Entry page For your use Committee Coordinators Workers Growing in
understanding History Key Ideas Today StructuresReports FAQ Readings Glossary Practice
implications History The DreamingThe Land The Law & The Lore Family and kinship Image and identity Self-determination Practice tips Policy Upper Hunter Acknowledgements Test your
knowledge
Copyright | Feedback

60,000+ years	Colonisation	Protection	Assimilation	Integration	Reconcilitation

Integration, self-determination and self-management (1967 to mid 1990s)

Integration
1967 saw the commonwealth referendum and Aboriginal peoples were granted the right of citizenship.

Self-management policy
The federal Coalition Government led by Malcolm Fraser, which came to power in late 1975, adopted the policy of ‘self-management’ which focused on Indigenous communities managing the government projects and funding locally but with little say in what projects would be created. The Hawke and Keating Labor Governments from 1983-1996 used both self-determination and self-management as key principles in their Indigenous affairs policies and Keating began the reconciliation movement in 1991.

Readings

Reading 1E 1967 - 1997
Reading 7: Paul Keating's 1992 Redfern Speech
Reading 8CTowards Self-management
Reading 10 Loss Trauma and Grief

Upper Hunter

Throughout the website the Upper Hunter region, residents, organisations and Muswellbrook Shire Council have been used to provide examples and personal connections to assist users to see the relevance of the information in a local setting. Every area will have their own version of these stories and discovering them will better place you to provide services to your own community.

Reading 11H Aboriginal Men, Private Contractors and Liddell Power Station
Reading 13D: Traditional knowledge

Dates and events

1962 - The Commonwealth Electoral Act was amended to give franchise (the vote) to all Aboriginal people.

1955 - The one-millionth post-war immigrant arrives in Australia.

1956/1957 - 1957 Maralinga Atomic tests occur, many Aborigines die or get radiation sickness after seeing black mist. Many more had to move from their homes because of sever contamination.

1962 - The Commonwealth Electoral Act was amended to give franchise (the vote) to all Aboriginal people.

1963 - A bark petition was presented to the then Governor General. It was protesting mining on the Gove Peninsula, and was signed by all the senior men of the affected clans. The federal government refused to acknowledge it, as there were insufficient signatures on the petition. The residents of Mapoon (QLD) were evicted and their homes burnt to make way for a mine.

1965 - The now legendary Freedom Rides by Aboriginal people and white students occurred. Led by people like Charles Perkins, they protested the segregation and poor treatment of Aboriginal people.
Queensland Aboriginal people were allowed to vote for the first time.

1966 - The Wave Hill protest occurred. Stockman and their families walked off the stations.

1967 - Saw the commonwealth referendum and Aboriginal peoples were granted the right of citizenship.

1968 - The Aboriginal Protection Board was abolished.

1971 - The Gumatji elders took the government and Nabalco to court over the Gove Mine.
The Larrakia people in Darwin stage a sit-in Bagot road in protest of the theft of their land.

1972 - The right to refuse Aboriginal Children in schools by Principals was removed.
The Tent Embassy was pitched on the Lawns of the federal Parliament House, and it still stands today.

1975 - The Federal Racial Discrimination Act was passed.

1980 - The National Federation of Land Councils was formed, giving a united voice to the Indigenous Land Rights movement throughout Australia.
Link-up was formed in NSW.

1985 - Uluru (Ayres Rock) was returned to the traditional owners.
The National Trachoma and eye health program finds half of the 60,000 people studied have trachoma, and that the infection rate is as high as 80% in some areas.

1987 - The commencement of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody.
January 26, 1988 - The inaugural Survival Day concert was staged with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples converging on Sydney for a huge celebration. This concert has been held every year since.
Australia’s representative to the UN Human Rights Committee acknowledges that the policy of care to Aboriginal children has been a ‘serious mistake’.

1991 - The commencement of the return of Aboriginal remains in Europe and Britain.
The final report of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody was tabled; 99 deaths were examined and cost $30 million dollars. It found that 43 out of 99 people who died in custody had been stolen from their families.

1992 - The High Court of Australia brought down its landmark decision in Mabo and Others v. the State of Queensland recognising the fiction of terra nullius and acknowledging that the original inhabitants of this country continue their own laws, customs and ways of being, and whose native title survives the Crown’s annexation of Australia.

1994 - The first Going Home conference was held in Darwin. 600 removed people went there to discuss access to archives, compensation, rights to land and social justice.

1995 - The National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children commences.

1997 - The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) report was released. It told in detail of the genocide policies of governments in Australia.

1999 - The first NSW Aboriginal Senator, Aden Ridgeway, was elected.

Source: Australian Museum

More Dates

More dates 1970 to 2000 from the Australian Museum Dreamtime web site