May 27.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
A National Referendum
On 27 May 1967, the Australian Government held a referendum. This was a momentous turning point in Australian history. [1]
The 1967 referendum altered the Australian Constitution. More than 90 per cent of Australian voters chose ‘Yes’ to count Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the census and give the Australian Government the power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
What was life like for the First Australians before 1967?
When the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, Great Britain took formal possession of Australia. It did so without negotiating with the original inhabitants, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who had inhabited the land for between 40,000 to 60,000 years. The British Government declared that the continent was terra nullius – empty land, or land that belongs to nobody. [2]
The British settlement in Australia was not peaceful. Aboriginal people were moved off their traditional land and killed in battles or by hunting parties. European diseases such as measles and tuberculosis also killed many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
From 1829, Australia was considered part of Great Britain, which meant that all inhabitants—including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples—were regarded as British subjects. [2]
On 1 January 1901, the Australian Constitution took effect and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Under the laws of the Australian Government, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were not included as citizens. Instead, in many cases they were treated as foreigners in their own land.
What rights did Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have before 1967?
Before 1967, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples did not have the same rights as other Australians under the Australian Constitution. Many aspects of their lives were controlled by the state governments, including the right to:
• vote in state elections • marry whomever they chose • move to wherever they chose • own property wherever they chose • be the legal guardian of their own children • receive the same pay for the same work • drink alcohol.
Because the state governments made these laws, if an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person lived in New South Wales, he or she had the right to do some of the things listed above. If the same person lived in Queensland, he or she had none of these rights.
While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had the right to vote before 1901, it was taken away or limited when the Australian Constitution was enacted. All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples finally gained the right to vote in:
federal elections in 1962
all state elections by 1965 (Queensland was the last state to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples the right to vote).
Source: Reconciliation Australia
For a variant view see Tim Rowse, Indigenous and Other Australians Since 1901, pp. 443-449.
For discussion of the concept of terra nullius see Index entries for February 23, April 23 and July 23.
For assertions that claiming the land in the name , and sovereignty, of the British Crown entailed Aboriginal people being designated as subjects of that monarch, see Index entry on Aboriginals as British subjects