Australia’s sesquicentenary (150th anniversary) celebrated around Australia. Aboriginal leaders in Melbourne and Sydney hold ‘Day of Mourning’ events and call for citizenship rights.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by United Nations
American Freedom Riders travel on racially mixed buses in the southern United States to challenge segregation laws.
Martin Luther King Jnr delivers his ‘I have a dream’ speech during the March on Washington
Australia’s Freedom Riders discover segregation being practised in country NSW during a ‘fact finding’ tour.
The Whitlam Government returns 3300 square kilometres of land to the Gurindji people – a beginning to land rights for Aboriginal people in Australia
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) formally established as the key representative body responsible for the implementation of self-determination policies
The Bringing Them Home report is tabled in Parliament. The report includes thousands of testimonies from members of the Stolen Generations.
The Howard Government abolishes ATSIC
The National Emergency Response in the Northern Territory, known as ‘the Intervention’, begins
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issues a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.
Aboriginal Tent Embassy established on the lawns of Parliament House in response to the McMahon Government’s refusal to accept native title
Australia’s Freedom Riders discover segregation being practised in country NSW during a ‘fact finding’ tour.
Overwhelming support for referendum to change the Constitution to allow the Commonwealth to make laws for Aborigines and to include them in the census
