Australian Indigenous Rights

Aboriginal civil rights have been a highly debated topic in Australia for the past century. From the 1920’s to the constitutional referendum in 1967 many events occurred that shaped the advancement of Aboriginal rights. The sheer volume of significant events during this time period are too great to enlighten on all of them so I will aim to touch on the rights of Aboriginal people before this time period, the foundation of Aboriginal political activism, the Day of Mourning and the Cummeragunja walk off, International pressure against Australia, and the 1967 referendum. It was not until the late 1930’s and 1940’s that really caused the Aboriginal rights movement to really surge with the combination of international pressure on the Australian government grouped with Aboriginal political activism during this time period.

In order to get an understanding of the progress of Aboriginal Rights from the 1920’s all the way to the 1967 Referendum we must look at the Aboriginal Rights before this time frame. The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia came into effect in 1901 officially making Aborigines a “state responsibility” (Prentis, 2008). The constitution came into effect during a time period where Aborigines had no political power and were essentially excluded from gaining Australian citizenship (Chesterman, 1997). There were two sections of the Constitution that lead to great debate and the constant struggle for the advancement of Aboriginal rights for the next seventy years. Sections 51 of the Constitution states “The Parliament shall subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to…(xxvi) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws” (Attwood, 2007). Many, including Chesterman, have considered this section of the Constitution to exclude people of the Aboriginal race regarding laws. However

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