History essay

Submitted By Joseph-Christian
Words: 501
Pages: 3

What were the most significant events in helping Indigenous Australians achieve positive change since World War II?
World War 2 was an atrocity for many, its crimes spread far and wide including the execution of Jews, and torturing prisoners of war. But in its wake came a call for change, and all through the world people started to see human rights in a new way and improvements were made all round including for our own Aborigines.
The first major changes were to come in 1949, which came with Australian citizenship for all Aboriginals. 1949 also brought them the right to vote in federal elections, if they had served in the army during the world wars, or if they were allowed to vote in their state election. This was countered however in Queensland where voting was entirely disallowed for Aborigines, and in Western Australia and the Northern Territory the right was conditional and was rarely granted. 1949 brought several other changes but most were delayed or simply refused, the major changes would have to wait until later.
In 1962 the common wealth electoral act Gave Aborigines the option to vote in all federal elections, regardless of state or location. 1965 brought the integration policy which replaced the white Australia policy and sought to end discrimination towards Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, it also allowed the federal government to overrule state policy if they saw that the states were mistreating Aborigines or ignoring their policies. On the 27th of May 1967 the commonwealth referendum to have aboriginals counted in the national census. It also made changes to our constitution removing section 127 of the constitution which stated “In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.” And changed section 51 paragraph 26, which then allowed the federal government to make laws regarding the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.
On the 1st of June 1975 the Racial Discrimination Act was passed allowing the federal government to