Aboriginal History: Timeline and Events (PDF)

# ABORIGINAL HISTORY ## Time Period | Event | Page No. Info ------- | -------- | -------- Late 18th Century | Terra Nullius | 120-121 1860s | Protection Policy | 120 1901 | Federation | 121 1901 | White Australia | 121 1930s | Great Depression | 121 1930s | Assimilation Policy | 122 1940s-1970 | St...

# ABORIGINAL HISTORY ## Time Period | Event | Page No. Info ------- | -------- | -------- Late 18th Century | Terra Nullius | 120-121 1860s | Protection Policy | 120 1901 | Federation | 121 1901 | White Australia | 121 1930s | Great Depression | 121 1930s | Assimilation Policy | 122 1940s-1970 | Stolen Generation | 122 1920s/30s | Protest Movements | 122-123 1938 | Day of Mourning | 123 1940s | WWII experiences | 124-125 1941-2 | Limited citizenship gains | 125 1949 | Nationality and citizenship act | 127 1950/51 | Strikes and petitions | 128 1966 | Wave Hill strike | 129 1965 | Integration | 131 1967 | Constitutional change | 133 1972 | Self-determination | 140 1976 | Land Rights | 140-141 1981 | Mabo | 141 1991 | Reconciliation | 144 2008 | Saying sorry | 148 2000 | Aboriginal deaths in custody | 150 1990s | The Northern Territory Intervention | 2023 | The Voice Referendum | ## Late 18th Century: Terra Nullius (120-121) - In the late eighteenth century, the British Government declared the continent now called "Australia" as _terra nullius_. - This term meant that the land belonged to no one and could therefore be rightfully settled by the British colonisers. - Bloody conflicts often followed, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples fought to preserve the conditions of their way of life. ## 1860s: Protection Policy (120) - A growing concern about the treatment of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples led the British Government to appoint "Protectors" in the colonies who were supposed to clamp down on the violence and ensure that those living on the outskirts of towns were provided with basic rations. - Under these protection policies, the majority were forcibly moved onto land set aside as reserves run by either the government or church missionaries. - As a result of the protection policies, some children, particularly so called 'half-castes' - those whose mother, father or grandparent was of European descent - were forcibly taken from their families and placed often far away in institutions or with settler foster families. ## 1901: Federation (121) - On the 1st of January 1901 when the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed, its new Constitution made it clear that, except for the Northern Territory, responsibility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples was left to the states. - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples would not be included in the national census: this meant they were not entitled to Commonwealth Government regulations and benefits, such as basic wage rulings and pensions. - In 1902, the Commonwealth Franchise Act excluded aboriginal native(s) of Australia, Asia, Africa or the Islands of the Pacific except New Zealand' from voting in federal elections. ## 1901: White Australia (121) - The first piece of legislation passed by the new Commonwealth Government was the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, which became known as the White Australia Policy. It indirectly reinforced the general view that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples were an undesirable, underserving race not a part of Australian society. - While partly concerned at first with protecting workers' wage standards from competition from Chinese immigrants, its main aim was to ensure that only people of European descent could migrate to Australia. - This was based on a generally held belief in the superiority of the 'white' races and the importance of racial purity for Australia's population. - "I was profoundly embarrassed by it (the White Australia Policy) and did all I could to change it" - Gough Whitlam ## 1930s: Great Depression (121) - During the 1930s Great Depression when times were tough for most of the population, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples experienced additional hardships. - In New South Wales many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families lost the family endowment payments they had been receiving for a few years. - The Protection Board forced people back into the reserves so that they could not receive government welfare, the reserves and mission stations became more overcrowded and the practice of removing children from their families became more frequent. ## 1930s: Assimilation Policy (122) - By the mid 1930s, the Australian states and some voluntary bodies were demanding federal involvement in Aboriginal affairs. - In 1937, the federal government reached an agreement with the state governments that each would adopt an assimilation policy. - During the late 1930s and the 1940s, this meant that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in settled areas, particularly those of 'mixed blood', were expected to abandon their own culture and languages and adopt the way of life of white Australians. ## 1940s-1970: Stolen Generation (122) - Many thousands of children were forcibly removed which continued until the early 1970s, now known as the Stolen Generations. - The policy of assimilation continued the protectionist practice of removing many 'half-caste' children, based on the argument that it would be in the children's best interests to live in institutions or with European families where they would adopt the ways of the settler population. - Some were placed with families or in institutions with people who cared for them and gave them certain opportunities, but this did not compensate for the fundamental loss of birth family, culture and identity. ## 1920s/30s: Protest Movements (122-123) - Australian Aboriginal Progress Association established in Sydney in 1925 by Fred Maynard was the first Aboriginal protest organisation. - In 1937 at Dubbo in New South Wales, the Aborigines Progressive Association was formed and successfully campaigned to get the New South Wales Government to inquire into the policies of its Aborigines Protection Board. - At Cummeragunja Station, a large reserve on the New South Wales side of the Murray River, the Aboriginal residents had developed a productive communal farm. ## 1938: Day of Mourning (123) - Australia Day in 1938 marked the 150th anniversary of British settlement and grand events took place in Sydney. - William Cooper already proposed that the 26th of January 1938 be marked as a protest 'Day of Mourning' by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples because as he put it: - "For us, it is a Day of Mourning. This is the day we lost our land, lost our spirit culture, lost our language. Today we have no land. No rights." - On the day itself, about 1000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples representing organisations from different areas met in the Australian Hall in Sydney where they produced a statement called 'Aborigines Claim Citizenship Rights'. ## 1940s: WWII experiences (124-125) - In 1939, when Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced Australia was at war, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men were divided over whether to enlist. - In late 1941, the Military Board fully accepted the enlistment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men where over 3000 Aboriginal men served experiencing the same hardships as their European counterparts; many getting killed or becoming prisoners of war, yet they were not recognised as Australian citizens. - At war's end, little recognition of the valuable contribution by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander servicemen was made, with the Soldier Settlement Scheme that provided blocks of land to returned servicemen not available to them. ## 1941-2: Limited citizenship gains (125) - In 1941-42, the Commonwealth benefits of child endowment and aged and invalid pension payments were gradually extended to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. - From the 1940s, they could apply to state governments for citizenship certificates, which exempted them from state protection laws and some basic rights including the right to attend school and to vote in state elections however, these certificates required them to abandon their communities and kinship groups and give up their traditional culture. - Applicants had to demonstrate that they were sober, law-abiding and kept their homes clean. ## 1949: Nationality and citizenship act (127) - The Nationality and Citizenship Act adopted in 1949 established the concept of 'Australian' citizenship for all people born in Australia and former British subjects. This meant that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples were 'Australian' citizens by law, but this distinction did little to change their circumstances. - "For Indigenous Australians, equal rights and citizenship have not always translated into full participation in Australian society. All Indigenous Australians have only been counted in the census since the 1967 Referendum. Even so, State protection and welfare laws continued to control the lives of Indigenous Australians and denied them equal rights, well into the 1970s" - Jackie Huggins ## 1950/51: Strikes and petitions (128) - In 1949, the federal government granted the right to vote in federal elections to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples who had completed military service or who already had the right to vote in their home state. However, Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory did not allow them to vote. - In order to manage the changing social composition, the assimilation policy that had required Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to shed their traditional cultures and adopt the British culture now also applied to non-British migrants. - In 1950-51, 250 Aboriginal workers employed in government departments in Darwin went on strike for better pay and conditions with support from the North Australian Workers' Union. The strike was not successful and its two leaders were imprisoned. ## 1966: Wave Hill strike (129) - In 1957, the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, made up of Indigenous civil rights and welfare organisations, was established. - In 1963, the federal government allowed bauxite mining to commence at Yirrkala in the Northern Territory. - Following pressure from trade unions, in March 1966, the Federal Arbitration Commission ruled that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Peoples must be paid equally when doing the same jobs. - In May 1966, Northern Territory Aboriginal stockmen on the Newcastle Waters and Wave Hill cattle station went on strike over the delay in gaining equal pay and their poor working conditions. ## 1965: Integration (131) - By the mid-1960s, the federal government could see that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, like Australia's new non-British migrants, were firmly attached to their own cultures. - In 1965, integration became the government's policy for allowing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to fit into mainstream society. - In 1972, a federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs was established. In 1973, the Woodward Royal Commission was appointed to investigate how land rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples could be implemented. ## 1967: Constitutional change (133) - In 1958, Jessie Street together with Doug Nicholls, Faith Bandler and others put forward a petition to the Menzies Liberal Government for a referendum to amend the Constitution. - Public awareness of the plight of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples was heightened by the media attention given to the New South Wales 'freedom ride' in 1965 and the Wave Hill strike in 1966. - On May 27, 1967, Following Menzies' retirement, Liberal Prime Minister Harold Holt signed the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Given all these circumstances, he had little choice but to agree to the referendum. The date was set for 27th May 1967. ## 1972: Self-determination (140) - When the Whitlam Labor Government came to power in December 1972, it was swift in introducing significant changes, including an upgrade of the Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal affairs to ministerial level: the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. - This policy was consistent with the 1966 United Nations (UN) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which Australia had signed. - The Whitlam Government made further attempts to promote self-determination with the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee (NACC), which was to give Australia's first inhabitants a voice to assist and inform the government of their needs. ## 1976: Land Rights (140-141) - The Whitlam Government adopted the Woodward findings as the basis for the proposed legislation on land rights. - As a result of pressure from mining and pastoral groups, Fraser's Liberal Government amended the bill and passed it in parliament as the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976. - The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 passed by the Fraser Liberal Government recognised and protected the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples by giving them legal ownership of land. ## 1981: Mabo (141) - When it was explained that Mer Island was crown land, Mabo remained adamant that it was his people's inheritance and had belonged to their ancestors for generations. - Mabo's arguments of his claims against terra nullius were dismissed at a High Court ruling in 1982 on the basis that he was not the son of Benny Mabo and could not claim inheritance. - Others argued that because unbroken generations of Mabo's people had lived on Mer Island the land was rightfully theirs and they held traditional native title. ## 1991: Reconciliation (144) - Prime Minister Hawke wanted to improve the relationship between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the broader Australian community. - It was given a ten year period in which to consult widely with individuals and organisations before making its recommendations. ## 2008: Saying sorry (148) - A National Sorry Day Committee was formed at the grassroots level. - Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the much awaited 'Sorry Speech' on the 13th of February 2008. ## 2000: Aboriginal deaths in custody (150) - During the 1980s, at least 99 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People died while held in custody: 88 were males and 11 were females. - While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Peoples made up only 2.3% of the population, they were 17.3% more likely to be arrested and 14.7% more likely to be imprisoned than non-Aboriginal people. - The Royal Commission's recommendations included the need to find alternatives to custody for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, to implement strategies to address alcohol and substance abuse, to encourage the involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in the justice system, and to make improvements in the operation of the criminal justice system and relations with police. ## 1990s: The Northern Territory Intervention - From the 1990s, there were growing concerns among welfare agencies and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders about social issues such as youth suicide, substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse and relationship breakdowns in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. - The Board of Inquiry was established in 2006 to research and report on accusations of sexual abuse of Aboriginal children. Its activities involved visiting communities, holding meetings and receiving 65 written submissions from individuals and organisations. - It hastily passed the Northern Territory Emergency Response legislation, which became known as the Intervention. ## 2023: The Voice Referendum - In late 2023, Australians will have their say in a referendum about whether to change the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. - The Voice would be an independent and permanent advisory body. It would advise the Australian Parliament and Government on matters that affect the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.