2017

1. 24 May

   

   The Royal Australian Mint issues a special 50-cent coin, "Pride & Passion", to mark the 25th anniversary of the High Court Mabo decision and the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum. Artist and grand-daughter of Eddie Mabo, Boneta-Marie Mabo, helped with the design of the coin. Only 1.4 million coins are minted.

2020

1. January

   Opera Australia revives the musical Bran Nue Dae, 30 years after the original debuted in 1990. The musical achieved popular and critical acclaim for giving Aboriginal voices centre stage, tackling tough issues with humour and challenging mainstream perceptions of Aboriginal people. It tours Sydney in January, Perth (February), Brisbane (July) and Adelaide (August) among other locations. Aboriginal director Rachel Perkins made it into a movie in 2009.

2019

1. June

   Yorta Yorta soprano Deborah Cheetham premières Eumeralla, a War Requiem for Peace, a performance sung entirely in the reclaimed Gunditjmara language, and sold out weeks in advance.

2017

1. 14 July

   A painting by Anangu artist Peter Mungkuri wins the inaugural Hadley's Art Prize, the world's richest landscape art prize at $100,000, beating 41 finalists. Mungkuri painted his birth place in Fregon, Central Australia, and called the painting Ngura Wiru, which means good country.
   

2020

1. 19 May

   

   Australia Post issues a set of four stamps to promote four recent citizen science projects from Australia. Citizen science involves public participation and collaboration in scientific research with the aim of increasing scientific knowledge.

   One stamp celebrates the Ngukurr Wi Stadi Bla Kantri ("We Study the Country" in the Kriol language) biodiversity project, a cross-cultural collaboration between the remote Aboriginal community of Ngukurr in south-east Arnhem Land and Macquarie University in Sydney.

   The Ngukurr Wi Stadi Bla Kantri project started in 2010, bringing together the Yugul Mangi Rangers, most of the residents of Ngukurr and children at Ngukurr School. It helps equip Aboriginal Elders and youth with the knowledge and tools to better understand and manage South East Arnhem Land environments. Through the project, the team is re-discovering a large and remote area unknown to Western science and working towards maintaining endangered Aboriginal bio-cultural knowledge.

2019

1. 30 April

   

   Australia Post issues a stamp commemorating the International Year of Indigenous Languages. There were at least 250 Aboriginal languages in Australia before invasion. Of the 120 or so languages that remain, about 100 are at risk of being lost. Only about 13 languages are alive as a first language spoken by the younger generation.

2017

1. 29 May

   Since 1997 Australia Post celebrates living Australians who have positively shaped Australian society with its Australian Legends Award. In 2017 it honours three Aboriginal leaders: Tom Calma, Lowitja O’Donoghue and Galarrwuy Yunupingu for their tireless and lifelong efforts to improve social and economic outcomes for Aboriginal peoples. Together, their work has spanned the areas of land rights, economics, self-determination, health, welfare, education and reconciliation.

   Since its inception, Australia Post announced the Australian Legends Award on Australia Day. Out of respect for those who associate 26 January with invasion and the colonisation of Aboriginal people, it scheduled this year's announcement to May, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum. ^[1]

   

2. 24 May

   

   An Australia Post stamp commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum. On 27 May 1967, Australians voted to change the constitution to empower the federal government to make legislation for Aboriginal people, in the same way it could for all other Australians, and to include Aboriginal people in the census.

   The stamp combines contemporary dot art elements and curved lines to form a symbol of two fingerprints merging to form one. The word "Yes" in the iconic referendum-campaign font symbolises strength in unity and what has been thus far achieved.

1948

1. 16 February

   

   Australia Post releases the first Australian stamp that features an Aboriginal art theme. The 2 shilling stamp represents a crocodile in the style of a rock painting and is part of the Australian Animals definitive stamp issue of that year. But the artist, Gert Sellheim, is not Aboriginal.
   

1971

1. 29 September

   

   Australia Post releases the first stamp issue to focus on traditional, authentic Aboriginal art forms, titled "Aboriginal Art". While focusing on traditional arts forms, the stamps does not yet name the artist (which started with the 1988 issue).

   The 20c design is based on a bark painting of a long necked tortoise from Western Arnhem Land; the 25c, was based on a photograph by Australian anthropologist, Sir Baldwin Spencer (see below); the 30c shows rock paintings of a cave in the Oenpelli area of Western Arnhem Land; the 35c depicts grave posts used in mourning ceremonies on Bathurst & Melville Islands.

   The 25 cent stamp shows body decoration used in the final mourning ceremony by the Warramunga people, from the Tennant Creek area in the Northern Territory. The image shows two men in the act of painting each other, which the Warramunga people considered a sacred ceremony to be only witnessed by men. The artist changed the final design so women can also view it. ^[2]

2017

1. 24 October

   Australia Post publishes a set of stamps themed 'Art of the North', featuring works by two Aboriginal artists from the northern regions of Australia’s Northern Territory, Banduk Marika and Bede Tungutalum. All works are part of the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

   

2020

1. 7 August

   18-year-old photographer Yolngu woman Siena Mayutu Wurmarri Stubbs from Arnhem Land becomes one of the youngest winners in the 37-year history of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Australia's most prestigious Aboriginal art awards. She wins the multimedia category with a poetry and video artwork she filmed while on a bullet train in Japan.

2019

1. 7 June

   Spark Health, an Aboriginal merchandise business, launches a Change.org campaign to open the use of the Aboriginal flag to all Australians after WAM Clothing, the current licensing holder, sent a cease and desist notice to the business. By September 2020 more than 140,000 people had signed the petition.
   

2020

1. 14 March

   The 22nd Biennale of Sydney (March – September) has ist first Aboriginal artistic director with Wiradjuri man Brook Andrew. The title, Nirin, is a Wiradjuri word for "edge".

2. 30 October

   

   Midnight Oil, a non-Aboriginal band, releases The Makarrata Project, a mini-album of collaborations with Aboriginal artists. The album's cover shows the entire Uluru Statement From the Heart which about 250 Aboriginal delegates agreed on in 2017.

   We urge the federal government to heed the messages in the Uluru Statement From the Heart and act accordingly.

   — Midnight Oil ^[3]

3. 25 November

   Archie Roach is inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 2020 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Music Awards. He also wins Best Male Artist and Best Adult Contemporary Album for Tell Me Why.

4. 2 November

   

   The Royal Australian Mint (RAM) issues a 6-coin 2021 year set that commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Australian Aboriginal flag. The set includes a collector version of the coloured two dollar coin produced for circulation in 2021 (possibly around the 12 July) to commemorate the anniversary.

   The coin represents the flag with black and red fields printed over a relief pattern of miniature flags. The centre of the coin is not printed so that the gold of the coin’s alloy shines through, acting as the yellow colour representing the sun.

   It's the first time the RAM includes a coloured 2-dollar coin in a year set of coins.

2014

1. 25 June

   

   The Royal Australian Mint issues a 50 cent coin commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). The coin shows the AIATSIS logo, derived from the boomerang totem of the Gu:na:ni (Kunjen) people from the Mitchell River region, Gulf of Carpentaria, North Queensland. The design illustrates the symmetrical style of north-eastern Queensland art, and utilises rich colours used in Aboriginal works of art. A small number of coins shows this logo in colour.

2021

1. 20 February

   Fists of Fire, Bruce's Lee's kung fu classic from 1972, becomes the first feature film ever to be re-voiced in an Australian Aboriginal language as Fist of Fury Noongar Daa.

2012

1. 29 November

   Yothu Yindi is inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Music Awards.

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