Australian Aboriginal civil rights movement during the 1960s and the people who helped.

Australian Aboriginal civil rights movement during the 1960s and the people who helped.

During the period of the 1960s both Aboriginal and white people who supported their cause fought for equal rights with the rest of Australia and to be recognised as people. Aboriginal people living in Australia had at the time very little in the way of rights and freedoms, which white Australia took for granted especially when at one stage there was an assimilation policy. The government both federal and state had policies, which limited the movements of Aboriginal depending on the state they lived in. By crossing state borders their rights changed. Activists between the late 1950s and early 1970s brought awareness and change of attitudes to the Australian people. One of the major changes was through the 1967 National referendum to change the constitution, which would mean Aboriginal people be counted on the census.  The group called The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders spent around ten years working towards the change within the constitution and the yes vote. Other protest movements from activists included the Bark Petition in 1963, Freedom Ride through New South Wales in 1965, The Wave Hill Strike in 1966 and The Tent Embassy in 1972 on the lawns of Parliament house in Canberra. People during this time period did not want the Aboriginal culture to be forgotten or lost forever. The activists would be remembered in the future for the tireless work they had done and inspire others to challenge the government on other issues.

When Australia’s Commonwealth constitution had been written the government during the time had thought the Aboriginal people were a dying race who was inferior.  The government wanted to make sure the Aboriginal people died out humanely as possible.The states created their own laws on the treatment of Aboriginal people and New Zealand at the time was considered to be part of a federation of the colonies, though the country did not want to become part of Australia at that period in time. Many aboriginal people in Australia lived on reserves or missions where their rights and movements were suppressed and restricted from anything including Marriage to the mail. By the time of the 1960s, the denial of rights for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders had become an embarrassment to Australia internationally. The Australian government was wary of the rise of the international black empowerment after Harold MacMillian, the British Prime Minister’s speech about the winds of change after his visit to South Africa. The isolation of Australia was feared through repercussions especially through the United Nations. The government were critical of other countries treating their people poorly and it had even been pointed out by The Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev that Australia was playing double standards with its treatment of Aboriginal people.

Throughout Australian history there were many policies that changed from state to state regarding Aboriginal people. The restrictions depended on if the person was full blooded or a half caste. The deeds of Nazi Germany during the Second World War with their handling of human rights could not be ignored internationally. The newly formed United Nation wanted to build a better world with all people equal and loving. Australian activists worked towards this as they believed Aboriginal people should be equal. Both black and white knew they had to work together to achieve the goal of equality. Many states had protection boards to ‘protect’ the Aboriginal people from the rest of Australia. The people viewed as full bloods were placed on reserves, which were seen as sanctuaries away from the rest of society. Children had no rights and could be transferred between reserves. Many rules were placed against them. Half caste people were not allowed on the reserves unless they had permission. This policy had began around the 1870s. The Communist Party was the only political party in 1950s Australia that did not have a white Australia policy as part of its policies. Kath Walker, a member of FCAATSI had attended meetings with the Communist Party although she was not a member. Her involvement had been noticed by ASIO. During the 1971 tour of the South African rugby team to Australia, Joh Bjelke Petersen was against the federal government’s issues from Aboriginal land rights to feminism and was against any intervention the Federal government wanted to take. Joh had come to attention through his heavy handed handling anti-apartheid protests by declaring a state of emergency when the Springboks were playing in his state.

The Aboriginal people and supporters were vocal before the 1960s regarding their rights though they are mostly forgotten. Political campaigns and rights movements did appear during the early 1900s especially during the 1938 Australia Day celebration for 150 years of white settlement, where the day was known as Day of Mourning by Aboriginal activists. Some groups who were fighting for aboriginal rights usually had memberships of all white people like the Victorian Aboriginal Group, which began operating during the 1930s. Aboriginal people were technically citizens of Australia since 1948 when the Nationality and Citizen Act had been passed as they had been born in Australia. Aboriginal people before 1959 were not eligible to receive social security benefits without certificate of exemption. After 1959 the legislation was changed by the Commonwealth Government for all aboriginal people who were not primitive or nomadic. Those who had served during the war were eligible for the benefits. The Commonwealth Government in 1962 did give Aboriginal people the right to vote in Commonwealth elections when the Commonwealth Franchise Act of 1902 was amended. The voting rights began with those who had served in the army were entitled to vote or those with the state vote. Voting became compulsory during the early 1980s for the Aboriginal people. The states began with their own voting rights from 1962, the last state Queensland removed restrictions in 1965.

The Aboriginal reserves were in theory meant to help people living on them to become self-sufficient, although in practice was very different.  The missions and reserves in Australia did not treat the Aboriginal people as equals and the mission system was seen as failures. Most children who were taught in mission schools ended up in unskilled employment. The community groups who housed the Aboriginal people were found to be very discriminatory. White people found they needed permission to enter the reserves and missions from the property managers. The Australian Freedom Riders who went around New South Wales by bus found they needed permission to enter to observe the living conditions, both in shanty towns and reserves, which did shock people in Australia. The media did follow them for part of the trip and would have shown the community many of the pictures taken. The assimilation policy was seen as another way of gaining the Aboriginal people equal rights by breeding out their aboriginality or culture. During 1956 when there was debate over the British wanting to test atomic weapons in Maralinga in South Australia, the member for South Perth Bill Grayden requested a committee to look into the Aboriginal people who had been moved off their land. The group provided proof after producing a video of the conditions of people living on the Warburton Mission and the ones who had been removed from their land after the media disputed nothing was wrong.

During the 1960s there were many people and organisations involved with fighting for the rights of Aboriginal people. Some were political groups, student groups and individuals there were many different personalities some of whom would become well known in Australian society of the future. Jesse Street was an early Activist for Aboriginal rights and wanted activists to take on an international perspective to the fights. She was important due to her work in London with the anti-slavery society. Street was experienced through the United Nations. She had also written a publication in 1957 called Human rights for Australian Aboriginals. She did visit Australia and advised activists to take their issue with Aboriginal rights to the international stage.  Charles Perkins was partly responsible for the Freedom Ride through country New South Wales as part of SAFA, Student Action For Aborigines and was critical of the work done by the national group FCAATSI as he believed they had not done enough in power sharing with Aboriginal people after the 1967 Referendum.  Many aboriginal rights groups began during the 1950s and disbanded towards the end of the 1960s through their being run by non-indigenous people. These groups were state based and lobbied the state and Federal Governments of Australia to change the various laws that were discriminatory. Some of these groups were the Aboriginal – Australian Fellowship, Western Australian Native Welfare Council and Council for Aboriginal Rights. The Communist party had been active in Aboriginal affairs since around the early 1920s and other parties were concerned about the influence they did have. The Communist party in Australia had influence amongst other organisations especially the unions where they wanted to unify and exploit the aboriginals as workers. ASIO kept watch on the Communist parties’ involvement with Aboriginal groups and reported their finding to the government. The view held by the Australian government was anything regarding Aboriginal rights movements meant the Communist Party of Australia was involved.

Charles Dixon was also known as ‘Chicka’ Dixon was an activist during the 1960s and 1970s, where he was active with aboriginal rights movement including the Tent Embassy in Canberra at the steps of Parliament house. He had been bought up on a mission around the Wallaga Lake Aboriginal Mission. Charles Dixon had been involved with the Waterside Workers Federation and worked on the Wharves in Sydney. Doug Nichols was known in Melbourne for his involvement with the Victoria Football League also known as VFL. One of the groups he belonged to was the Aboriginal Advancement League and he did become a pastor as well. His involvement with bringing awareness to the people on the Warburton range when a Murdoch newspaper had produced conflicting reports. He was present as an observer when the group he was with recorded the conditions onto video in 1957. Faith Bandlar worked with the Aboriginal – Australian Fellowship where she had been influenced by activists Jessie Street and Pearl Gibbs. She had also been involved with FCAATSI during the 1960s and was well known for her work in the yes vote for the referendum in 1967. Pearl Gibbs had been involved with the demonstration in 1938 for the Day of Mourning on Australia Day. Throughout her life she had been active for Aboriginal rights and awareness. She worked with Faith Bandlar and Jessie Street along with other people to form the group Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship. Many more people were involved with promoting Aboriginal rights during this time period although many of the people involved would have worked together or known about the people who were involved especially through the media.

The move for a ‘Yes’ vote on the referendum in 1967 and the Freedom rides in 1965 were not the only activist related movements in regards to Aborigines occurring during the time period. In 1962 the issue of the low wages aboriginal people was bought up in a detailed report during the annual FCAA meeting by a member of the Communist Party, Shirley Andrews. She had noted the lower wages were paid mostly in the pastoral industry in NT, Qld and WA, while NSW and Victoria, the employment opportunities were restricted. In 1966, the Aboriginal people who worked on cattle stations in the Northern Territory wanted equal wages, although the changes did not occur until 1968.  Nineteen Aboriginal people had gone on strike at the Newcastle Cattle Station and another eighty eight stockmen from the Gurindji people did the same at the Wave Hill Pastoral Station in 1967. The strikes were over the conditions over the wages the Aboriginal people were receiving as they wanted equal pay like other workers. The bark petition is the first officially recognised document in Australia to assert Indigenous land rights claims for use of the land, occupation and ownership. The bark petition came about when companies wanted to mine near the land of the local Yolunga people in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. The petition was officially recognised in 1963.

The 1965 Freedom Ride through country New South Wales copied similar rides that were taken to the Deep South in the United States. The students involved were aware of the risks that could occur. The student group was known as Student Action For Aborigines otherwise known as SAFA and was to expose racial discrimination that other protests had not been seen in other Australian protests before. At the start of the freedom rides in 1965 when the bus left the University of Sydney, only one of the students was aboriginal and that was Charles Perkins, although another man called Gary Williams would join later on. Twenty nine students were on the bus and the numbers would change through a variety of reasons during the ride.The students who went on the freedom rides in Australia were warned not to make any trouble and Australia will not be like the American Freedom rides where there was a large presence of police or military. The Freedom ride would go through towns in NSW – Wellington, Gulargambone, Walgett, Moree, Boggabilla, Tabulam, Lismore, Bowraville, Kempsey and Taree. There have been hostile reactions for the students on the freedom ride including being run off the road. Two towns where the students were faced with hostile reactions were from the two towns of Walgett and Moree. Some of the locals did think of the students as the troublemakers. The task of the freedom rides were to find where people were segregated and make their presence known visually such as standing outside a local swimming pool, but not climbing the fences or forcing yourselves inside.  The people on the freedom ride could visit the shanty town and the town dwellers, but did need permission from the Aboriginal Welfare board to enter the missions and reserves. The board did offer to review the application while the students were on the road.

The main Australian group who were fighting for Aboriginal rights and their main goal was for changes to the wording of the Commonwealth Constitution regarding Aboriginal people. The Federal Council for Advancement of Aborigines was formed on the 15th of February in 1958, when representatives of other groups from around Australia came together to advance the rights of Indigenous people of Australia. They were people of diverse backgrounds and their role was to challenge the government. The FCAA were at first were a predominantly white group who wanted to help gain Aboriginal people their rights. In 1964 the constitution of the group changed to include Torres Strait Islanders, which then became known as FCAATSI.  FCAATSI did see assimilation as the destruction of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders as people and wanted equal rights with the rest of Australia. FCAATSI was made up of many groups both Indigenous and non-indigenous. Groups included trade unionists, church and religious bodies and peace activists. The group fell apart when voting ended in a stalemate towards the end of the 1960s. The group had been active for over 10 years. Aboriginal people wanted more of their people on the board instead of being all white members. In 1978 the group that was once FCAATSI folded after the split in the early 1970s as Aboriginal people wanted to control the group instead of it being run predominantly by white people.

White activists found land was very important for the aboriginal people especially during the 1960s. Land that once been owned by Aboriginal people had been leased by the government to mining companies who did force those on missions to be moved on. The land rights movement was sparked by the walk offs by the Gurindji people. It had been believed the Aboriginal people had been passive when they lost their lands during settlement. During the Freedom Rides through NSW the students found the people living on reserves and missions were living in deplorable conditions without the basic necessities such as water and electricity. Land rights were something Aboriginal people wanted as they had been dispossessed and land meant the people had an identity and culture. The Tent Embassy was mostly to do with land rights when activists setup makeshift camps on the lawn of parliament house. The view about land rights by some people before the 1960s indigenous people sought land rights for reasons of economic security and other views were they fought land rights due to belief in spiritual connection to the land. Aboriginal Lands Trust Act provided the transfer of ownership of land, which houses the Aboriginal reserves from the Crown to Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory in 1966 for them to manage.

The 1967 referendum was the work of 10 years activism from both black and white Australians working together. The vote ’Yes’ campaign was lead and organised by the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders otherwise known as FCAATSI. There was a belief that the commonwealth government should be in charge of aboriginal rights instead of the states . One of the changes the 1967 Referendum would bring was for the Aboriginal people to be counted on the next census as they had been overlooked in previous censuses.  The referendum passed by around 90% of people voting yes. The amendment to the constitution did not deny the citizen rights it was up to the states and the commonwealth government laws and practices that denied aborigines substantive citizenship rights. Different government political parties had different views on the yes vote and the activists used referendum, yes vote to pressure the government to make changes. It was not until 1972 with the incoming Labor government that the promises were fulfilled. People had thoughts about the changes to the constitution would mean better opportunities and improved conditions. Other people felt the changes were not a matter about changes to civil rights or even freedom. People were confused about what the changes would actually mean to the constitution.

Towards the end of the 1960s the aboriginal nations began to develop a shared identity and even created the aboriginal flag insisting they should be led by Aboriginals instead of the white people who had helped them in the past. The catalyst for the Tent embassy began when the current Prime Minister William McMahon dismissed land rights in favour of land lease of fifty years for reasonable purposes. The Tent Embassy appeared on Australia Day in 1972, which called for recognition that Aboriginal lands had been stolen. Supporters from around Australia turned up both white and aboriginal. The Federal Government tried to remove the embassy by passing an ordinance proposing heavy penalties for camping in public. It had been found there were no laws about camping on the lawn of parliament house. The idea of the camp was to bring the Aboriginal disadvantage and protest to the steps of parliament house.  The issues aired by those protesting at the Tent Embassy were picked up by the media and other people showed their support for the embassy movement. There were violent incidents when police pulled the tents down on several occasions and afterwards the tents were put back up.  With the gaining of a voice the Aboriginal people demanded more rights as the activists established the Tent Embassy, which is viewed as a powerful symbol for Australia. Aboriginal people began to be heard. Services during the early 1970s were established like the Aboriginal Legal Service and Aboriginal Health service. The Aboriginal movement was something that went beyond the 1970s to present time.

The period of the 1960s was a turbulent time for Aboriginal activism as there were both rises and falls between the periods of the late 1950s to the early 1970s with the construction of the Tent Embassy, which was a turning point for the Aboriginal people as a whole. America had inspired some of the activists to copy what the black people had done there, especially when the Australian version of the Freedom Ride pointing out to the rest of Australia and the world about attitudes towards the Aboriginal people in country towns. The government at certain points were resistant to making changes to anything regarding Aboriginal people, which did include the state government. The government did believe at one stage the Aboriginal people were a dying race. The Referendum was something the national group of activists spent ten years working towards being implemented and while they thought their work had been progressive, the Aboriginal people later wanted the group to be run fully by people who were Aboriginal. The 1960s were tumultuous years when groups broke up and the government was being pushed into righting wrongs that had been done in the past to the Aboriginal people. The effects of these would still be felt today and even several icons of the past still remain like the Bark petition, which is held within the National archives and the Tent Embassy, which still remains at old Parliament house. The Tent Embassy could be seen as Australia’s version of the Occupy movement, which began in 1972.

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