2009

1. September Remains repatriation

   The Australian government and the Leiden University Medical Center (Netherlands) agree to repatriate the remains of five Bundjalung people (Northern Rivers region of NSW) which were acquired by the Dutch in 1882. ^[1]

2010

1. 8 September Recognition

   NSW becomes the third Australian state, after Victoria and Queensland, to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in their Constitutional preambles. The Aboriginal flag is also permanently hung in the NSW Parliament.

   We are enshrining today fundamental truths, the truth that Aboriginal people are the first peoples of NSW, the truth of the spiritual, economic and cultural ties that bind Aboriginal people to the land.

   — Kristina Keneally, Premier of NSW ^[2]

2. 30 September Arts

   The National Gallery of Australia opens 11 new Indigenous galleries and art spaces that will house the majority of the gallery’s huge collection of Indigenous art, reportedly the largest collection of its kind in the world. ⇒ Aboriginal arts

2011

1. 28 September

   The Federal Court of Australia rules that journalist Andrew Bolt has breached the Racial Discrimination Act by challenging the right of people of mixed descent to claim Aboriginal ancestry. He alleges that they fraudulently draw benefits available only to Aboriginal people.

2012

1. 15 September Self-determination

   More than 200 people, including newly arrived asylum seekers, receive an Aboriginal passport. The Aboriginal passport was first introduced in 1988 by Palawa (Tasmanian) activist, Michael Mansell, and was issued to an Aboriginal delegation that visited Libya.

2013

1. September Remains repatriation

   The Queensland Museum in Brisbane returns remains of Aboriginal people to the Balonne River region.

2. 7 September Politics

   Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister of Australia. His Aboriginal policy declares that “Australia will, in effect, have a prime minister for indigenous affairs and a dedicated indigenous affairs minister.”

2014

1. September Land & land rights

   The federal government — without consultation — announces that it would stop providing funding to remote homeland communities from 1 July 2015, prompting Western Australia and South Australia threaten to close “unviable” communities.

2. 15 September Politics

   Prime Minister Tony Abbott spends a week at Gulkula in north-east Arnhem Land, meeting Aboriginal leaders and community members and running the country from his campsite. He is accompanied by other ministers and a team of bureaucrats.

2015

1. 15 September Politics

   Malcolm Turnbull becomes Australia’s 29th Prime Minister, after launching an all-or-nothing leadership challenge against Tony Abbott, the self-declared “prime minister for indigenous affairs”.

2. 24 September

   Anthony McAvoy becomes Australia’s first Aboriginal silk. He specialises in native title claims.

3. 30 September Politics

   West Australian Aboriginal MP Ken Wyatt becomes the first Aboriginal Member of Parliament to reach the frontbench working as Assistant Health Minister.

2016

1. September Treaty

   Yingiya Mark Guyula wins the Northern Territory seat of Nhulunbuy with 1,648 votes, a lead of just eight votes to incumbent Lynne Walker (ALP) who received 1,640 votes. The seat had been held by the ALP since 1980 and was categorised as “Very Safe Labor”.

2. 12 September Stolen wages

   Hans Pearson, 77, uncle of prominent Aboriginal elder Noel Pearson, sues the Queensland government to recover wages he claims were stolen from him more than half a century ago. He is the lead claimant in a class action involving 300 Aboriginal people who say they were not paid for years of labour as stockmen or domestic workers. ^[3]

3. 12 September Treaty

   The newly elect NT Labour government announces that an Aboriginal Voice – Shared Future subcommittee, which will include all Aboriginal MPs and representatives of bush seats, will progress public discussion on a treaty.

4. 15 September

   The Australian Psychological Society apologises to Aboriginal people for not honouring their “cultural belief systems and world views”, for conveying “misleading and inaccurate messages” about their abilities, for work only benefiting the researchers, for ignoring traditional healing techniques and for their “silence and lack of advocacy on important policy matters” such as the Stolen Generations. ^[4]

2017

1. 3 September Protest

   Clinton Pryor arrives at Parliament House in Canberra after walking 5,800 kilometres from Perth (WA). Called ‘Spirit Walker’, he had started his year-long walk to highlight the situation of Aboriginal people and meet with the Prime Minister to present him with a list of grievances about the state of Aboriginal affairs.

   

2018

1. 22 September

   A team of marine archaeologists from the US and Australia announce that they have found the final resting place of the Endeavour, the ship used by Captain Cook to sail to Australia in 1770. She lies at Newport Harbour, Rhode Island, on the east coast of the USA, 270 kilometres north-east of New York.

2019

1. 10 September Recognition

   Dujuan, a 12-year-old Arrernte/Garrwa boy from central Australia, speaks at the UN Human Rights Council demanding the Australian government to stop sending 10-year-old children to to prison and support Aboriginal-led education models. All Australian states and territories allow 10-year-old children to be arrested, charged and sent to prison. Raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 would bring Australian standards into line with international law. ^[5]

2. 10 September Remains repatriation

   The Illinois State Museum in the USA agrees to unconditionally return 42 culturally significant objects of the Aranda people of Central Australia, and Bardi Jawi people of the northern Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia. The Aboriginal nations plan to return them to country and use them in the maintenance and revival of cultural practices, and support intergenerational knowledge transfer.

   The Return of Cultural Heritage project identified some 95,000 Aboriginal objects held in more than 200 overseas collecting institutions around the world. ^[6]

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References