ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT

ISLANDER PEOPLES
PR IO R TO 1 9 4 5
BACKGROUND TO STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
 TRADITIONAL LAWS

• For at least 50 000 years, ATSI people lived in communities guided by complex social and spiritual laws handed
down to them by their Creation Ancestors. These laws laid out the obligations people had to each other and to the
land that gave them life.

• They did not see themselves as owning the land; it was passed down by their ancestors and they had a duty to
look after it including the sacred sites of their ancestral spirits.

• ATSI tribes communities or tribes were based on well- ordered kinship systems and language groups.
 EUROPEAN OCCUPATION

• The British Government declared the continent now called

Australia as terra nullius. This term meant that the land
belonged to no one and could therefore be settled by the British
colonisers.

• The British colonisers regarded themselves as being racially

superior to the ATSI people.

• The colonisers increasingly took possession of the land, they cut

off the existing inhabitants’ access to food supplies and waters
and disregarded their sacred sites.

• Bloody conflicts often followed, as ATSI people fought to

preserve the conditions of their way of life.
 PROTECTION POLICY

• A growing concern for the treatment of ATSI people led the British Government to
appoint protectors in the colonies who were supposed to clamp down on the violence and
ensure that those living on the outskirts of towns were provided basic rations. This
measure had little effect.

• By the late nineteen century it was believed that the inferior race would eventually die
out. It was believed that in order to survive that the ATSI Peoples should be separated
from their uncivilized culture and be Christianised.

• Colonies (later states) established protection boards to strictly govern their lives. The
chief protector in each colony was made legal guardian of the ATSI population.

• Under these protection policies the majority were forcibly removed onto land set aside as
reserves run by government or church missionaries. They had no traditional rights;
traditional names and customs were not allowed, they could not leave or marry without
permission, the protection officers were the legal owners of any wages earned and
children had to attend special schools.
 WHAT FEDERATION MEANT

• On January 1 1901 when the Commonwealth of Australia was

proclaimed, its new Constitution made it clear that
responsibility for the ATSI Peoples was left to the states.

• It also indicated that they would not be included in the national

census; this meant that they were not entitled to Commonwealth
Government benefits or regulations e.g. basic wage rulings and
pensions

• The first piece of legislation passed by the new Commonwealth

Government was the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 which
became known as the White Australia Policy. Its main aim was
to ensure that only people of European discent could migrate to
Australia.
 ASSIMILATION POLICY

• By the mid 1930s the Australian states and some voluntary bodies
were demanding federal involvement in Aboriginal affairs.

• In 1937 the federal government reached an agreement that state

governments each would adopt an assimilation policy

• This meant that ATSI Peoples in settled areas, particularly those of

‘mixed blood’ were expected to abandon their own cultures and
languages and adopt the way of life of white Australians

• It continued to protectionist practice of removing ‘half caste’ children

based on the argument that it would be in the children's best interests to
live in institutions and with European families. These children were
not allowed to contact their parents, many had been told their mother
had given them up willingly or was dead.
 EARLY PROTEST MOVEMENTS

1. Cummeragunja Walk- Off: at Cummeragunja Station, a large reserve

on NSW side of the Murray River, the Aboriginal residents had

developed communal farms. By the late 1930s an abusive manager was

appointed to the reserve. The residents who were not allowed to leave,

had to live under appalling conditions. In 1939 about 200 of the

community walked off the reserve and the farm they had built up. Most

never returned and settled on the outskirts of northern Victorian towns.

2. Day of Mourning 1938: Australia Day in 1938 a committed organised

a campaign of public speeches, meetings and press interviews. They

produced a statement called Aborigines Claims for Citizenship Rights

demanding the federal government take control of Aboriginal affairs to

implement a national policy and ATSI Peoples be granted full

citizenship rights including equal rights to education.

 REVISION QUESTIONS

1. Explain why traditional lands have always been extremely important to ATSI
Peoples

2. Define the term terra nullius

3. In point form, list the reasons why Australian colonies adopted the protection
policies

4. Explain what the policy of assimilation and its impact upon the ATSI Peoples
NEW STRUGGLES
 YOLNGU BARK PETITION

• In 1963, the federal government allowed bauxite mining to commence at

Yirrkala in the Northern Territory.

• Yolngu leaders objected to the lack of consultation and secrecy surrounding

the mining activities and were concerned about the impact of mining on their
traditional lands.

• They sent a petition mounted on bark to the federal parliament, although the
petition gained national and international attention, the government did not
changes its stance.

• The Yolngu leaders then took their case to the federal court in 1971. Bound
by the principal of terra nullius the judges had to dismiss it; however, they
recognized that for centuries the Yolngu people had been connected with the
Yolngu land.
 WAVE HILL STRIKE

• Following pressure by the trade unions, in March 1963, the federal Arbitration Commission

ruled that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people must be paid equally when doing the same

jobs.

• In May 1966 in the NT Aboriginal stockmen on the Newcastle Waters and Wave Hill cattle

stations went on strike over the delay in gaining equal pay and their poor working conditions.

• It gained momentum until 200 Aboriginal families of the Gurindji language group, led by

Vincent Lingiari, walked off Wave Hill Station. They made a camp and established a

community at Wattie Creek.

• By October 1966 the Gurindji people were claiming the right to 1300 square kilometers for

their own cattle station on what was their traditional land.

• Continued their struggle until 1974 when the Woodward Royal Commission recommended

that Aboriginal Land Councils be established to represent the claims of ATSI communities.

• In 1975 the Gurindji people won the first land rights claim. In a symbolic gesture Prime

Minsiter Gough Whitlam handed back their lands.

 1. Listen to Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody’s song From Big Things Little Things Grow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_ndC07C2qw
2. Write an anylsis of the lyrics, focusing on how they tell the story of the strike at Wave Hill
1965 FREEDOM RIDE
 1965 FREEDOM RIDES

Outcomes
• Showed Australia and the rest of the world that discrimination and
disadvantages that Aboriginal People in rural areas were
experiencing. This was a shock to many city dwellers who were
ignorant to these realities. The increased awareness led to growing
public support.
• In some towns, counter-protests were held by those who opposed the
freedom riders aims. These brought even more publicity.
• ATSI Peoples the freedom ride provided motivation and momentum
for change. Seeing the actions of the freedom riders and the media
attention that resulted provided a sense that some people cared about
their circumstances and that perhaps change could be achieved.