Indigenous rights timeline

By Lexie John

  • European Settlement

    British Exploreres and settlers arrive on the east coast of Australia. They looked for signs of permanent residence, did not find any and therefore did not negotiate any treaties. As a result of this they declared Australia "terra nullius" (nobody's land)

  • Aboriginal Protection Boards

    Aboriginal Protection Boards were established in the colonies around Australia to 'manage' Aboriginal communities.
    • Removing children were the core works of these boards
    • Chief protectors were sent to watch over the Aboriginal peoples in each state & oversee what many though to be a dying race
    • Aboriginal reserves and missions established by governments and religious organisations to support the Assimilation policy.

  • Centenary of British Colonisation

    When this was celebrated...
    • There was little attention paid to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
    • All colonies except SA proclaimed 'Anniversary Day' a public holiday to allow celebrations for the European settlement.
    • Indigenous Australians boycotted celebrations, but very few people of European descent noticed.
    • Indigenous people were excluded from public life and largely ignored.

  • The conditions of Australian Federation

    • Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders legally and politcally marginalised from society
    • not entitled to vote in federal elections unlss previously registered to vote in their state
    • did not receive basic wage or pension, as well as the baby bonus given to non-indigenous mothers
    • were not allowed to enlist in militatry training.
    • excluded from any Census held in Australia (not considered to be people/citizens)

  • Australian Federation

    By 1901, European settlesments dominated most of the continenet. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities were not officially recognised and public policy was dominated by ideas of segregation and assimilation (assumption that Aboriginal Peoples were inferior to Europeans)

  • Western Australia Senator Alexander Mathesn, Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, Senate

    “Surely it is absolutely repugnant to the greater number of the people of the Commonwealth that an Aboriginal man or Aboriginal lubra or gin [woman] - a horrible, degraded, dirty creature - should have the same rights that we have decided to give our wives and daughters…”

  • Aboriginal Men barred to serve

    In Australia, Aboriginal men were not allowed to serve for the military. Part-Aboriginal men were accepted though.

  • Eddie Gilbert dismisses Don Bradman for a duck

    • Eddie Gilbert grew up on the Barambah Aboriginal Reserve, after being taken from home as a child.
    • In a Sheffield Shiel game in 1931, he dismissed Don Bradman for a duck.
    • Later, Bradman described the balls he faced from Gilbert as the quickest he had seen in his career.
    • Gilbert had to receive written permission to leave the reserve every time he played first-class cricket.
    • There were calls for him to play for Australia, but he never did.
    • 2008: He was commemorated with a statue.

  • Sir Doug Nicholls plays for Fitzroy Football Club

    • He was from Cummeragunja mission in southern NSW
    • After playing football for Carlton Football club he went on to play for the Fitzroy Football club (in 1932)
    • Eventually, he was selected to play for Victoria in State of Origin football
    • Known as a pioneering campaigner for reconciliation
    • the first Aboriginal person to receive a knighthood and first to serve as a governer-general

  • Assimilation Policy

    the ‘assimilation policy’ was officially adopted at the Aboriginal Welfare Conference of Commonwealth and State Authorities
    - Aboriginal people of mixed race were to be assimilated into white society whether they wanted to be or not as a result of the race not eventually dying out. The removal of Aboriginal children continued and new powers were given to ‘Welfare’ officials to judge whether children were ‘progressing’

  • Sesquincentary (150th anniversary) of British Colonisation

    When this took place...
    • Organised groups of Indigenous Australians wanted to protest for their rights
    • They referred to the celebrations as a 'Day of Mourning and Protest'
    • Previously petitions we proposed for Indigenous Australian civil rights by: Australian Aborigines League (in Vic) and Aborigines Progressive Association (in NSW)
    • They refused to participate jn re-enactments and instead wanted to protest march.

  • Albert Namatjira's first exhibition

    • He was an Aboriginal Artist
    • He was an Arrernte man living at Hermannsburg Mission (in southern central Northern Territory)
    • The exhibition was his first European-style painting exhibition
    • During the next 20 years he sold hundreds of paintings and is still regarded as one of the most influential artists.

  • William Cooper & Jack Patten

    • He was an Aboriginal rights activist
    • In 1940: He wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to introduce citizenship rights for Aboriginal people
    • Attempt = not successful
    • Although not successful, Jack Patten (another Aboriginal activist) successfully lobbied for Aboriginal enlistment bans to be lifted.
    • This helped create the Commonwealth Electoral (War-Time) Act 1940
    • This even gave Aboriginal servicemen right to vote during and 6 months after the war.

  • Pressure for 'civilisation'

    Pressure began by government and church officials began putting pressure on Indigenous elders to move their families somewhere more ‘civilised’

  • 'Welfare' visits

    ‘Welfare’ would come around and visit frequently dismantling the communities