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Terra Nullius
In 1770 Captain Cook has declared Eastern Australia part of Britain. The land was deemed "terra nullius" or "land belonging to no one". -
Settlers
In 1788 the first British settlers arrived in Australia. For the first time in over 60,000 years the Indigenous Australians, with a population of perhaps 750,000, were not alone. -
Slaughter
Edmund White was hoeing his garden at Risdon Cove when 300 natives appeared out of the bus chasing a group of kangaroos. White went off to find the local garrison. The soldiers returned with m uskets and although blacks didn't attack, the soldiers fired point blank at the natives. Nobody counted how many were slaughtered. -
Foster Homes and Missions
Working in the homes of whites, stolen girls were often little better than slaves, while the men on farms received basic rations and a little cash. This policy had started in the 1910s and lasted until the late 1960s. -
Pension & Maternity Benefits
By the early 1960s, aboriginals received pensions and maternity benefits. But inequalities remained in pay, voting, access to facilities, control of children and land rights. -
Demand of Equal Treatment
A group led by Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins made a bus tour through New South Wales. They protested about discrimination in shops, teatres, bars, clubs and swimming pools. -
Demand of Better Deal
200 workers walked off the Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory. They wanted better wages and conditions, and their traditional lands back. The Gurindji eventually gained ownership of the area in 1985. -
Demand of better deals for first Australians
After 90% "yes" vote the government gave Indigenous Australians the right to vote and be counted in censuses, and ended the protection policies. -
Tent Embassy
"The Embassy said that blacks were now going to get up and fight back on the issues of education, health, police victimization, locking people up." Bobby Sykes, Aboriginal activist -
Land Rights
A government commission recommended that Aboriginals should get back the land where they now lived and had traditionally lived. -
First Land Rights
However this Northern Territory law only gave the indigenous people some areas of arid and largely useless land. Other land claims were often thrown out by the courts. -
Wrong and Racist
In 1992, the HIgh Court agreed saying that terra nullius was wrong and racist. -
"Sorry"
In 2000 May 250,000 people walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge and up to 400,000 marched in Melbourne in December. Many marchers carried signs and banners critical of the Prime Minister's refusal to say "sorry" to indigenous Australians for past wrongdoings. -
Memorial
The Commonwealth government establishes a memorial to the Stolen Generations at Reconciliation Place in Canberra.
