This history of injustice has meant that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have been denied access to basic human rights, such as rights to health, housing, employment and education. Did you know that there were over 250 distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages at the time of colonisation?
At the time of Federation, Aborigines were excluded from the rights of Australian citizenship, including the right to vote, the right to be counted in a census and the right to be counted as part of an electorate.
Human rights are about everyone, and they are very important for Indigenous peoples. We are all entitled to the enjoyment of human rights without discrimination of any kind, including on the basis of race. be treated equally under the law.
Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired.
In December 1976 the federal parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act. It was the first legislation in Australia that enabled First Nations peoples to claim land rights for Country where traditional ownership could be proven.
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
There are 46 Articles, or rules, in the Declaration, including: Indigenous peoples are free and equal to all others and have the right to be free from any kind of discrimination, including discrimination based on their Indigenous origin or identity (Article Two).
Activists kept fighting for improved health and education, land rights and an end to the forced removal of Indigenous children from their families. Underpinning all of these goals was constitutional reform, which led to the referendum of 1967.
It was not until 1984 that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people gained full equality with other electors under the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Act 1983.
The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (see above) provides the basis upon which Aboriginal Australian people in the Northern Territory can claim rights to land based on traditional occupation. The freehold land cannot be sold or transferred, but it can be leased.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' rights and interests in land are formally recognised over around 50 per cent of Australia's land mass. Connection to land is of central importance to First Nations Australians.
There is no code of customary law such as the Natal Code of Native Law. But there is a large body of material on Aboriginal traditions and ways of life, including detailed studies of kinship, religion, and family structures.
Australia is founded on the rule of law and has a strong tradition of respect for the rights and freedoms of every individual. Human rights are recognised and protected across Australia through a range of laws at the federal and state and territory levels, the Australian Constitution, and the common law.
In some states, Aboriginal people still could not travel from place to place, control their own money, drink alcohol or marry without permission.
In April 1971, Mr Justice Blackburn delivered his judgment that, under the Australian law as it then stood, Aboriginal people had no legal claims to land.
In a 1967 referendum, over 90% of Australian voters agreed to change our Constitution to give the federal parliament the power to make laws in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and to allow for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be included in the census.
Aboriginal communities in NSW can claim land to compensate them for historic dispossession of land and to support their social and economic development. The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (ALRA) was introduced to compensate Aboriginal people in NSW for dispossession of their land.
The figures for land ownership by country were split into leasehold and freehold land for the first time this year, with interests from the Netherlands owning the most freehold land at 1.65 million ha. China topped the leasehold table with 8.31 million ha, pulling ahead of the UK.
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act, 1983 (ALRA) provides land rights for Aboriginal people in NSW. The principle of self-determination underpins the ALRA. Land is vested in representative land councils that work to deliver tangible economic, social and cultural benefits to Aboriginal communities in NSW.
From 1949, Aboriginal people could vote if they were or had been servicemen. In 1962, the Menzies government amended the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to enable all Indigenous Australians to enrol to vote in Australian federal elections.
In effect, Indigenous people were expected to become like, and live like non-Indigenous Australians. Yet discriminatory policies still controlled many (sometimes all) aspects of Indigenous peoples lives, denied them equal wages and employment conditions and the social welfare benefits available to other Australians.
The British settlement in Australia was not peaceful. Aboriginal people were moved off their traditional land and killed in battles or by hunting parties. European diseases such as measles and tuberculosis also killed many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
In the 1860s, Victoria became the first state to pass laws authorising Aboriginal children to be removed from their parents. Similar policies were later adopted by other states and territories – and by the federal government when it was established in the 1900s.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' ways of knowing and being in the world are intimately connected to the land and waters. Connection to land is essential to the continued cultural survival of Australia's First Peoples as well as their economic and social development.
1966: Start of the land rights movement
In August 1966, 200 Aboriginal stockmen of the Gurindji people and their families walked off Wave Hill pastoral station in the Northern Territory, initially in protest over their wages. The strike soon spread to include the more fundamental issue about their traditional lands.