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Board for the Protection of Aborigines is established
Victorian Board for the Protection is established. The Governor can order the removal of any child to a reformatory or industrial school. The Protection Board can remove children from station families to be housed in dormitories. -
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Stolen Generation
The time span in which Aboriginal children were taken away from their homes and relocated with white Australian homes in white Australian society. As a result many of the stolen generation lost their culture, Aboriginal life and never met their families and groups again. -
Australian Citizenship given to Aboriginals
The Commonwealth Nationality and Citizenship Act Gives Australian Citizenship to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people however they are still discriminated against at state level -
Aboriginals allowed to vote
Queensland become the last state/territory to allow aboriginals to vote. Aboriginals had been allowed to vote in federal elections in 1962 but Queensland was the last state/territory to prohibit them from voting in state elections -
Referendum for Indigenous Rights
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people in the counted in the census and subject to commonwealth laws instead of state laws -
Aboriginal Tent Embassy Erected
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is pitched outside Parliament House in Canberra, campaigning for the recognition of Aboriginal land rights. -
Department of Aboriginal Affairs
The Australian Government establishes the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. -
Uluru is handed back to its traditional owners
Ceremony was held to transfer custodianship of Uluru and neighbouring Kata Tjuta to its Anangu traditional owners. Governor-General at the time, Sir Ninian Stephen, acknowledged its importance to both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. -
Address of John Paul II to the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders @ ALICE SPRINGS
"Dear Aboriginal people: the hour has come for you to take on new courage and new hope. You are called to remember the past, to be faithful to your worthy traditions, and to adapt your living culture whenever this is required by your own needs and those of your fellowman. Above all you are called to open your hearts ever more to the consoling, purifying and uplifting message of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died so that we might all have life, and have it to the full." -
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First National Reconciliation Week
The first National Reconciliation Week is celebrated. The full High Court hands down its decision in Wik Peoples v Queensland (the ‘Wik decision’), in which it determines that pastoral leases do not extinguish native title. -
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. -
Bringing Them Home Report
Bringing Them Home is 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. -
First Sorry Day
First Sorry Day held exactly one year after the 'Bringing Them Home Report'. Sorry Day is an annual event that is held to remember and commemorate the mistreatment of the country's indigenous population, in particular the 'Stolen Generation'. -
Reconciliation Australia
Reconciliation is set up as an independent, non-profit organisation. -
Vatican Apology
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. -
'Sorry' apology speech to Stolen Generations
Aboriginal people from all over Australia were deeply moved and in tears. Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and in effect the government finally apologised to the Stolen Generations and said 'sorry'.
