Page 19 - Indiginous Australians
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Mary Alp
by the UN in 2007 . It is interesting to note that the Howard government refused
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As noted, for Indigenous Australians Land & Human rights are not separate. The push for equality & self- determination can be seen in all areas. Noel Pearson’s call for-‘a rightful place in the nation’73 is part of the long ongoing struggles we have addressed. Activists both Indigenous & non-Indigenous Australians with their often high visibility protests & marches, have a long history of successes & failures in this struggle. These include:
Human rights Movement
1937 William Cooper’s unsuccessful petition to King George V for an Indigenous
Aboriginal voice in Federal Parliament. Nearly 2,000 signatures collected between
74 1934-1937 but the Lyons Government decided not to forward it to the King .
1938 Day of Mourning held by the Aborigines League highlighting Aboriginal suffering resulting from European invasions.
1958 The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines began a 10 year struggle to end Constitutional Discrimination against Indigenous people. This led to the 1967 referendum.
1962 the right to vote in commonwealth elections.
1965 Charles Perkins Freedom Rides through country towns which were designed
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72 Amnesty International Australia , ‘What are Indigenous rights? Like everyone, Indigenous people have all of the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human rights. However Indigenous People have specific rights because of their unique position as first peoples of their nations’; ‘The Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ (see f/n 40). 73 Wikipedia, ‘civil & political rights’; N.Pearson, quarterly Essay 2014.
74 Aboriginal Victoria-‘William Cooper’;
Indigenous rights movement ‘Timeline’
75 R.Broome Ibid, p220; Martin Luther king Jr, ‘Impact of civil Rights Movement on Australia’.
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to sign this Declaration in 2007. It was signed in 2009 by the Rudd Government.
Human rights - civil, political, economic, social & cultural rights
to expose discrimination & segregation against Indigenous Aboriginals.
