Aboriginal Rights Activism

A timeline showing some highlights of Australian Aboriginal rights activism pre-Mabo.

• 1938: (150th anniversary of invasion). Day Of Mourning proclaimed by Indigenous leaders, and Aboriginal manifesto issued declaring, "You came here only recently, and you took our land away from us by force. You have almost exterminated our people, but there are enough of us remaining to expose the humbug of your claim as white Australians, to be a civilised, progressive, kindly and humane nation. By your cruelty and callousness towards the Aborigines you stand condemned in the eyes of the civilised world."
• 1939: Aborigines from the Cumeroogunga reserve in NSW walked off the reserve in protest about the conditions there.
• Result: 1940, child endowment payments extended to those on missions or government reserves. 1942, old age pension for Aborigines (but only for those outside of Aboriginal community).
• 1950s: Aboriginal organisations formed to fight for civil rights as well as land rights.
• 1960's: Charles Perkins led the "freedom rides" throughout the north-west of NSW to raise awareness of segregation, eg. Aborigines were banned from swimming, drinking and watching films with Australians.
• 1962: Aboriginal people won the right to vote.
• 1966: Gurindji people walked off the Wave Hill cattle station in protest, bringing aboriginal land rights into the public spotlight.
• 1978: poet and writer Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal) toured the country campaigning for land rights, equal pay and compensation.
• 1971: Yirrakala people in the Northern Territory fought mining giant Nabalco for land rights, when the company tried to expand its $310 million bauxite interests into logging as well. This action inspired the establishment of the Aboriginal tent embassy on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra, to counter the government's claim that aboriginal land rights were against "the national interest" (a response to the Yirrkala land claim).
• 1987: Aboriginal agitation threatens to disrupt the following year's bicentennial celebrations. Govt placates Aboriginal community by promising a treaty by 1990 (sixteen years later - it still hasn't happened!) Instead of a treaty, we got an organisation - ATSIC (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission). And of course, that has since been abolished.

Mabo and Wik later paved the way for the native title act enabling land rights, however it did not take long for the legislation to be watered down and native title extinguished in "bucketloads" (as promised by the government to an outraged public). Click here for more detail about the watering down of native title.