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Day of Mourning
The Day of Mourning was a day of protest held by Aboriginal Australians on the 26th of January 1938. It was declared to be a protest of 150 years of callous treatment and the seizure of land, and was designed to stand in contrast to the Australia Day celebrations held by the European population on the same day. -
Right to Vote Federally
In 1962, the Menzies Government (1949-1966) amended the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to enable all Aboriginal Australians to enrol to vote in Australian Federal Elections. In 1965, Queensland became the last state to remove restrictions on Aborigines voting in state elections. The Holt Government's 1967 Referendum overwhelmingly endorsed automatic inclusion of Aboriginal people in the national census. -
National Reconciliation Week
National Reconciliation Week was first celebrated in 1996. National Reconciliation Week aims to give people across Australia the opportunity to focus on reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It is a time to 'reflect on achievements so far and on what must still be done to achieve reconciliation.' National Reconciliation Week falls between 27 May and 3 June, which falls in the relation of the 1992 High Court judgement in the Mabo Case. -
Wave Hill walk-off
In August 1966, Aboriginal pastoral workers at Wave Hill station in the Northern Territory walked off the job, unhappy with their poor working conditions and disrespectful treatment. The next year the group moved to Wattie Creek, a place of significance to themselves as Gurindji people. They erected a sign which included the word 'Gurindji', asserting a claim to Gurindji lands. -
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 (Aboriginal People) 1967, which became law on 10 August 1967 following the results of the referendum. The amendments were overwhelmingly endorsed, winning 90.77 percent of votes cast and carrying in all six states. -
Campaign for equal wages
A campaign for equal wages in the 1960s contributed to a 1968 decision by the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission ruling on equal wages in the cattle industry. The achievement of equal wages in the pastoral industry however was a hollow victory as 'families and whole communities were turned off properties where they had worked for generations. People drifted into towns and were given 'sit down' money (unemployment benefits). -
Yirrkala Protest
The Yirrkala people began a case in the Northern Territory Supreme Court. They were protesting against the state government's decision to allowing mining on their traditional land containing sacred sites. They wanted the court to recognise their native title right to this land. In 1971, Justice Blackburn handed down his decision. He agreed that Aboriginal people had lived on the land from 'time immemorial'. He also said that if native title had existed, British law legally replaced it on 1788. -
Aboriginial Tent Embassy
Four Aboriginal ctivists set up an Aboriginal embassy in a tent on the lawns in front of Parliament House in Canberaa. They were angry about Prime Minister William McMahon's attitude toawrds land rights. Earlier the same day, he had announced that 'land rights would threaten the tenure of every Australian' and that his government would grant neither land rights nor compensation to Australia's Indigenous peoples. They could lease land, but only for what his government considered 'worthwhile'. -
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation
The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation was established under the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act 1991 and was charged with this mission: 'The object of the establishment of the Council is to promote a process of reconciliation between Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and the wider Australian community...'
The Council worked closely with the Australian Local Government Association to have the issue of reconciliation on the local community agenda. -
Bringing Them Home Report
Bringing Them Home is the title of the Australian Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to be known as the Stolen Generations. The inquiry was established by the federal Attorney-General, Michael Lavarch, on 11 May 1995, the 680 page report was tabled in Federal Parliament on 26 May 1997. -
Reconciliation Australia
In January 2000, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation was replaced with a new private body, Reconciliation Australia. Reconciliation Australia is the current peak national organisation building and promoting reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. -
Reconciling the Nation
In 2000, Unfinished Business: Reconciling the Nation was broadcast by SBS over ten days. It featured nine new films, six existing films and live coverage of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk. The season of Indigenous film coincided with Corroboree 2000, Reconciliation Week and National Sorry Day. In the films, some members express resentment: 'why are they getting more than me?' echoing common myths about welfare and living conditions for Indigenous Australians. -
Corroboree 2000
On 27-28 May 2000, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation convened a major national event, Corroboree 2000, which was a landmark for reconciliation in Australia. This event honoured and celebrated the achievements of reconciliation so far, and set a framework for continuing the process beyond 2000. -
The Apology
On the 13th of February 2008, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, tabled a motion in parliament apologising to Australia's Indigenous peoples, particularly the Stolen Generations and their families and communities, for laws and policies which had 'inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.' The apology included a proposal for a policy commission to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in educational achievement and econonomic opportunity. -
Mabo Day - Anniversary of the High Court judgment on the Mabo case
Eddie Mabo was from Mer, one of the Murray Islands off the coast of Northern Australia. He argued in the High Court that Murray Islanders' rights to their land were not extinguished by the annexation of the islands by the State of Queensland, or by subsequent Queensland or federal governments' legislation. On the 3 June the High Court of Australia handed down its judgment on the Mabo case. The High Court agreed with this view and the acknowledged pre-existing rights of Indigenous Australians.