Introduction to Indigenous Australia - Essay Example

The indigenous land rights have gain support from article 1 of the International Bill of Rights. This is the right of people to control their resources and wealth, self determination and maintain their ways of subsistence (Mugambwa, 2003). The Aboriginal land rights movement started out of the equal citizenships and civil rights campaigns, starting from 1920s to 1960s. As the community’s control grew in these civil rights organizations, the fight for the return of the stolen Aboriginal land took a pivotal role in 1960s and early 1970.

There were a number of campaigns that shook the Australian community and led to a variety of major developments in the policy. However, funding dependency and the bureaucratization of the Aboriginal services delayed these campaigns early in the 1980s (Edwards, 2001). Australian Aborigines Progressive Association (AAPA) became founded in 1927 by Maynard and Lacey. This was Aboriginal first political party and its formation got stimulated by the reduction in the Aboriginal reserve land, dictatorial practices of Aborigines Board of Protection and a rise in the kidnappings of kids.

Maynard declared that the original land owners were the Aboriginal and their rights are above all others. The party has often been regarded as a Christian organization by the Non Aboriginal Australians because of its motto, “One God, One Aim, and One Destiny” (Lee, 2006). It took about 10 years for success in the campaigns of changing Australian constitution. A referendum became passed in 1967 with more than a 90 percent vote count and became a successful exercise in public education about the Aboriginal, civil rights.

The referendum was, however, not about the right to vote, as it became believed, but rather to allow the federal government to provide services and legislate for the Aboriginal people. The federal government power over the states is still a serious issue in the politics of Australia (Edwards, 2001). Meanwhile, a number of the Aboriginal peoples at Yirkalla, in 1963, gave the Federal Parliament a petition complaining the excision of most of their land to one of the mining companies. They claimed that the land got to be used by the Yirkalla communities for hunting and gathering since time immemorial.

The same resistance was also growing in Cape York, a place where the Aurukun and the Mapoon peoples got evicted by the federal government from their land. This was in order to pave the way for aluminum companies. Victoria in 1960 had witnessed a dispute over arranged Lake Tyers closure, under the assimilation policy (Lee, 2006). Laurie Moffat and Doug Nicholls joined the Lake Tyers elders to fight for the community control over the mission. The Victorian government in 1970 handed the Aboriginal people a freehold title to the reserve.

Charles Perkins, In 1965 led students in freedom rides around the country, fighting apartheid ways in swimming pools, bars and theatres. In 1966, the people of Gurindji moved off the Wave Hill Station over a claim for equal and fair wages from their pastoral company employer, which later turn into a claim for the return of their ancestral land. The Gurindijis gained support both from the Aboriginal and the non Aboriginal organizations, which contributed to the 1960s equal pay cases. The Gurindji claim became partly met 10 years later when the Labor Government gave back some parts of their land.

The Larrakia claim