2017

1. 14 July Arts

   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.
   

2. 20 July Land & land rights

   One of the longest-running native title cases (starting in 2003) comes to an end, with the Federal Court awarding exclusive rights over Pilbara land to the Yindjibarndi people. The land includes Fortescue Metals Group’s Solomon Hub mine.

2018

1. 3 July Treaty

   The Victorian parliament passes the Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018, Australia’s first ever treaty law. It outlines future elements to support treaty negotiations (e.g. a treaty authority and negotiation framework), a mechanism to recognise a representative body, guiding principles for the treaty process and reporting obligations.

2. 8 July Recognition

   The 15th Assembly of the Uniting Church of Australia endorses the observance of a "Day of Mourning" on the Sunday before Australia Day, at the request of members of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC). The request came as an alternative to changing the date for Australia Day. Every year, Uniting Church congregations nationwide will hold worship services that reflect on the effect of invasion and colonisation on Australia’s First Peoples.

3. 12 July

   In a “historic apology”, Western Australia’s Police Commissioner Chris Dawson formally apologises for the mistreatment of the state’s Aboriginal people at the hands of police, acknowledging the “significant role” police played in contributing to a traumatic history. (full transcript)

   Today, on behalf of the Western Australia Police Force, I would like to say sorry to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for our participation in past wrongful actions that have caused immeasurable pain and suffering.

   — Chris Dawson, Police Commissioner, Western Australia ^[1]

2019

1. 6 July Land & land rights Recognition

   After a 17-year campaign, the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape near Portland, a 6,600-year-old Aboriginal aquaculture site in south-west Victoria, is added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Older than the pyramids, the site proves that Aboriginal people built channels and pools to harvest eels, and also permanent stone houses. The site is considered one of the largest and oldest aquaculture sites in the world and became the first Australian World Heritage site to be nominated exclusively for Aboriginal cultural values.

2. 9 July Stolen wages

   A class action Hans Pearson took to the federal court in September 2016 on behalf of an estimated 10,000 Aboriginal workers in Queensland who had their wages stolen last century is settled with the state government for $190m. His class action covered 1939 to 1972, when he and his fellow Aboriginal workers had their pay given to the state under the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897. It is Australia’s fifth-largest class action settlement.
   

3. 14 July Treaty

   The Queensland government launches the “Tracks to Treaty” commitment, aimed to give Aboriginal communities greater self-determination and better delivery of services, lift the representation of Aboriginal voices to government, and begin work on negotiating one or more treaties to create a positive shared future.

   [Tracks to Treaty is about] understanding our past, our shared history… but also telling the truth in all of that, and ensuring that truth then lays the path for the future generations.

   — Leeanne Enoch, Environment Minister and Quandamooka woman ^[2]

2020

1. 11 July Treaty

   The Victorian government commits to create a truth and justice commission to "formally recognise historical wrongs and ongoing injustices" against Aboriginal people, the first state or territory to do so. ^[3] The commission will work in parallel with the treaty process already under way, and will be designed and led by the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.

   Truth telling is critical to everything we need to move forward, to heal as a state.

   — Marcus Stewart, co-chair, Taungurung Assembly ^[3]

2. 24 July Recognition

   Australian cheese manufacturer Saputo announces after reviewing a "sensitive situation" that it will retire the brand name 'Coon' because of its "responsibility to eliminate racism in all its forms". The decision comes after many years of campaigning by Aboriginal activists.

2021

1. July Recognition

   The ABC’s current affairs program 7.30 starts using Aboriginal place names when it introduces places on its program to improve representation of the Aboriginal community in its programming and make the public use more frequently Aboriginal names, voices and languages. The names are shown on the straps across the screen that appear in the news and sit alongside the official government name for cities and towns.

2. 5 July Recognition

   Australia Post launches new packaging with a dedicated space for traditional Aboriginal place names above the street address, following up on an update to their addressing guidelines in November 2020. The new parcel post designs and express post satchels also include an Acknowledgment of Country.

3. 6 July Arts Stamps

   

   In its Australian Contemporary Sculpture issue, Australia Post shows one artwork of Lex Namponan, a Wik man from Aurukun, QLD, who is renown for his milkwood sculptures of camp dogs. The dog is a sacred totem for the clan, and his works, such as the laughing Smiley Blue Eye, combine cultural significance with popular market appeal. The other artwork is from Yvonne Koolmatrie, a Ngarrindjeri woman from South Australia. She is a master grass weaver, and her wide-ranging subjects include animals, human figures, planes and hot-air balloons, as well as traditional objects such as Eel trap, featured on the stamp.
   

4. 10 July Sport

   Ngarigo woman Ashleigh Barty wins the Wimbledon Grand Slam, the second Australian and Aboriginal woman to do so, exactly 50 years after Evonne Goolagong Cawley's first win in 1971. Ash beats Czech player Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

5. 23 July Sport

   Basketballer Patty Mills, a Kokatha, Naghiralgal and Dauareb-Meriam man, becomes Australia’s first Aboriginal flagbearer at an Olympics opening ceremony at the 32nd Olympic Games, held with one year delay (due to the corona virus pandemic) in Tokyo, Japan.

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References