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Listed under:  History  >  World history  >  Aboriginal history
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Neville Bonner, 1991: beginnings

This clip shows Aboriginal activist and politician Neville Bonner talking about his early life. He says that his mother was deserted by her first husband, after which the family moved to Lismore and lived on the bank of the Richmond River. The conditions there were 'very shocking'. Bonner's grandfather cleared an area under ...

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Lowitja O'Donoghue, 1994: the Stolen Generations

This clip shows Lowitja O'Donoghue talking about her name and about being removed from her mother at the age of two, the youngest child in her family. She says that Lois, the name she went by when she was younger, was a biblical name that had been given to her by the missionaries after she was removed from her mother. As ...

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Four Corners: African American salary disparity, 1968

How does it feel to be paid less than another person doing the same job, because of the colour of your skin? During the 1960s, this was the plight of many professional African Americans who were not paid equally for doing the same work as their white counterparts. Listen to David Dinkins, a New York lawyer, share his experiences.

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Four Corners: Adoption of Indigenous Australian children

Imagine being taken away from your family and forced to live with people from another language, place and culture. This interview, recorded a week before the 1967 Referendum, captures an the perspective of Margaret Valadian, a prominent young Aboriginal Australian, on the practice of adoption and the removal of Aboriginal ...

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Four Corners: African Americans demand change, 1968

Imagine that, like many African Americans growing up before the sweeping changes in America in the 1960s, you cannot eat alongside white people, go to white schools, or even ride in the same part of a public bus, even though slavery was abolished more than a century before. This 1968 clip explores the experience of Mae ...

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Stateline TAS: Aunty Ida West: Tasmanian Aboriginal Elder, 1995

Imagine being told not to speak your own language to your family and friends. Even worse, imagine being told that your whole culture had vanished, when you know it has not. These challenges were faced by Aboriginal people in the 20th century. In this clip, discover how Aunty Ida West's background and life experiences forged ...

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Four Corners: Harlem co-op supermarket, 1968

What would you do if you found out that you were being sold inferior groceries, at higher prices, just because of the colour of your skin? Harlem resident Cora Walker explains that this was the situation faced by members of Harlem's African American community in the late 1960s. See how the residents joined together to address ...

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Why Australia wanted a White Australia policy

The Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 was designed to limit non-British immigration to Australia. It came to be known as the White Australia policy. In some quarters, people of non-British (and especially non-European) heritage were regarded as being inferior, greedy or unable to fit in with dominant Australian society. ...

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Four Corners: Margaret Valadian interviewed in 1967

What is the role of interviewers who explore social issues? In this 1967 clip from Four Corners, Margaret Valadian is recognised as the first Aboriginal Australian graduate of the University of Queensland. Here, in the middle of the panel discussion she is questioned by Robert Moore about her personal and professional life.

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1967 and a new activism

How did the yes vote in 1967 change the way laws were made for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? The struggle for land rights became the focus of the next wave of Aboriginal activists, who gained domestic and world attention by erecting a tent embassy on the lawns of  Parliament House in Canberra. Why was the ...

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The explorers’ diaries

When Sir Thomas Mitchell and Sir George Grey explored unknown regions of Australia in the 19th century, they found sophisticated examples of agriculture practised by Indigenous peoples. Writer Bruce Pascoe considers why Aboriginal agriculture, economy and civilisation were not taught to generations of Australians. Do you ...

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This Day Tonight: Two years after the 1966 Wave Hill walk-off

Visit Wattie Creek at Wave Hill station in 1968. It is two years into the historic strike known as the 'Wave Hill walk-off' led by the Aboriginal Elder Vincent Lingiari. In this black-and-white clip made at the time, listen to Vincent Lingiari and other strikers discuss what they are fighting for. The manager of Wave Hill ...

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ABC Open: Aunty Dorrie and the 'dog licence'

Have you ever heard of the 'dog licence'? This was a Certificate of Exemption, issued by the Aboriginal Welfare Board, that allowed Indigenous Australians to live as part of white Australian society. In order to get one of these, Aboriginal people effectively had to renounce their culture and prove that they were 'respectable'. ...

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Counted: Being an Aboriginal student in the 1960s

Listen to Stan Grant Snr, Marcia Langton and Sol Bellear as they share their school experiences. How would you describe what they experienced? How do their memories make you feel? Why do you think these things happened to them? And what effect do you think their experiences would have had on them?

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Pocket Compass, Ep 4: History of Indigenous rights in Australia

You may have heard of the 1967 referendum that granted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders some rights in Australia, but how did Indigenous rights evolve from there? Many, like the Black Power activists, believed the referendum didn't go far enough, especially in relation to land rights, and their causes gained prominence ...

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First Tuesday Book Club: Navigating 'The Secret River'

Kate Grenville's multiple-award-winning novel 'The Secret River' explores an earlier period of Australian history. What is it that makes this novel so compelling and troubling for its many Australian readers? As you watch this clip, consider how this book encourages readers to re-evaluate their beliefs and values.

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Impact of European settlement on Aboriginal Tasmanians video

Aboriginal Tasmanians had inhabited Tasmania for over 40,000 years before the arrival of European settlers. What do you think life was like for Aboriginal Tasmanians before then? Why might have they embarked on a war, called the 'Black War', once settlers began arriving in Tasmania, despite existing relatively peacefully ...

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Journey into Japan: The end of Japan's isolation

Under the shoguns, Japan was deliberately isolated from the outside world from around 1600 CE. However, by the mid-19th century, Western imperialism was entering a new phase of expansion that no Asian state was able to resist. Discover what happened when the West came beating on the doors of a closed society. This clip ...

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Counted: A new referendum

Today people are campaigning to hold a referendum that seeks to fully recognise Indigenous people in the Constitution. Why does Marcia Langton believe this is a crucial thing to do? What do you think? What makes Stan Grant Snr angry about the prospect of holding another referendum?

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Timeframe: Australia's 1967 Referendum

Why have the results of the 1967 Referendum had a lasting symbolic significance? Civil rights activist Faith Bandler describes a long and well-organised struggle for the referendum and the reasons for it. Find out what percentage of Australians voted to alter the Constitution so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ...