Contemporary Issues

Unit 2: 1965-1975

Cultural Aspects Historical Issues Race Relations Contemporary Issues

Unit 1: 1940s & 50s Unit 2: 1965-1975 Unit 3: Independent Research

Contemporary issues

Unit 02: 1965 - 1975

2.01

Wednesday December 13 2006, London

The Freedom Rides in Australia were not violent, like those in America.

2.02

2.05

An imagined life:

As a Gurindji man living on Wave Hill Station in 1966, I can no longer maintain my traditional life. White settlers (The Vesey's) have overtaken our land and run a huge cattle station on it. They enlisted us men to work on the farm as stockmen, and pay us in flour and sugar and tea. We are not happy or healthy eating this stuff and not free to hunt and gather food as we had done before. Our plan is to walk off the job and wait at Wattle Creek Camp ( Daguragu) until our land rights are recognised, and until we are paid the same as white people for our work.

2.03

The 1967 Referendum:

The Referendum was a call to Federalise legislation concerning Aboriginal people, and to count Aboriginal people in the census. Basically it was a call for some tangible evidence of Aboriginal people being treated the same as non-Aboriginal people.

The campaign brought together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people from all sectors of Australian society who were united in their belief in Human Rights.

2.04

Two Aboriginal activists:

Oodgeroo (formally known as Kath Walker), Poet, activist

Bill Onus, Artist, activist

Bill Onus and Oodgeroo were both invloved in the grassroots Aboriginal organisation, the Australian Aboriginal Fellowship, established in 1956.

2.05

Visual language of the "yes" vote campaign:

In the two posters represented in the OTEN Training material - 'Right Wrongs - Write Yes for Aborigines on May 27 (Referendum Poster), and 'Vote Yes on May 27 (Aborigines Advancement League of Victoria (1967), images of Aboriginal children dominate, with very general and simple text messages: 'End Discrimination' and 'Right wrongs'. The imagery generally appealed to the hearts and minds of Australian society to treat Aboriginal people with the dignity and respect due to all humanity.

2.06

The number of votes in Australia's six state that supported 'yes' in the 1967 Referendum provided overwhelming evidence that society's attitudes to its Aboriginal people had changed.

2.07

Radical Aboriginal activists were frustrated at the lack of immediate change after the Referendum, and were inspired by the American Black Power movement to take more direct action, such as create a Tent Embassy.

Gary Foley

Norma Williams

2.08

What changes in Aboriginal Australians did the Tent Embassy's document reflect?

Aboriginal self-determination was reflected in the establishment of the Tent Embassy on 26 January 1972. It issued a 5 point policy on land rights:

1. Full State rights to the Northern Territory under Aboriginal ownership and control with all titles to minerals, etc.

2. Ownership of all other reserves and settlements throughout Australia with all titles to minerals and mining rights.

3. The preservation of all sacred lands not included in Points 1. and 2.

4. Ownership of certain areas of certain cities with all titles to minerals and mining rights.

5. An initial payment of six billion dollars as compensation for all other land throughout Australia plus a percentage of the gross national income per annum.

2.09

The role of the media in supporting Aboriginal rights:

The media coverage given to the Tent Embassy was international as well as local, and attracted the attention of the world to question Australia's treatment of its people. Such attention also strengthened the resolve of Aboriginal people towards self determination. It was a period of political unity for Aboriginal people, providing a strong focus for their identity country-wide. Before the invasion of white people, they had identified themselves differently - as a collection of distinct communities who shared the Australian continent. They were used to sharing the land and its resources with others. Now, their traditional customs of co-habitation and sharing - values alien to white society - were under threat; Aboriginal people had found a powerful way to unite against white racism. The Tent Embassy was a creative response to the situation in its symbolic power, and a message to each other and the world that they would maintain their cultural values as Aboriginals rather than assimilate. To assimilate could entail adopting white values, like racism!

The fact that it (the Tent Embassy) had been established by urban Aborigines, whom the government had assumed would assimilate, was a clear statement that these people identified as Aboriginal people rather than as white Australians, and that with with other Aboriginal people they were working towards a common cause. A sense of pan Aboriginality was emerging. (Cavanagh, Patrick, 2000; p. 37)

The Tent was a symbol of living conditions, and a reminder of how Aboriginal people were still being moved around by governments and police. It signified a shift in focus away from civil rights (which could now be assumed) towards land rights.

Later in 1972, the newly-elected Labour Prime Minister Gough Whitlam promised:

...We will legislate to give Aboriginal land rights not only because their case is beyond argument but...because all of us Australians are diminished while the Aborigines are denied their rightful place in this nation.(Cavanagh, Patrick, 2000; p. 37)

2.10

In December 1972 Gough Whitlam acted on his promise for Aboriginal land rights, just four months after his speech (above). In this way his policy was different from previous government: he kept his promise.

The two aspects of Whitlam's land policy were that traditional association with the land would determine ownership, and that his government would buy land specifically "to vest in the resident communities." (Whitlam, cited in Cavanagh, Patrick, 2000; p. 41)

2.11

To what extent have the five aims of Justice A. E. Woodward's 1974 land rights report been achieved?

The five aims of the report:

1. The doing of simple justice to a people who have been deprived of their land without their consent and without compensation.

2.The promotion of social harmony and stability within the wider Australian community by removing, so far as possible, the legitimate cases of complaint of an important minority group within that community.

3.The provision of land holdings as a first essential for people who are economically depressed and who have at present no real opportunity of achieving a normal Australian standard of living.

4.The preservation, where possible, of the spiritual link with his/her own land which gives each Aboriginal person his or her sense of identity and which lies at the heart of his spiritual beliefs.

5.The maintenance and, perhaps, improvement of Australia's standing among the nations of the world by demonstrably fair treatment of a disadvantaged minority.

Cavanagh, Patrick, 2000; Unit 2, p. 41

2.12

The Aboriginal Land Fund Commission (ALFC) was set up by the Whitlam government in May 1975. Queensland and Western Australian governments, however, refused to co-operate with it. In 1980 the Fraser government replaced it with the Aboriginal Development Commission. However, before its demise, the ALFC did succeed in purchasing two significant properties for Aboriginal communities. In August 1975 Daguragu was purchased for the Gurindji people in the Northern Territory, and in 1976 it purchased Nookanbah in Western Australia for the local Walmatjarri and Nyikina people.

With the change in government in 1975 came a change in Aboriginal land rights legislation.

Fraser excluded a key recommendation of Woodward that other land - together with finance to enable that land to be used appropriately, either for housing or for some economic purpose should be provided to those who had lost their traditional land.

Cavanagh, Patrick, 2000; Unit 2, p. 45

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cavanagh, Patrick, 2000, Contemporary Issues B, Unit 2, Open Training and Education Network, NSW Australia