1983

1. The Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, in its report Two Hundred Years Later, rejects the idea of a treaty because it believes that the Aboriginal peoples were not a sovereign entity and so they could not enter into a treaty with the Commonwealth.

   The Standing Committee favours a compact which could eventually be inserted into the Constitution by referendum. (The word "compact" is used here with the meaning of "a formal agreement between two or more parties, states, etc.", or "a contract".)

2. Prime Minister Bob Hawke stops negotiations, withdraws funding from the National Aboriginal Conference and shuts down the treaty process. Aboriginal attitudes to the idea of a treaty are also varied and far from unanimous in the 1970s and 80s.

1984

1. End of various "protection acts", which had existed since 1897 in Queensland. Under these laws Aboriginal people were effectively slave labourers; the wages for their labour were stolen by the State or never even claimed by the State from the employers. The issue of reparation remains unresolved.

2. Lowitja O’Donoghue, a pioneering nurse and future Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) chairperson, receives the Australian of the Year award. ⇒ Famous Aboriginal people

3. Enrolment and voting in Commonwealth elections is now compulsory for Aboriginal people.

4. The National Aboriginal Conference identifies 27 key aspects that were continually emerging in community consultations across this country.

5. 7 November Arts Stamps

   The first stamp issue for the Australian Bicentennial shows Aboriginal rock art. It is interesting to note that the series is titled "First Australians" which only much later was agreed to be one of the appropriate terms for Aboriginal people. The first stamp introduces the bicentennial symbol. Australia Post also published a booklet with detailed explanations of the stamps called The First Australians: Our Heritage in Stamps (Australian Bicentennial Collection).

   The designs show stick figures (Cobar Region, NSW), Bunjil's Cave (Grampians, WA), Quirkan Gallery (Cape York, QLD), a Wandjina spirit with snake babies (Gibb River, Kimberley, WA), a rock python (Gibb River), a silver barramundi (Kakadu National Park, Alligator Rivers Area, NT) and a rock possum (Kakadu National Park).

   

   

1985

1. In the ‘Come to Canberra Campaign’ joint land councils from the Northern Territory and the States go to Parliament House, Canberra to protest against the proposed changes to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act of the Northern Territory and the inadequate provisions in Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s visions of ‘Uniform National Land Rights’.

2. Commonwealth government returns Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park (including Uluru/Ayer’s Rock) in the NT to its traditional Aboriginal owners.

   There were dire warnings that The Rock belonged to everyone and fears that it would be taken away by Aboriginal people. As you can see, the rock is still here, people got their land rights and the sky hasn't fallen down.

   — Gina Smith, Central Land Council, NT ^[1]

3. The Pitjantjatjara council makes an agreement with Amoco Petroleum for exploration on 20 000 square kilometres of their land.

4. May Remains repatriation

   Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania returns the Tasmanian Aboriginal human remains commonly known as the Crowther Collection (33 skulls and three skeletons) for cremation at Oyster Cove. The "largest gathering of Tasmanian Aboriginal people in a decade" attends the cremation ^[2].

1986

1. The ‘Goondiwindi riot’ between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents of Goondiwindi, a country town of about 6,000 people on the New South Wales - Queensland border, leads to public acknowledgment of poor living standards and low socio-economic expectations of Aboriginal people in the area.

2. 24 January Arts Stamps

   

   This stamp issue shows the continent of Australia cradled and protected by a Wandjina spirit. He holds a second egg in his hand, a symbol of perfection and rebirth. It also refers to the unbroken (and still misunderstood) Aboriginal spirit and how the land owns its people.

3. 29 October Stolen wages

   The Queensland government pays equal wages to Aboriginal workers on missions.

4. 29 November

   Pope John Paul II addresses Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Blatherskite Park in Alice Springs.

1987

1. Aboriginal women, some as young as 13, are forcibly sterilised with the drug Depro Provera (made by Pfizer) despite serious side effects and being banned in the US. This is seen as one method by the government to control and reduce the number of Aboriginal people. ^[3] The UK, New Zealand and the US have similar practices. Permanent sterilisation through tubal ligation also occurred.

2. Kevin Gilbert publishes Aboriginal Sovereignty, Justice the Law and Land where he explains First Nations' sovereignty position and to educate people on what sovereignty is and its inherent rights.

3. Pat Dudgeon from the Bardi people (Kimberley area, Western Australia) graduates to become Australia’s first Aboriginal psychologist. She goes on to get her PhD in 2008.

4. Northern Territory elections are held and for the first time voting is compulsory for Aboriginal people.

5. A Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody begins in response to high rate of Aboriginal incarceration and deaths.

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References