the courts -
Bringing them home
The stolen generation was one of Australia's worst secrets. Few white people knew about it and it did not feature in the history books until the 1980s. -
Native Title Act
In the late 18th century Britain claimed the land of Australia because they assumed nobody owned them. Some Torres Strait Islanders, led by Eddie Mabo, challenged this. Their people had inhabited Murray Island for thousands of years and so were the rightful owners. In 1992 the High Court agreed saying the 'terra nullius' was wring and racist. So the 1993 Native Title Act allowed Indigenous Australians to claim land rights -
1994 Commonwealth Games
Cathy Freeman carrying the Australian and Indigenous Australian flags at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. On the indigenous flag, the black stands for the people, the yellow for the sun and the red for the land -
Recommendations towards the stolen Generation
In 1997 the Human Rights Commission report on this horror story made a number of recommendations...
- compensation for the people affected
- apologies from the government, police and churches
-a national 'Sorry Day' each year
-information about the stolen generation to be taught in schools -
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The Bulletin
Corroboree 2000-the march across Sydney Harbour Bridge
In May 2000 250,000 people walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge and up to 400,000 marched in Melbourne in December. Many marchers carried signs and banners critical of the Prime Minister's refusal to say 'sorry' to indigenous Australians for past wrongs