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Saturday January 26 2007, Media Release

ABORIGINAL MILESTONE MARKS RARE CAUSE FOR CELEBRATIONS ON AUSTRALIA DAY

Statement by NSW Aboriginal Land Council Chairperson Bev Manton

Aboriginal people have a rare cause for celebration on this Australia Day which marks the 70th anniversary of the Day of Mourning that gave birth to a national rights agenda and organised political activism.

NSW Aboriginal Land Council Chairperson, Bev Manton, said today that NSW men and women organised the 1938 protest conference to highlight the plight of Aborigines around Australia on the 150th anniversary of white settlement.

About 100 delegates representing Aboriginal Australia urged the Australian Government to bring in new laws to provide our people with “ordinary citizen rights and equality with other Australians”.

At a time when the national Aboriginal population was decimated to 80,000 after 150 years of white rule and “protection”, the Day of Mourning’s conference heard first hand accounts of our people being “starved” to death and horribly treated.

On the spot coverage by The Abo Call newspaper reported the conference message that our people were being slandered and vilified by the “white men (who) pretend that the Australian Aboriginal is a low type who cannot be bettered”.

Aboriginal people were forced onto reserves or laboured in “slavery” and most were denied basic rights such as an education, hope and opportunity.

Introduced diseases and liquor were threatening the very survival of our ancestors.

Aborigines helped white Australians to make money in the outback while being denied any chance to make a living for themselves.

The legacy of such inhuman treatment and man-made disaster is still being felt to this day and issues such as stolen wages remain largely unresolved 70 years later.

In some parts of our nation the denial of education, basic rights and services, “dreadful sufferings” and such living conditions as to astound its other inhabitants remain an everyday reality.

Little more than six months ago, Aboriginal people were forcefully reminded of the continuing political reality that their hard won land rights and legal “protection” can be wiped out with the stroke of a pen.

Nevertheless the historical gathering of 1938 was a significant turning point in the lives of Aboriginal people. It was the beginning of Aboriginal political organisation and activism and the first steps on a long walk towards fairness, justice and equality.
Aboriginal people realised the need to speak out and take their own actions to secure a better future.

The Day of Mourning laid the foundation for the successful 1967 referendum in support of Aboriginal rights, national NAIDOC Week celebrations of our culture and the limited introduction of land rights and compensation – albeit decades later.

I urge all Australians interested in the history of this land to seek out the stories of 1938 and the groundbreaking achievements of activists including John Patten, Bill Ferguson, William Cooper, Doug Nicholls, Pearl Gibbs and Margaret Tucker.

Join with Aboriginal people in proudly remembering these Australian pioneers and leaders and the following generations they directly inspired.

Have a look at the life of the late great visionary and leader, Dr Charles Perkins, who blazed so many trails, shook this nation’s conscience and was a key agent for progress and change in the modern day past.

NSW Aboriginal people and others based here, like Dr Perkins, have historically played a leading role in the advancement of the Aboriginal cause in this nation.

With the support of progressive and fair minded fellow Australians we have achieved the best land rights legislation in Australia.

The 25th anniversary of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act which produced NSWALC and later a statewide land councils network will also be celebrated this year.

We are a revitalised and active peak state representative organisation for Aboriginal people.

We continue to make history with the introduction of a $30 million Education Endowment Fund to lend real support to up to 200 state students a year in perpetuity.

It’s taken 25 years but perhaps only now the ALRA -- introduced in NSW as some compensation for our dislocation and dispossession – is beginning to bear fruit for the wider Aboriginal community of NSW.

NSWALC will proudly continue to follow the path laid out by our pioneers of 1938 and honour their legacy with the pursuit of Aboriginal rights such as improved access to educational opportunity and better lives.

Our goals are long-term, practical and visionary.

The Australian Government could do worse than consider NSW as a national model for the advancement of Aboriginal people and the development of meaningful and constructive engagement with governments and industry across Australia.

Bev Manton
NSWALC Chairperson

26 January 2008

Further information: Paul Molloy (02) 6124 3562 / 0419 690 926

Note: The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs has a very useful website resource on the 1938 Day of Mourning which features links to copies of several primary source documents.

It can b e accessed by clicking on the following link:

http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/DOM/DOM.htm