How have Indigenous peoples achieved change and what were some of the significant events that

influenced this change?

TIMELINE INDIGENOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
(adapted from http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture /history/australian-aboriginal-
history-timeline)

April 1925 - the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association is formed in
Sydney. Fred Maynard, Aboriginal activist, becomes inaugural president and
leads the group to oppose the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board.

1930 - the first Australian stamp showing reference to Indigenous culture.

26
th
January 1938 - the Aboriginal Progressive Association declares a day of
mourning, on the 150
th
anniversary of European invasion, as they proclaimed it. A conference is
held in Sydney where numerous Aboriginal protests against land dispossession and protectionist
policies occur.

December 1938 - Albert Namatjira, Aboriginal painter holds his first exhibition
in Melbourne. All of the 41 paintings are sold in the space of three days.

4
th
February 1939 - over 150 Aborigines leave the Cummeragunja Aboriginal
Station in protest in what is called the Cummeragunja Walk-off, the first mass
strike for Indigenous people to be part of.

1939 - Queensland parliament passes legislation which allows Aborignial people to receive workers
compensation. A Native Affairs Branch is set up in the Northern Territory.

1940 - Most federal social security benefits are extended to Aboriginal people.

1948 - The Commonwealth Citizenship and Nationality Act makes Aboriginal people Australian
citizens.

1949 - Aboriginal people are given the right to enrol and vote at federal elections provided they are
entitled to enrol for state elections or have served in the armed forces.

1950 - The first formal schooling for Aboriginal children is provided in the Northern Territory.

1953 - Atomic nuclear testing is conducted on Maralinga lands.
Hundreds of Aboriginal families are forced to leave their homeland
because of radioactive contamination.

1957 - Nuclear testing continues at Maralinga. Public outcry puts
pressure on the federal government to completely dispose of the
radioactive waste after testing finishes. Reports show that the government did not
completely clean up. Aboriginal families are documented to have still been in the
testing site while the trials were underway.

1962 - The Commonwealth Electoral Act is amended to give all Aboriginal people
the right to vote in federal elections.

July 1963 - Senior clan members of the Yirrkala lands sign a petition to stop mining
on the Gove Peninsula. It is called the Bark Petition as it is presented to the House
of Representatives in the form of two bark paintings. However it is rejected as the
federal government does not recognise the Aboriginal political structure and they
did not see the signatures as sufficient.

1965 - An Aboriginal Intergration policy is introduced. This is supposed to give more control to
Aboriginal people regarding their life in society.


February 1965 Charles Perkins, first Aboriginal university
graduate and social activist, leads a freedom ride where a group
of Indigenous people and students travel to remote and rural areas
of Australia to expose the poverty and injustice Indigenous people
face in small towns. They take the media with them to immediately
broadcast from where they travel around on the ride. This leads to
public outcy on the ill-treatment Aborigines are facing. It also
demonstrates the discrimination they suffer in public places such
as swimming pools, shops, cinemas, hotels and clubs.

1966 - the Gurindji people walk off the cattle station at Wave Hill which they were working at, in
protest against intolerable working conditions and inadequate wages. This begins a seven year fight
to obtain ownership of traditional lands.

1967 - the Commonwealth 1967 Referendum is held. More than 90% of the Australian population
vote to give Aboriginal people citizenship and to be counted in the census.

1968 - the Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs is established and in 1972 becomes the
Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Albert Namatjira becomes the first Aboriginal person to be
honored on an Australian stamp.

1969 - all States have repealed legislation allowing the for the removal of Aboriginal children under
the policy of protection. The federal government establishes the National Aboriginal Sports
Foundation to help finance sports activities. An Aboriginal delegation goes to New York and presents
a statement on Australian Aborigines to the office of the UN Secretary-General. The New South
Wales Aboriginal Welfare Board is abolished.

1970 - Aboriginal Medical Service formed in Redfern, Sydney.

1971 - Aboriginal flag is designed by Luritja artist Harold Thomas and flown for the first time in
Adelaide. Neville Bonner becomes the first Aboriginal Member of Parliament.
Principals of schools in New South Wales are no longer able to exclude Aboriginal
children because of home conditions or community opposition.

January 1972 - The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is pitched
outside Parliament House. The Whitlam (Labor)
government abolishes the White Australia Policy.

1
st
June 1975 - the Racial Discrimination Act is passed in federal
parliament. The Australian Senate acknowledges the Indigenous
peoples ownership of the country before white settlers arrived.




1975 - the Gurindji people receive lease of some of their traditional land
in the Northern Territory.

1976 - the Commonwealth Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act is passed,
giving reserve land ownership to Aborigines.

1991 - the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation is set up, funded by the federal government, with
cross-party support.

10
th
December 1992 - Labor Prime Minister Paul Keatings
Redfern speech at the launch of the International Year of
the Indigenous People acknowledges past wrongs inflicted
upon Aboriginal people.

1993 - the federal government passes the Native Title Act
1993. This law allows Indigenous people to make land
claims on Crown land. This excludes private property.

1
st
January 1994 - Native Title Act 1993 becomes law.

May 1995 - the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families is established.

26
th
May 1998 - 1 year anniversary of the Bringing Them Home Report
marks the first Sorry Day.

2000 - Cathy Freeman wins the gold medal in the womens 400m sprint at
the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Protest rock band Midnight Oil performs their hit
Beds Are Burning in Sorry Suits, spreading the message of Reconciliation
and Native Title on national television at the Olympics closing ceremony.
13
th
February 2008 - Kevin Rudd, representing
the Australian Parliament, formally apologises to
the Stolen Generations.