Equality Between Indigenous And Non Indigenous Australians

Australia has achieved to a certain extent equality between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. While many Aboriginal civil rights have been won, Work still needs to be done to achieve equality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Equality has been achieved for Indigenous Australians from the following events; The right to vote 1962, The 1967 Referendum, Acknowledgement of the stolen Generation 1920s – 1970s, Apology 2008, and Closing the Gap 2008. Due to our varied history, the date 26th January has a different meaning. For some it is a celebration of the landing of the first fleet at Sydney Cove (1788). To others it is marked by the civic celebrations of the Order of Australia and Australian of the Year. However this†¦show more content†¦The first phase of the Post-World War II Aboriginal rights movement was focused on the political and civil rights of Australia’s Indigenous people. Because of this, issues of the law, citizenship, voting rights and the role of the federal government were important. (The right to vote 1962) The British system was that when they conquered a country, the previously existing law of that country would remain in force. Places which were peacefully settled would have British law applied to them. The British said that New South Wales had been peacefully settled, and that therefore indigenous law would be displaced by British law – although it is unlikely that the first white settlers acknowledged that there was a system of Indigenous law anyway. The new Commonwealth of Australia came into existence on 1 January 1901. Service in the armed forces by Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders during World War Two was a powerful argument in favor of their right to vote. Many people felt ‘if they were good enough to fight and die for their country, they are good enough to vote in its elections’. In 1949 there was a compromise – the Commonwealth Parliament granted the right to vote in federal elections to Indigenous people who had completed military service or who already had the right to vote in their state (Commonwealth Electoral Act 1949). In March 1962 the Commonwealth Electoral Act was amended to provide that Indigenous people could enroll to