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Australia’s sesquicentenary (150th anniversary) celebrated around Australia. Aboriginal leaders in Melbourne and Sydney hold ‘Day of Mourning’ events and call for citizenship rights.
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by United Nations
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American Freedom Riders travel on racially mixed buses in the southern United States to challenge segregation laws.
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Martin Luther King Jnr delivers his ‘I have a dream’ speech during the March on Washington
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Australia’s Freedom Riders discover segregation being practised in country NSW during a ‘fact finding’ tour.
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The Whitlam Government returns 3300 square kilometres of land to the Gurindji people – a beginning to land rights for Aboriginal people in Australia
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The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) formally established as the key representative body responsible for the implementation of self-determination policies
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The Bringing Them Home report is tabled in Parliament. The report includes thousands of testimonies from members of the Stolen Generations.
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The Howard Government abolishes ATSIC
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The National Emergency Response in the Northern Territory, known as ‘the Intervention’, begins
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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issues a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.
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Aboriginal Tent Embassy established on the lawns of Parliament House in response to the McMahon Government’s refusal to accept native title
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Australia’s Freedom Riders discover segregation being practised in country NSW during a ‘fact finding’ tour.
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Overwhelming support for referendum to change the Constitution to allow the Commonwealth to make laws for Aborigines and to include them in the census
