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White Australian Policy
The Commonwealth Constitution states "in reckoning the numbers of people… Aboriginal natives shall not be counted". It also states that the Commonwealth would legislate for any race except Aboriginal people. This leaves the power over Aboriginal Affairs with the states.
Aboriginal people are excluded from the vote, pensions, employment in post offices, enlistment in armed forces and maternity allowance. -
Assimilation Policy
Aboriginal Welfare - Conference of Commonwealth and State Authorities called by the federal government, decides that the official policy for some Aboriginal people is assimilation policy. Aboriginal people of mixed descent are to be assimilated into white society whether they want to be or not, those not living tribally are to be educated and all others are to stay on reserves. -
The 1967 Referendum
The referendum of 27 May 1967, called by the Holt Government, approved two amendments to the Australian constitution relating to Indigenous Australians. Technically it was a vote on the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) 1967, which became law on 10 August 1967 following the results of the referendum. -
Self Determination
Self-determination meant that aborigines would now have more say in their affairs and more input into the laws and policies that affected their community. They would also have more freedom to live their lives how they wanted to. The assimilation policy of taking children away from Aboriginal parents was also officially ended. Self-determination was a major step towards Aboriginal people having the same rights and freedoms as those enjoyed by white Australians. -
Stolen Generation
The term Stolen Generations describes the many Aboriginal - and some Torres Strait Islander - people who were forcibly removed from their families as children by past Australian Federal, State and Territory government agencies, and church missions, from the late 1800s to the 1970s. These removals were carried out under acts of their respective parliaments, and the children removed were sent either to institutions or adopted by non-Indigenous families. -
Land RIghts
The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 was the first attempt by an Australian government to legally recognise the Aboriginal system of land ownership and put into law the concept of inalienable freehold title. The Land Rights Act is a fundamental piece of social reform. -
Native Title
The Prime Minister at the time, Paul Keating, said of the Mabo judgement - 'The Court's decision rejected a lie and acknowledged a truth. The lie was terra nullius - the convenient fiction that Australia had been a land of no one. The truth was native title'. The High Court had legally recognised the Indigenous people's traditional link with the land and the fact that that land had been taken from them. The Act, passed on 21 December 1993, was the Commonwealth government's response to the land
