Historical sources on the 1967 referendum

"We had scarcely bid each other welcome on our arrival, when an expedition up the Bay was undertaken by the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, in order to explore the nature of the country, and fix on a spot to begin our operations upon. None, however, which could be deemed very eligible, being discovered, his Excellency proceeded in a boat to examine the opening, to which Mr. Cook had given the name of Port Jackson, on an idea that a shelter for shipping within it might be found. The boat returned on the evening of the 23rd, with such an account of the harbour and advantages attending the place, that it was determined the evacuation of Botany Bay should commence the next morning." 

Contextual information:

Watkin Tench was a Captain-Lieutenant of Marines aboard HMS Charlotte, one of the eleven ships of the First Fleet. He wrote this account at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, signing the preface on 10 July 1788, and it was published in London in 1789 as the first eyewitness account of the British colonisation of Australia. The passage describes the decision by Governor Arthur Phillip to establish the colony at Port Jackson rather than Botany Bay in late January 1788, the event that initiated the permanent British settlement of the continent. 

Bibliographical reference:

Tench, W. (1789). A narrative of the expedition to Botany Bay; with an account of New South Wales, its productions, inhabitants, &c. J. Debrett. (Chapter 8, unpaginated in the Project Gutenberg of Australia edition). 

Copyright: Public domain.

"WE, representing THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA, assembled in conference at the Australian Hall, Sydney, on the 26th day of January, 1938, this being the 150th Anniversary of the Whiteman's seizure of our country, HEREBY MAKE PROTEST against the callous treatment of our people by the whitemen during the past 150 years, AND WE APPEAL to the Australian nation of today to make new laws for the education and care of Aborigines, we ask for a new policy which will raise our people TO FULL CITIZEN STATUS and EQUALITY WITHIN THE COMMUNITY." 

Contextual information:

The Aborigines Progressive Association (APA) was founded in New South Wales in 1937 by William Ferguson and Jack Patten to campaign for the rights of Aboriginal Australians. This resolution was moved by Jack Patten as president, with William Ferguson as organising secretary, at the Day of Mourning conference held at the Australian Hall, 150-152 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, on 26 January 1938. It was passed unanimously by the Aboriginal delegates present and was the first national gathering of Aboriginal people to formally protest the effects of 150 years of British colonisation. 

Bibliographical reference:

Aborigines Progressive Association. (1938). Day of Mourning resolution [Conference resolution]. Australian Hall, Sydney, 26 January 1938.

Copyright: Public domain.

"In February 1958, at a meeting in Adelaide, activists from all mainland states formed a national pressure group: the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA). Its goal was the achievement of 'equal citizens' rights' for Aboriginal Australians. The first two goals of this new body were: 1. Repeal of all legislation, federal and state, which discriminated against the Aborigines. 2. Amendment to the Commonwealth Constitution to give the Commonwealth government power to legislate for Aborigines as with all other citizens." 

Contextual information:

Dr Sue Taffe wrote this passage as part of "Collaborating for Indigenous Rights 1957-1973", a website she researched under an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant awarded to her at Monash University in 2004 and hosted by the National Museum of Australia. The passage describes the founding conference of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement, held in Adelaide on 14-16 February 1958. The organisation was renamed the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) in 1964. 

Bibliographical reference:

Taffe, S. (2008). Birth of a federal movement. In Collaborating for Indigenous Rights 1957-1973. National Museum of Australia. https://indigenousrights.net.au/civil_rights/the_warburton_ranges_controversy,_1957/birth_of_a_federal_movement 

Copyright: Used with permission.

"When forty or more Aboriginal nomads were found sick and malnourished in the Central Desert in 1956 questions were raised in the Western Australian parliament. As a part of its nuclear testing partnership with the British government, the Commonwealth government had established a weather station and was testing nuclear weapons and firing rockets over the desert. When the Western Australian government voiced concern about the people who were living nomadically in the vicinity, the Commonwealth reminded it that Aboriginal welfare was a state matter. The Australian public expressed its sense of shock at the conditions of life experienced by these nomadic people." 

Contextual information:

Dr Sue Taffe wrote this passage as part of the same Monash University research project, funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant awarded in 2004 and hosted by the National Museum of Australia. The passage describes events in the Laverton-Warburton Ranges area of Western Australia in 1956, where Ngaanyatjarra and Wongi people were displaced and found to be malnourished as a result of the British-Australian joint weapons-testing programme. The formal investigation that followed produced the Grayden Report, tabled in the Western Australian Parliament in December 1956. 

Bibliographical reference:

Taffe, S. (2008). Overview of the Warburton Ranges controversy. In Collaborating for Indigenous Rights 1957-1973. National Museum of Australia. https://indigenousrights.net.au/civil_rights/the_warburton_ranges_controversy,_1957 

Copyright: Used with permission.

"TO THE HONOURABLE SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED. The Humble Petition of the Undersigned aboriginal people of Yirrkala, being members of the Balamumu, Narrkala, Gapiny, Miliwurrwurr people and Djapu, Mangalili, Madarrpa, MagarrwanaImirri, Djambarrpuynu, Gumaitj, Marrakulu, Galpu, Dhaluangu, Wangurri, Warramirri, Naymil, Riritjingu, tribes respectfully showeth. That nearly 500 people of the above tribes are residents of the land excised from the Aboriginal Reserve in Arnhem Land. That the procedures of the excision of this land and the fate of the people on it were never explained to them beforehand, and were kept secret from them. That when Welfare Officers and Government officials came to inform them of decisions taken without them and against them, they did not undertake to convey to the Government in Canberra the views and feelings of the Yirrkala aboriginal people. That the land in question has been hunting and food gathering land for the Yirrkala tribes from time immemorial: we were all born here. That places sacred to the Yirrkala people, as well as vital to their livelihood are in the excised land, especially Melville Bay. That the people of this area fear that their needs and interests will be completely ignored as they have been ignored in the past, and they fear that the fate which has overtaken the Larrakeah tribe will overtake them. And they humbly pray that the Honourable the House of Representatives will appoint a Committee, accompanied by competent interpreters, to hear the views of the people of Yirrkala before permitting the excision of this land. They humbly pray that no arrangements be entered into with any company which will destroy the livelihood and independence of the Yirrkala people. And your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray God to help you and us." 

Contextual information:

The Yirrkala Bark Petitions were presented to the Australian House of Representatives on 14 August and 28 August 1963 by Labour Party MPs Jock Nelson and Kim Beazley (Senior) respectively, on behalf of the Yolngu clan groups of the Yirrkala community in north-east Arnhem Land. They protested the Commonwealth Government's excision of land from the Arnhem Land Reserve to grant mining leases to a French aluminium company, without any prior consultation with the traditional owners. The petitions were the first documents combining traditional Yolngu bark-painting with typed English and Yolngu-Matha text, and the first traditional documents formally recognised by the Australian Parliament. 

Bibliographical reference:

Yolngu People of Yirrkala. (1963). Yirrkala bark petition [Parliamentary petition, House of Representatives Record No. 3023]. Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/cth15_doc_1963.pdf

Copyright: Public domain.

"In August 1966, Vincent Lingiari, a Gurindji spokesman, led a walk-off of 200 Aboriginal stockmen, house servants, and their families from Wave Hill as a protest against the work and pay conditions. The strike was part of a widespread campaign begun by workers on Brunette Downs Station and supported by non-Aboriginal people, including unionists and the author Frank Hardy. The protesters camped at Wattie Creek (Daguragu) and sought the return of some of their traditional lands to develop a cattle station. They petitioned the Governor-General in 1967, and leaders toured Australia to raise awareness about their cause." 

Contextual information:

This passage is from the National Archives of Australia's official fact sheet on the Wave Hill Walk-off. Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory was operated by the British Vestey pastoral company, which had employed the Gurindji people under conditions a Northern Territory government inquiry in the 1930s described as denying Aboriginal workers "proper access to basic human rights." By 1966, Aboriginal workers at Wave Hill received wages well below those of non-Aboriginal employees and were sometimes paid only in rations. 

Bibliographical reference:

National Archives of Australia. (2011). The Wave Hill 'walk-off' (Fact Sheet 224). https://www.naa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/fs-224-the-wave-hill-walk-off.pdf 

Copyright: Used with permission.

"The purpose of this Bill is to make alterations to the two provisions of the Constitution which make explicit reference to people of the Aboriginal race. One alteration, that proposed by clause 3 of the Bill, is designed to repeal section 127. An identical proposal was passed unanimously by both Houses of the Parliament in November 1965. Section 127 provides that, in reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, Aboriginal natives shall not be counted. The Government continues to believe that this section should be repealed. The principal reason for including section 127 in the Constitution was the practical difficulty of enumerating the Aboriginal population at that time. No doubt in 1900 this was a very substantial problem. It is, however, no longer a serious difficulty, and the basis for the existence of the section does not now exist. The second alteration, which is contained in clause 2 of the Bill, is the deletion of the words 'other than the Aboriginal race in any State' from paragraph (xxvi) of section 51." 

Contextual information:

Harold Holt was Prime Minister of Australia from January 1966 until his disappearance in December 1967. He delivered this second reading speech to the House of Representatives on 1 March 1967 to introduce the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) Bill 1967, which was put to voters at the referendum held on 27 May 1967. The speech outlines both constitutional changes proposed: the repeal of Section 127, which excluded Aboriginal people from population counts, and the removal of the words from Section 51(xxvi) that had excluded Aboriginal people from Commonwealth legislative power. The bill passed both Houses on the same sitting day with unanimous support. 

Bibliographical reference:

Holt, H. (1967, March 1). Second reading speech: Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) Bill 1967. Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives. Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra. https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/original/00001515.pdf

Copyright: Public domain.

"In the result, six members of the Court (Dawson J. dissenting) are in agreement that the common law of this country recognises a form of native title which, in the cases where it has not been extinguished, reflects the entitlement of the indigenous inhabitants, in accordance with their laws or customs, to their traditional lands and that, subject to the effect of some particular Crown leases, the land entitlement of the Murray Islanders in accordance with their laws or customs is preserved, as native title, under the law of Queensland." 

Contextual information:

Mabo v Queensland (No 2) was decided by the High Court of Australia on 3 June 1992. The case was brought by Eddie Koiki Mabo and other Meriam people of the Murray Islands in the Torres Strait, who had commenced their legal claim in 1982. The judgment overturned the legal doctrine of terra nullius, the fiction that Australia was legally unoccupied before British settlement, and was the first Australian court decision to recognise that Indigenous peoples could hold native title to their traditional lands. 

Bibliographical reference:

High Court of Australia. (1992). Mabo and Others v. Queensland (No. 2) [1992] HCA 23; (1992) 175 CLR 1 (per Mason CJ and McHugh J, para. 2). https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1992/23.html

Copyright: Public domain.