2009

1. June Remains repatriation

   The University College, London, UK, hands over the skulls of three individuals from Victoria's Gunditjmara community and another from the Dja Dja Wurrung nation ^[1]. It is the first repatriation to Victoria.

2. June Northern Territory Intervention

   From June to August the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) runs consultations and workshops with Aboriginal people in the NT about future directions of the NTER.
   

3. 21 June Northern Territory Intervention

   Two years since the Northern Territory intervention began. Protests against the NTER held around Australia.

4. July Land & land rights

   After months of pressure Tangentyere Council reluctantly agrees to hand over Aboriginal community land to the Australian government for 40 years, in return for A$100m to upgrade housing and services in town camps in Alice Springs.

5. 3 July Northern Territory Intervention

   With regards to the NT intervention, the Australian Productivity Commission report reiterates two key points: the need for reliable statistics measuring the effects of government measures, and the importance of community ownership of projects and close consultation between community and government.

   The things that work generally work because of co-operative approaches between government and communities.

   — Australian Productivity Commissioner

6. 14 July Northern Territory Intervention

   When their community’s sewerage system fails and raw sewage floods the street many members of the Ampilatwatja people walk off to camp in the desert during the Australian winter. They also protest against the NT intervention, ensuring they are no longer subject to the NTER legislation. In August they seek refugee status from the UN as people displaced from their country. ⇒ Aboriginal houses

7. August Stolen Generations

   The Australian government refuses compensation despite the UN being 'concerned about a lack of adequate access to justice' ^[2] for Indigenous people and recommending the government compensating victims of the Stolen Generations. The UN responded to a formal complaint submitted by the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement in March.

8. 27 August Northern Territory Intervention

   The UN Rapporteur releases his statement on the NT intervention.

9. 27 August Self-determination

   Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma outlines the proposed model for a new national Indigenous representative body to fill the void since the demise of ATSIC in 2004. The model enables representation by Indigenous land councils, peak bodies and other Indigenous organisations, as well as a place for leaders operating at all levels. It has a 50/50 gender rule for representatives and an overseeing role of an ethics committee.

10. 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. ^[3]

11. 27 October Stolen Generations

    NSW Governor Marie Bashir launches the Kinchela Boy's Home Aboriginal Corporation Strategic Plan to help Aboriginal men who passed through Kinchela with counselling, reunions targeted at group healing, and programs for their families.

12. 1 November Northern Territory Intervention

    The Australian government misses the self-imposed deadline to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

    It is a simple matter to restore the [Racial Discrimination Act]. Where the [Indigenous Affairs] Minister [Jenny Macklin] appears to be stuck is in trying to find a way to reconcile her desire to over-ride the fundamental human rights of Aboriginal Australians in the NT through compulsory welfare quarantining and mandatory leases with our international obligations not to discriminate on the basis of race.

    — Rachel Siewert, Greens senator ^[4]

13. 16 November Politics

    The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says sorry to the Forgotten Australians which include migrants and Indigenous people who were victims of abuse in orphanages and institutions between 1930 and 1970. The Forgotten Australians suffered abuse similar to that suffered by members of the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal peoples.

14. 17 November Politics

    Marianne Mackay and Glenn Moore found the Aboriginal Political Party, where every candidate identifies as Aboriginal.

15. 22 November Self-determination

    The government announces its support of the new representative body for Aboriginal people, called the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples (NCAFP).

16. 26 November Arts

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

17. 17 December Land & land rights

    50 years after the British military exploded nuclear bombs on their lands without informing them, the South Australian Maralinga Tjarutja people are returned their land. ⇒ Native Title

2010

1. The left wing Ecological, Social Justice, Aboriginal Party unites with the First Nations Original Peoples Party to form the federally registered First Nations Political Party.

2. January Politics

   The Aboriginal Political Party and the Ecological and Social Justice Party unite to become the Western Australia-based Ecological, Social Justice, Aboriginal Party (ESJA) with its inaugural President Glenn Moore.

3. 26 January Arts

   About 12,000 people attend the inaugural Saltwater Freshwater Festival in Coffs Harbour, reclaiming Australia Day as a positive inclusive day for the Gumbaynggirr community.

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References