Indigenous Australians Rights And Freedoms In Australia

Indigenous Australians began to be robbed of their rights and freedoms when the Europeans colonized Australia. Since then, Aboriginal people and Indigenous supporters have taken steps towards equality and reconciliation.

The first real attempt to raise awareness of the lack of equality facing Indigenous Australians was the Day of Mourning campaign 1938. Aboriginal people saw this day as an opportunity to get the attention of white Australia and walked in protest. The Day of Mourning was a chance for Indigenous Australians to stand up for what they believe in, and was the first step towards equality.

The rights of Indigenous Australians were restricted by the Government policy of protection and assimilation. The Aboriginal Protection Act was passed in 1869, which gave power over the lives of Aboriginal people to the government, such as where they could live or work. They removed mixed decent Aboriginal children from their families in an attempt to assimilate them into white society. The Child Welfare Act 1939 abandoned this policy and gave Indigenous parents the right to take their children back. But the children were moved far away, and even if they were found and returned, many of them were mistreated and didn’t return the same to their families. This had devastating effects on Indigenous parents, and many white Australians didn’t understand this impact at the time.

In the 1960s, inspired by the Civil Rights movement in the US, Charles Perkins organized the Freedom Ride of 1965. The tour’s purpose was to study the race relations in Australia, and raise awareness of the lack of equality for Indigenous Australians. This attracted lots of media attention around Australia and overseas, encouraging Australians to face racial confli...

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...one of the best achievements of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister.

It is clear that many steps were taken to achieve the same rights and freedoms as the rest of Australia for the Aborigines especially since 1945. Major steps forward and setbacks included the Day of Mourning, the Aboriginal Protection Act, the Child Welfare Act, the ‘Freedom Ride’, the 1962 Electoral Act and the 1967 Referendum, the tent ‘Aboriginal Embassy’, the protest at Wave Hill, Frank Hardy’s project to find the ‘real Australia’, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam giving back 300 000 square kilometers of land, the Mabo decision in 1982, the Native Title Act, John Howard’s plan in 1996, and Kevin Rudd’s apology speech. Overall, there has been a long struggle for reconciliation. Indigenous Australians now have the same rights as other Australians, but social and economic equality are still to be improved.