Rights and Freedoms - Core Study Timeline

Below you will find a Chronology of Rights and Freedoms that I built while researching some material for the Cambridge History Transformed Stage 5 textbook that was released 3 years ago. 

This timeline covers 1901 to the present day and is still a draft. Let's face it, anyone working with History will know that any reconstruction of past events is technically always a draft that's open for revision. I find myself adding and revising aspects of this timeline all the time - historical events sometimes come into focus, and then cause and effect can become clearer as a result... or sometimes even less clear.

The timeline also reflects the needs of the Rights and Freedoms Core Study in Stage 5 NSW History, hence the inclusion of some USA and World (United Nations) details which add context to the bigger picture of Aboriginal / Torres Strait Islander rights and freedoms. This timeline is mostly for my own understanding rather than a resource I'd necessarily give to students - I've found it useful as a reference tool, especially when looking for things like a sequence of events relating to the Stolen Generations or the influence of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement on the Aboriginal peoples. 

It's also been useful for providing context for a range of English topics - Year 9-10 study of Rabbit Proof Fence or The Sapphires, or Year 12 modules focused on prescribed texts such as Inside My Mother by Ali Cobby Eckermann, Rainbow's End by Jane Harrison, or Namatjira by Scott Rankin.

1901. Federation of six colonies into one nation. 

1902. Commonwealth Franchise Act disenfranchises 'native' people in all Commonwealth countries (with the exception of NZ)

1903-1913. Pastoral settlement of the Kimberley region and 'pacification' of the Aboriginal people there.

1904-1908. Removal of all Aboriginal men from the Derby settlement in Western Australia.

1905. Roth Royal Commission into the treatment of Aboriginal people.

1907. Relations between Aboriginal and Macassan peoples formerly banned by Australian government.   

1909. Federal Aborigines Protection Act 1909 established on a national scale, following on from pre-Federation colonial legislation. The 'Aborigines Protection Board' is given power over the custody, maintenance, and education of Aboriginal children.

1910. Australian Board of Missions petitions Federal and State Governments to agree to a scheme for human and civil rights to be safeguarded for Aboriginal people.

1912-1932. Records indicate that at least 1500 children were removed from Aboriginal families across Australia in this time.

1912. Cootamundra Girls' Home created to train Aboriginal girls for domestic service.

1914. C.F. Gale, Chief Protector of the Aborigines, inspects the Kimberley region and gathers up as many 'half-caste' children as possible, placing them at the Roman Catholic Mission in Beagle Bay.

1915. Amendment to the Aborigines Protection Act allows the government to remove Aboriginal children from families. 

1916. Punitive expedition to Lizard Island results in the deaths of several Aboriginal men.

1918. Northern Territory passes the Aborigines Ordinance to forbid mining on Aboriginal Reserve Land.

1920 (world). U.S. President Woodrow Wilson creates the League of Nations

1924. Kinchela Boys' Home is created to train Aboriginal boys to be farm labourers.

1925. Colonel J.C. Genders spearheads a campaign to form a Black State in northern QLD.

1925. The Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association is formed in opposition to the Aborigines Protection Board.

1926. Forrest River Massacre takes place. Somewhere between 30 to 300 Aboriginal people killed.

1926. Disastrous year for bushfires. A pattern would emerge after this wherein bushfire epidemics would regularly strike in the absence of widescale Aboriginal firestick farming (controlled burning).

1928. William Harris leads a delegation of Aboriginal people to meet the Premier of WA to talk about possible exemptions from the Aborigines Act for 'half-castes', suburban Aboriginal peoples, and those who live in the southern portion of Australia.

1928. Rev. William Morley calls for a Royal Commission on the Constitution that would subsequently allow the Federal Government to have complete control of all Aboriginal people. The Royal Commission takes place, with the outcome being that the States should continue to retain control of police, lands, and industry and therefore a Commonwealth authority would not be qualified to deal with the Aboriginal peoples. 

1930. British Commonwealth League Conference accuses Australia of breaking the League of Nations slavery conventions through the use of forced Aboriginal labour, removal of children from families, and the withholding of wages. 

1930s. NT and WA practise an extreme form of assimilation through forced state marriages of 'lighter caste' Aboriginal peoples.

1931. Arnhem Land Aboriginal Reserve established.

1933. 129 Aboriginal people die from poor health conditions in the Kimberley region. There are only 3 doctors in the area at the time, none of whom would leave white communities to treat Aboriginal people in remote areas. A leprosy outbreak also occurs in an Aboriginal community in the same area at this time, with 80 lepers discovered in the northern part of WA over a 9 month period.

1933. A punitive expedition led against the Yolngu people in the NT ends in the arrest of local leader Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda.

1934. WA 'Royal Commission on Aborigines' proposes miscegenation as the solution to the problem of Aborigines in Australia, a policy of biological assimilation to be achieved by "breeding out the black" (quote from Dr Cyril Bryan). Some whites are outraged at the idea of white women marrying Aboriginal men. 

1934. The total amount of stolen children accumulated at the Beagle Bay Mission over the least 20 years now equals 68.

1935 (world). Italian dictator Mussolini invades and occupies Abyssinia without provocation. The League of Nations fails to make a decisive response.

1937. The Australian Aborigines' League publishes 'The Abo Call', the first Aboriginal-authored newspaper.

1937. Aboriginal activist William Cooper writes a petition letter to King George V asking for better conditions for Aboriginal people.

1937. Chief Protector A.O. Neville speaks at a conference in Canberra about the superiority of having Aboriginal children live in white-run institutions rather than in traditional 'blacks' camps'. A policy of Assimilation is outlined and adopted throughout each of the States.  

1938. First 'Day of Mourning' held by Aboriginal protestors William Cooper and Bill Ferguson from the Australian Aborigines' League on the 150th anniversary of white Australian settlement. They demand a national policy for Aboriginal peoples and that the Commonwealth take control of Aboriginal affairs away from the States. 

1938. The Cummeragungja Walk-Off takes place - the first strike by Aboriginal workers.

1940-1942. Mass migration of Aboriginal people to Alice Springs; restrictions put on Aboriginal people arriving in the town. 

1942. Prime Minister John Curtin proposes amendments to the Australian constitution to be made once the war ends, including increased Commonwealth power over Aboriginal affairs. The States oppose this and a referendum goes ahead in response (and fails).

1942. The Torres Strait Infantry Battalion, an all-Indigenous unit established in the Torres Strait during World War II, patrols New Guinea on behalf of the Allied Forces.

1943. Thousands of Aboriginal people are hired by the army in World War II for labouring and other services in the Northern Territory.

1944. Recognition from some commentators that retribalisation of Aboriginal people is now impossible after most have undergone a significant period of urbanisation.

1945 (world). End of World War II.

1945 (world). The United Nations is first proposed as a replacement for the League of Nations. A UN Charter is signed by all participating nations, providing the Security Council with the power to create international laws. Little mention is made in the charter at this point about human rights.

1945 (USA). Rosa Parks is thrown off a bus for the first time after refusing to enter via the back door (as per local law in Montgomery, Alabama).

1946. The Australian government allows British testing of nuclear weapons at the Aboriginal-populated region of Maralinga in South Australia.

1946 (world). The League of Nations formally ceases operation. 

1946 (world). The Nuremberg Trials bring to light many shocking details about the Holocaust. Eleanor Roosevelt spearheads an international committee to create a Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

1947 (world). Australian representative Dr Herbert Vere Evatt assists with the final writing of the UN Human Rights charter.

1948. Dr Evatt becomes President of the UN General Assembly and guides in the adoption of the Universal Declaration by the UN. 

1950s. The Council for Aboriginal Rights begins to push for the rewriting of any domestic Australia laws that contradict the UN Human Rights charter.

1951. Some states, such as Victoria, opt not to have a Minister for Aboriginal Affairs as they "do not differentiate between Aborigines and other Australians."

1952. Aboriginal activist Ted Noffs visit Wilcannia and observes living conditions among the Aboriginal people there.

1952-1957. Anglo-Australian nuclear testing takes place at bomb sites in Maralinga, Monte Bello, and Emu Field. 

1953. Charles Perkins takes politician Donald Dunstan to see Aboriginal reserves.

1953. Northern Territory gives citizenship rights to any Aboriginal people not in state care.

1954. Arrernte painter Albert Namatjira is given Australian citizenship as a special case.

1954 (USA). Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka overturns segregationist laws regarding African-Americans and which schools they can attend.

1955 (USA). Claudette Colvin refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery. NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) decides not to politicise the event.

1955 (USA). Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery. This time NAACP decides to politicise the event.

1955-1960 (USA). Malcolm X advocates for African-American separation from white society, articulating a need for self-determination within America. His co-leadership of the Nation of Islam increases membership numbers from 1200 to 50 000.

1956 (USA). African-Americans boycott buses in Montgomery, a campaign that eventually results in the desegregation of Montgomery buses. 

1956. Harry Penrith (also known as Burnum Burnum) and the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship both launch referendum campaigns to change the Australian Constitution so that full citizenship rights are granted to Aboriginal peoples.

1957. Charles Perkins joins the South Australian branch of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines. 

1957-1967. Faith Bandler campaigns and petitions for a referendum on equal rights for Aboriginal people. 

1958. Albert Namitjira is arrested and gaoled for supplying alcohol to his family.

1958. Creation of the first organisation focused on Aboriginal rights - the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. They begin campaigning for constitutional reform and by 1963 their petitions have gained 100 000 signatures. 

1960 (USA). The Greensboro Counter Sit-ins take place.

1960 (USA). John F. Kennedy is elected President of the U.S. As part of his election campaign aimed at African-Americans in the South, the Democrat Party issues 'the Blue Bomb' - two millions copies of a pamphlet highlighting JFK's willingness to work with Martin Luther King Jr.. 

1960. The entire Yanyuwa Aboriginal community is removed from the township of Borroloola and taken to a reserve at Dangana. They all simply walk back to Borroloola.

1961. The federal government's Assimilation policy is reinforced at the Commonwealth conference on Aboriginal issues.

1961 (USA). The Freedom Rides take place throughout the American South.

1962 (USA). Martin Luther King Jr. leads demonstrations in Albany against segregation.

1962. Legislation is passed by the Commonwealth to allow all Aboriginal adults to vote in federal elections. Registration to vote remains not compulsory for Aboriginal people.

1962. The South Australian government repeals the Aborigines Act.

1963 (USA). Martin Luther King Jr. leads demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, against segregation. Business leaders are brought to their knees via a powerful boycott from the African-American community, and they decide to negotiate with Martin Luther King to begin desegregation.

1963 (USA). The KKK conducts bombing attacks aimed at the African-American community in Birmingham.

1963 (USA). The Nation of Islam, led by Malcolm X, gains attention in the media through their advocating of violence against segregationists.

1963 (USA). Martin Luther King Jr. leads the March on Washington.

1963. The Yirrkala Bark Petition for land rights is presented by the Yolngu people to Queensland Parliament.  

1964. First legal disputes between mining companies and Aboriginal communities.

1964. The Labor Party puts forward a bill to repeal parts of the constitution pertaining to Aboriginal citizenship. This bill challenged the discriminatory nature of the constitution but ultimately failed to gain any traction when presented to Parliament.

1964 (USA). The Civil Rights Act is passed by Lyndon B. Johnson after JFK's assassination.

1964 (USA). Martin Luther King Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

1965 (USA). Demonstrations take place in Selma against restrictions on voting for African-Americans in Alabama. Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested, and Civil Rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson is murdered. The marches intensity and Martin Luther King Jr. gains support from the President. The Voting Rights Bill overturns discriminatory voting laws in Alabama.

1965 (USA). Malcolm X is assassinated. 

1965. Charles Perkins leads an Australian 'Freedom Ride' against racial discrimination, modelled after the American one. In response to the Freedom Ride, the Menzies government begins to debate whether a referendum on Aboriginal citizenship should take place.

1965. The Assimilation policy is replaced by an Integrationist policy after the Commonwealth-State Conference.

1965. An Arbitration Commission rules that Aboriginal people will get paid full basic wages, however, a period of 3 years is given for it come into effect so that farming stations have time to adjust. 

1965. Charles Perkins is appointed as manager of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs.

1966. Walgett desegregates their cinema and Moree desegregates their pools, both in response to the Aboriginal activism of the Freedom Rides. 

1966. Charles Perkins visits African-American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson in Chicago, USA. 

1966. Vincent Lingiari leads the Wattie Creek Gurundji Strike in the Northern Territory. The Gurundji Aboriginal workers walk off Wave Hill Station and return to their traditional land in Wattie Creek, refusing to wait 3 years for equal payment. 

1966 (USA). The Black Panther Party is founded in Oakland, California, by Bobby Seal and Huey Newton. 

1967 (USA). The Black Panthers hold rallies in Richmond, California, and disrupt a legislative hearing on the Mulford Act. The Black Panthers also release their Ten-Point Program - a declaration of their ideals and intentions.

1967 (USA). Huey Newton kills a police officer. The FBI also creates COINTELPRO to investigate and neutralise Black Power threats at this time.

1967. The Holt Government agrees to a National Referendum on Aboriginal citizenship. 90% of people vote 'yes'. A 'No' campaign is not mounted by anyone. The result of the referendum is the repeal of a part of Section 127 of the Constitution - meaning that Aboriginal people would now be counted in the next national census. The only other change is the giving of power to the Commonwealth to enact 'special laws' for Aboriginal people - meaning that the States no longer had the ability to create their own discriminatory legislation concerning Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

1967. Gary Foley, Paul Coe, and Michael Anderson lead the Aboriginal Black Power Movement in Redfern.

1968. W.E.H. Stanner delivers his landmark lectures on the 'Great Australian Silence', concerning Aboriginal history. 

1968 (USA). Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis. Nationwide riots occur, some led by the Black Panthers.

1968 (USA). Fighting between the Black Panthers and police officers ends in the death of Black Panther leader Bobby Hutton. 

1968. Many young Aboriginal people are inspired by Tommie Smith and John Carlos's iconic 'Black Power' salutes at the Mexico Olympics.

1969. The Aborigines Welfare Board is abolished due to increased media attention on the mistreatment of Aboriginal peoples in reserves. 

1969. Full basic wages are finally awarded to Aboriginal workers on cattle stations.

1970. Sol Bellear and other Aboriginal activists travel to the U.S. and live with the Black Panthers for some time. The Aboriginal Black Panther Party is created in Brisbane by Denis Walker and Sam Watson.

1970. Aboriginal protest takes place against a re-enactment of Captain Cook's landing at Botany Bay.

1970-1975. Collapse of pastoralism in the Kimberley region leads to a mass migration of Aboriginal people to Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing, Derby, Turkey Creek, and Wyndham. The Western Australian government launches an enquiry into their mass migration to determine causes.

1971. Court case of Milirrpum and others vs. Nabalco and the Commonwealth Government - otherwise known as the Gove dispute between the Yolngu people and the Nabalco mining company.

1971. United Nations Year Against Racism - contrasts with Australian commentators questioning whether the government's goals of assimilating the Aboriginal peoples had been met. 

1971. Luritja Aboriginal man Harold Thomas designs the Aboriginal flag. 

1972. Prime Minister Billy McMahon rejects proposed land rights for Aboriginal peoples.

1972. Links forged between the Aboriginal Black Power movement and the Polynesian Panthers. 

1972. A Moratorium for Black Rights takes place on National Aborigines Day, 14 July. Many of the people who would go on to form the Tent Embassy are mobilised by the event.

1972. Activist Kevin Gilbert mounts a campaign against the McMahon Government over land rights. Aboriginal Tent Embassy created by Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Bert Williams, and Tony Coorey.

1972-75. Gough Whitlam becomes Prime Minister - the White Australian policy is official ended and a Department of Aboriginal Affairs is created.

1975. Creation of the Racial Discrimination Act. 

1975. Senator Neville Bonner puts forth a resolution for parliament to acknowledge prior ownership of Australia by the Aboriginal people. This is unanimously endorsed. 

1976. The Aboriginal Land Rights Act is legislated.

1979. D.H.C. Coombs proposes a treaty between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples.

1980. The Yuin Aboriginal people are restricted from harvesting abalone by traditional means.

1981. Pintjantjatjara Land Rights Act legislated. The Justice for Aboriginal Australians Report is also released at this time. 

1982. Stamp controversy - an Australia Day stamp depicting an Aboriginal face alongside a First Fleeter and a 20th century migrant draws criticism.

1982. Three Murray Islanders - including Eddie Mabo - begin proceedings against the State of Queensland, and then in the High Court of Australia, regarding their land right claim.

1983. The Aboriginal Land Rights Act is amended and updated.

1984 (world). A committee starts work on the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples.

1986. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act is created.

1986. Aboriginal riot takes place in Bourke.

1987. Aboriginal man Lloyd Boney dies in custody, leading to the Brewarrina Funeral Riot on the 15th of August.

1988. Bicentennial celebrations of white settlement take place. Burnum Burnum travels to England and plants the Aboriginal flag on British soil to commemorate the event. He also begins a campaign for the return of Aboriginal remains still held in a British cemetery. 

1988. A Tactical Response Group is sent to Brewarrina to pre-emptively prepare against 'anti-police' Aboriginal activists on Australia Day.

1988. The National Museum of Australia comes under fire for having a frontier conflict display.

1988. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) is created.  

1990. Protests against amendments to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act at NSW Parliament House. Eleven demonstrators are arrested. 

1991. Pat Dodson releases Report on Underlying Issues in Western Australia for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, prompted by the deaths of Mark Quayle, Eddy Murray, Clarence Alec Nean, and Lloyd Boney, among others.

1991. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation is established.

1992. Paul Keating delivers his Redfern Speech, marking the first time a Prime Minister acknowledges the dispossession and pain visited upon the Aboriginal peoples.

1992. Mabo 'Native Title' high court judgement issued in case of Mabo vs. Queensland, legal precedent set for the overturning of the historical concept of terra nullius.

1993 (world). International Year of the World's Indigenous People.

1993. Commonwealth Native Title Act created.

1994. Creation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Land Fund to assist in the purchasing of land for Indigenous Australians.

1996. High Court rules on Wik case that pastoral leases do not overrule pre-existing native title.

1996. Prime Minister John Howard rejects proposal for government-led Aboriginal rights and services.

1996. Aboriginal survivors such as Doris and Doreen Katinyeri speak as part of the government's inquiry into the Stolen Generations, forming the basis of the Bringing Them Home report.

1996. John Howard responds to the Bringing Them Homer report by labelling recommendations for compensation as 'inappropriate and unacceptable'. He also goes on to label Aboriginal rallying at this time as 'un-Australian'. 

1997. Kruger vs. Commonwealth case challenges the right of the Northern Territory to remove Aboriginal children from families (established in 1918) and is overruled. N.T. powers (allowing removal of children) remain in place.

1997-2001. Each of the state and territory governments make formal apologies for the Stolen Generations. John Howard refuses to do the same from a Federal perspective.

1998. National Advisor Council for Youth Suicide releases figures that show suicide is 40% higher among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

1999. Australian Federal Parliament commits to Reconciliation.

2000. National Sorry Day March - 250 000 people walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge to show support for a federal Apology to acknowledge the Stolen Generations. Across the remainder of the year up to 1 million Australians march for Reconciliation.

2000. Spinifex Native Title case determines that the Pila Nguru Aboriginal Corporation will hold 50 000 square kilometres of traditional lands on behalf of the Pila Nguru (also known as the Spinifex People).

2003. A Wukidi Ceremony is held outside of the Supreme Court to symbolically lay to rest Aboriginal elder Dhakiyaa Wirrpanda, who mysteriously 'disappeared' after Northern Territory authorities released him from custody in 1933. 

2004. Aboriginal activist Michael Long takes the 'Long Walk' from Melbourne to Canberra to meet with John Howard and ask for an apology for the Stolen Generations. 

2004 (world). A draft for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is created by a committee made up of 7 nations.

2006 (world). The United Nations vote on the draft for the UNDRIP. Australia votes against it.

2007 (world). The United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples is passed by a large majority in the UN.

2007. The Little Children are Sacred report, which collects together information on abuse in the remote Aboriginal communities, is released. This prompts the Australian govt to suspend the Racial Discrimination Act so that the Northern Territory National Emergency Response (AKA 'the Intervention') can be launched, restricting the rights of Aboriginal peoples throughout regional areas of the territory.

2008. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a formal apology to the Stolen Generations shortly after getting elected.

2010s. The Australian War Memorial rejects calls for the inclusion of the Frontier Wars in the memorial.

2010. The Intervention is amended and the Racial Discrimination Act is partially reinstated.

2010-2012. Prime Minister Julia Gillard announces plans to recognise Aboriginal people in the constitution. This plan is abandoned in 2012 due to public reaction against it.

2013. The Government commits funding to the Yolngu people on the 50th anniversary of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions.

2017. The 'Uluru Statement from the Heart' petition is launched by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, requesting increased constitutional acknowledgement of the First Nations peoples.

2019. In accordance with longstanding traditional Aboriginal beliefs, walking on Uluru is banned.

2023. Referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament to take place, partially in response to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.