1788 |
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Colony of New South Wales established under the principle of terra nullius (literally "land belonging to no one"). - Estimates place Aboriginal population at 500,000. |
1844-1862 |
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Overland expeditions explore the Northern Territory, including parts of Arnhem Land. |
1885 |
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Government Resident reports on killings, disease, prostitution, and use of opium among Aboriginal people, with a steep population decline. It recommends setting up reserves. |
1910 |
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Aborigines Act passed, legalizing the confinement of Aboriginal or part-Aboriginal people in reserves or institutions. |
1911 |
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Aboriginal Ordinance gives Chief Protector of Aborigines legal guardianship of all Aboriginal and part-Aboriginal children. Children taken to compounds in Darwin and Katherine--first of the "stolen generations." |
1927-1929 |
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Bleakley Inquiry proposes use of missions in "segregating, protecting, training, and control" of the Aborigines. |
1931 |
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Arnhem Land declared Aboriginal Reserve. |
1946 |
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New Deal policy to improve conditions for Aborigines implemented, opening the way for Aboriginal settlements (Umbakumba 1946, Maningrida 1957, Ramingining 1966). |
1953 |
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Welfare Ordinance passed, making people of full Aboriginal descent wards of the state, and granting full citizenship to part-Aboriginal people (implemented 1957). |
1962 |
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Aboriginal people granted Commonwealth and Northern Territory voting rights. |
1963 |
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The Yolngu people of Yirrkala in northeastern Arnhem Land, concerned about mining on their land, protest to federal parliament through a bark painting petition, which articulates the clan-based system of land ownership. They lose the landmark Supreme Court case in 1970, but the need for revision of the law is established. |
1967 |
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Citizenship given to Aborigines. |
1970 |
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The Aboriginal Acts Advisory Committee established within the Australian Council for the Arts. |
1972 |
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Labor Party wins government pledging policy for self-determination for Aborigines. Department of Aboriginal Affairs established. |
1973 |
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First meeting of the Aboriginal Arts Board. |
1975 |
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First legally recognized Aboriginal lease granted to the Gurindji people. - The Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act 1975 aligns Australia with the United Nations Convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination. -Prime Minister Gough Witlam pours a handful of earth into the hand of Vincent Lingiari, an elder of the Gurindji people. This gesture concludes the first successful Aboriginal land rights claim, begun in 1966, as land is handed back to its traditional Gurindji owners. |
1976 |
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The Aboriginal Artists Agency established to protect the copyright interests of Aboriginal artists. -The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 passed, allowing claims to be made on certain land in the Northern Territory by Aboriginal people claiming traditional or sacred rights to the land. This results in 36 percent of the total Northern Territory land area reverting to Aboriginal ownership under freehold title. |
1977 |
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The Central Land Council established as a statutory body under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act (1976). The Council's mandate is to identify traditional owners of land and consulting them about the protection of sacred sites and negotiating and settling disputes. |
1984 |
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Charles Perkins appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs. He becomes the first Aboriginal person to head a federal government department. |
1987 |
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The report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, Return to Country: The Aboriginal Homelands Movement in Australia, examines the situation of Aboriginal people residing at outstations or homelands in Northern and Central Australia and shows that the Aboriginal arts and crafts industry is the major source of cash income apart from the public sector. The report recommends the formation of government policy that will further assist the arts and crafts industries in these communities. |
1992 |
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The High Court of Australia hands down its landmark decision in Mabo and Others v. the State of Queensland. It holds that Australia was not terra nullius at the time of British settlement and upholds the existence of "native title." |
1993 |
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The Commonwealth's Native Title Act 1993 passed. The act seeks to establish procedures and protective measures to ensure that equality before the law is extended to native title. |
1996 |
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Landmark Wik decision opens Native Title claims. |
1997 |
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Relase of Bringing Them Home, report of the "stolen generation" inquiry. |
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