Library & Innovation Centre

Sue Lawson is an award-winning author who is passionate about encouraging young people’s love of writing and reading.

Award-winning Australian author Sue Lawson writes books for children and young adults. Her books include picture book, The Biscuit Maker, illustrated by Liz Anelli and young adult novels Freedom Ride...

Between 1945 and 1965 more than two million migrants came to Australia. Most were assisted: the Commonwealth Government paid most of their fare to get to Australia.

Between 1945 and 1970 the Australian Government’s Immigration Policy sought migrants from England and Europe.

First published in The Age on April 30, 1965

1000 AUSTRALIANS FOR VIETNAM
Government Responds to Appeal for Front-Line Troops
An Australian infantry battalion of about 1000 men is to fight in South Vietnam.

Civil rights for some Australians have only been earned after many years of protest and advocacy.

Includes articles on: The 1960s pop culture; anti-conscription movement; equality for women

The exhibition had five core themes explored through multimedia, art, cultural material and collection objects.

Dreamtime stories are the oral form of the spiritual Dreaming in Aboriginal culture which comprises:

Art: the visual form,
Customs: the practical form,
Dance: the physical form,
Music: the acoustic form,
Totems: the spiritual forms,
Lore: the cultural form,
Lands: the geographical forms.

Culture isn’t static. People adapt to changing climate, new inventions and influences from other people and other cultures.

This [site] will consider what culture means to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and how their connection to culture continues today.

Since the European invasion of Australia in 1788, the Aboriginal people have been oppressed into a world unnatural to their existence, a way of life that had continued for thousands of years.

As the Aboriginal people moved across the vast landscapes of Australia they were confronted with new fauna and flora, new food resources and materials, which changed with the latitudes and seasons. Over the next 30,000 years Aborigines occupied a wide range of echo-niches and environments from the northern tropics, across the centre from the east to west coasts, forming unique cultural and linguistically diverse nations of peoples.

6 episodes : The colonisation of Australia is an important part of the secondary History curriculum. This series introduces two early settlements of Sydney and Melbourne and discusses the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australians.

Prior to British settlement, more than 500 Indigenous groups inhabited the Australian continent, approximately 750,000 people in total.[1] Their cultures developed over 60,000 years, making Indigenous Australians the custodians of the world’s most ancient living culture. Each group lived in close relationship with the land and had custody over their own Country.

In 1925, Prime Minister Stanley Bruce reassured a worried public that Australia’s racial makeup was 98% British and that this was unlikely to change. The means of maintaining this racial and cultural homogeneity is loosely termed the White Australia policy.

Continuing difficulties, and criticisms of the treatment of Aboriginal people especially in central and northern Australia, led in 1936 to demands by the States and by voluntary bodies for increased Commonwealth involvement in Aboriginal affairs.

Despite discrimination and exclusion, thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have served in the Australian Defence Forces since the 1860s and possibly earlier.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have served in every conflict and commitment involving Australian defence contingents since Federation, including both world wars and the intervals of peace since the Second World War.

In 1937, the Commonwealth Government held a national conference on Aboriginal affairs which agreed that Aboriginal people ‘not of full blood’ should be absorbed or ‘assimilated’ into the wider population.

NITV takes a look at the Stolen Generations, the impact of the removal policies and the fight for an apology, healing and compensation.

Spurred on by racial segregation in the United States of America, a group of students at the University of Sydney formed the Student Action For Aborigines (SAFA). Charles Perkins, one of only two Aboriginal students at the university at the time, was elected president of the newly-formed group.

While Australian students in 1964 were protesting in support of the American civil rights movement, Perkins argued they should become more aware of racial discrimination occurring in their own country

Interview

It wasn’t until 1962, when the electoral act was amended, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were given the right to register and vote, but voting was not compulsory. Full voting rights were not granted federally until Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were required to register on the electoral roll in 1984.

Timeline from 1901 to 1967

In his pursuit of justice and self-determination for Aboriginal people, Charles Perkins, an Arrernte and Kalkadoon man and lifelong civil rights activist, held a mirror up to Australia.

This is the legislation act written in 1975.

The RDA is a law passed in 1975 by the Whitlam government to make sure everyone in Australia was treated equally and given the same opportunities – regardless of their background.

Timeline of RDA from 1966 to 1995 amendment of the legislation.

On 3 June 1992 the High Court of Australia recognised that a group of Torres Strait Islanders, led by Eddie Mabo, held ownership of Mer (Murray Island).

What did John Howard’s time as Prime Minister mean for Aboriginal Australia? On the 20th anniversary of his win, The Point takes a look at seven decisions that changed the landscape of Indigenous affairs.

n 1995 a National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families commenced, headed by the President of the Human Rights and Equality Commission, Sir Roland Wilson.

Twenty three years ago the Tribune’s entire archive of 60,000 negatives was donated to the State Library of NSW, however only recently the library discovered that it held more than 100 unpublished photos documenting the historic 1965 Freedom Ride.

The 1965 Freedom Ride – led by Uncle Charlie Perkins and his fellow students at the University of Sydney – was a significant event that drew national and international attention to poor living conditions faced by Aboriginal people and the racism that was rife in New South Wales country towns.

In February 1965 Charles Perkins led a group of university students on a bus trip around rural NSW to challenge racism wherever they saw it. They visited a number of towns, including Walgett, where Aboriginal ex-servicemen were denied membership to the local RSL, and Moree, where Aboriginal people were banned from swimming in the local pool. Their protests gained national media attention and Perkins was thrust into the spotlight, becoming a towering figure for the Indigenous community.

"The police came up and warned us that if we stayed, the violence would get much worse. We decided to stay, continuing to insist on being allowed to enter the pool with the Aboriginal children. Tomatoes and eggs continued to be thrown."
That's a 1965 diary entry from Ann Curthoy's about an action at the Moree pool, which led to the end of racial segregation at the council-owned space.

On May 27, 1967, Australians voted in a referendum to change how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were referred to in the Constitution. Explore these personal stories, opinions and historical recordings of what happened.
How far have we come since 1967?