Aboriginal History

By dylanmahoney

  • Western Australia Aborigines Act

    The Western Australia Aborigines Act is passed. Under this law, the Chief Protector is made the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and ‘half-caste’ child under 16 years old. Reserves are established, a local protector is appointed and rules governing Aboriginal employment are laid down.

  • South Australian Aborigines Act

    The South Australian Aborigines Act makes the Chief Protector the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and ‘half-caste’ child under 21 years old. The Chief Protector also has control of where the child lives. The Chief Protector is replaced by the Aborigines Protection Board in 1939 and guardianship power is repealed in 1962.

  • NSW Aborigines Protection Board

    The NSW Aborigines Protection Board is given powers to remove Aboriginal children without a court hearing. This power is repealed in 1940, when the Board is renamed the Aborigines Welfare Board.

  • Going Home Conference

    Going Home Conference in Darwin. Over 600 people removed as children, from every state and territory met to share experiences, and expose the history of the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and the effects of this policy on Aboriginal people.

  • National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families

    The National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families is established to examine the effects of separation, identify what should be done in response, find justification for any compensation and look at the laws of that time affecting child separation.

  • Bringing Them Home Report

    Publication of the Report Into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, more commonly known as the Bringing Them Home Report. An abbreviated version is called ‘Bringing them Home - Community Guide’. The inquiry made 54 recommendations, e.g. reparations and an apology to Aboriginal peoples.

  • Australians for Native Title (ANT)

    Australians for Native Title (ANT) launches the Sorry Books campaign where Australians can sign who want to do something in response to the federal government’s refusal to make a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.

  • Statement of deep and sincere regret

    Federal Parliament issues a statement of deep and sincere regret over the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families.

  • United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

    Australia appears before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Committee criticises the Commonwealth Government’s inadequate response to recommendations of the Bringing Them Home Report.

  • Vatican to the affected Aboriginal

    Pope John Paul II issues a formal apology on behalf of the Vatican to the affected Aboriginal families for the actions of any and all Catholic authorities or organisations in connection with the Stolen Generations. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission & PIAC (Public Interest Advocacy Centre) hold the Moving Forward Conference. The conference aims to explore ways of providing reparations to Indigenous people forcibly removed from their families.

  • Stolen Generations is awarded compensation

    The first member of the Stolen Generations is awarded compensation in the NSW Victims Compensation Tribunal for the sexual assault and injuries she suffered after authorities removed her from her family. Valerie Linow was 16 when she was working as a domestic servant for a family and suffering sexual assault and violence. Mrs Linow was awarded $35,000 in compensation. She said “It’s not the money that’s important to me. It is the knowledge and recognition that this happened to Aboriginal people.

  • Bringing Them Home Report

    The Ministerial Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (MCATSIA) commissions and releases an independent evaluation of government and non-government responses to the Bringing Them Home Report.

  • Memorial to the Stolen Generations

    461 ‘Sorry Books’ recording the thoughts of Australians on the unfolding history of the Stolen Generations are inscribed on the Australian Memory of the World Register, part of UNESCO’s programme to protect and promote documentary material with significant historical value.

  • 2003 report of the Stolen Generations taskforce

    The organisation Stolen Generations Victoria is set up as a result of the 2003 report of the Stolen Generations taskforce. Its purpose is to establish a range of support and referral services that will assist Stolen Generation peoples to reconnect with their family, community, culture and land.

  • Stolen Generations compensation scheme

    The first Stolen Generations compensation scheme in Australia is set up in Tasmania by the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal Children Act 2006 (Tas). The Tasmanian government allocated $5 million to Aboriginal people who qualified for the compensation package.

  • The Australian Parliament apologises to the Stolen Generations.

    The Australian Parliament apologises to the Stolen Generations. Both the government and the opposition support the apology and say ‘sorry’ to Aboriginal people who were taken away from their families from 1900 to the 1970s. The apology has no legal effect on the ability of Aboriginal people claiming compensation.

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation

    The Australian government promises to establish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation which will deal with the “trauma experienced by all Aboriginal people as the after-effect of colonisation” [8], but with a particular focus on the Stolen Generations.

  • South Australian government loses an appeal

    The South Australian government loses an appeal against the $775,000 payout to a member of the Stolen Generations. The Full Court of the SA Supreme Court ruled that the government had been negligent in its treatment of Bruce Trevorrow, who was taken from his parents as a child more than 50 years ago.

  • Stolen Generations test case

    The Supreme Court of Western Australia in Perth begins a “landmark” Stolen Generations test case which started in 2010 when law firm Lavan Legal lodged a Writ on behalf of 9 members of the Collard family, including parents Donald and Sylvia, whose children were removed without consent and placed in state care between 1958 and 1961