Rights and Freedoms

Question 1

What is the UDHR?

Answer 1

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Question 2

When was the UDHR written?

Answer 2

1948

Question 3

Who was Doc Evatt?

Answer 3

He was a high court judge, attorney general, minister for external affairs, labour party leader and joined the diplomatic councils of the allies.

Question 4

What did Doc Evatt achieve at 1945 San Francisco Conference?

Answer 4

Evatt led Australia’s delegation to meetings at the San Francisco Conference formed to established the Un’s mandate and drew up the charter signed 26 June 1945 that created the UN’s 6 organs.
He:
Convinced other delegates that economic and social security were human right issues
ensured decision making was not just involving the 5 key powers
increased powers of the General Assembly
organised participation of smaller nations in discussion and decision
united smaller nations in voting bloc under his leadership.

Question 5

Who formed the UN and when was it officially established?

Answer 5

It was officially established 24 October 1945. Australia was 1 of the 51 founding members and a member of the 18 nation commission that participated in UDHR. The victors of ww2 created it.

Question 6

What were the 4 policies

Answer 6

1. Protection (stolen generation, cootamundra)
2. Assimilation (dog licence)
3. Self determination
4. Integration

Question 7

What are the organ structures forming the UN?

Answer 7

The General Assembly
* Representatives from all member
states
* UN’s main discussion and policy-making forum
* Meets under the leadership of its President or the Secretary-General

Security Council
* Five permanent members
* 10 members with two-year terms
* Responsible for maintaining international peace and security

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
* 54 members with three-year terms
* Organises UN’s social and economic program
* Promotes human rights

Trusteeship Council
* Established to administer trust territories
* Five permanent members of the Security Council
* Convened if required, the council has not been in operation since 1994

International Court of Justice
* Judicial organ of UN
* 15 independent judges with nine-year terms

The Secretariat
* Does the administrative work of the UN
* Headed by a Secretary General who is the main spokesperson of the UN
* The Secretary-General has a five-year term which can be renewed indefinitely

Question 8

How was 1940s Australia out of step with the UDHR standards

Answer 8

Government still wanted to continue controlling Papua New Guinea
White Australia Policy still used in migration decisions
Australian Indigenous not treated equally.
Evatt had to avoid taking stance on issues where Australian reality fell short of number of standards proposed for the declaration.

Question 9

What is Terra Nullius?

Answer 9

Land belonging to no one. 18th century law stated that people of another land legally can take over land without an owner.

Question 10

What is the UDHR ongoing relevance with Aus?

Answer 10

reflects how we want society to be
Australia signed support to numbers of UN conventions which gave UDHR more force
our parliament has ratified some of these and incorporated its principles into Aus law
Ratified 2 covenants -> International covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR) and International covenant on economic, social and cultural rights (ICESCR)

Question 11

What and when was UN commission on Human Rights?

Answer 11

1947-1948 to discuss drafts document expression people rights as humans

Question 12

What is protection?

Answer 12

Protectionism was a government policy from 186901937 segregating Aboriginal ppl from Australian ppl and became the means of controlling their lives thru
Deciding where they could live and work e.g. ‘managed reserves’, Cootamundra
Limiting their access to their own wages
Forbidding practice of their traditions
Limiting education
Stolen generation

Question 13

What did Fred Maynard do?

Answer 13

Organised protest against govenment denial of Aboriginal rights through the establishment of Australian Aborigines Progressive Association (AAPA) in 1925.
Its model was the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which Marcus Garvey had established ten years earlier and which had become a significant political movement among poor African Americans living in New York and other US cities.
He rescued children from missions
Worked to prevent children being removed from their families

Question 14

What is self determination?

Answer 14

A group of people’s rights to exercise independent control of their own destiny and development. Occurred from 1975-2008.
Policy described as ‘Aboriginal. communities deciding the pace and nature of their future development as significant components within a diverse Aus’

Question 15

What did Fred Maynard protest against?

Answer 15

loss of reserves
separation of children from their families
government’s failure to protect young Aboriginal people from work as unskilled labourers
The AAPA also fought for Aboriginal peoples’ rights to an education and to self-determination.

Question 16

When was the Day of Mourning?

Answer 16

26 Jan 1938

Question 17

What is the Day of Mourning?

Question 18

What is assimilation?

Answer 18

Policy that expected that Aboriginal people who were ‘not of full blood’ would conform to the attitudes, customs and beliefs of the white majority. It occurred between 1937-1967 and a major part of it was the dog licence.

Question 19

What did William Cooper do?

Answer 19

Secretary of the Australian Aborigines League (AAL)
founder of the Aborigines Progressive Association (APA)
Led the first Aborigines deputation to a Federal minister 1935 and in 1938 led a deputation to the Prime Minister
Est a National Aborigines Day (1940)
Collected 1814 signatures from Aborigines all over Australia by October 1937; but in March 1938 the Commonwealth declined to forward his petition to King George VI

Question 20

What did William Ferguson do?

Answer 20

1938 Ferguson organised the Aborigines’ Progressive Assoc. Conducting five annual conferences in country towns, formulating its policies, arranging publiccity and welfare work. With Cooper and Patten organised the Day of Mourning
Ferguson instigated inquires into homes/reserves
Ferguson habitually checked his facts with reserve residents before attacking official policies on land, housing and control, and inspired young Aborigines to take up politics.

Question 21

What did Jack Patten do?

Answer 21

Member of the Aborigines’ Progressive Assoc
Instigated Day of Mourning 1938
Worked for the cause FOC
Patten’s speeches emphasis education for their children and, resolution for ‘full citizen status and equality’
led an Aborigines Progressive Association (APA) delegation to meet the Prime Minister

Question 22

What did Patten, Ferguson and Cooper do?

Answer 22

representation in federal parliament
federal government involvement in Aboriginal issues through the creation of a Department of Native Affairs
the creation of state councils to advise on Aboriginal affairs
reform of the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board.

Question 23

What occurred on the Day of Mourning?

Answer 23

They voted unanimously to support a resolution demanding ‘a new policy which will raise our people to full citizen status and equality within the community’. They issued a manifesto describing the situation of Aboriginal people and their expectations of the Australian government.
Prime Minister Joe Lyons agreed to meet with an Aboriginal delegation on 31 January 1938. He listened to a 10-point plan outlining ways the federal government could achieve justice for Aboriginal people. The Prime Minister said that the Constitution did not allow the federal government to take control of Aboriginal affairs.
The 1938 Day of Mourning and Protest did not achieve its main goals. What it did achieve was to:
unite Aboriginal people in a formal gathering demanding their civil rights
make Australians think about whether 26 January was an appropriate date for a national celebration. Nowadays, Aboriginal people call it ‘Invasion Day’ and ‘Survival Day’.

Question 24

Why did Indigenous Australians make 26 January 1938 a Day of Mourning and Protest?

Answer 24

It marked 150 years of the denial of their rights.It marked 150 years of the denial of their rights.
It marked 150 years since the invasion and of loss their land.It marked 150 years since the invasion and of loss their land.
To make people question the appropriateness of this date for a national celebration

Question 24

What forms of protest did Indigenous Australians use on 26 January 1938?

Answer 24

Calling this day ‘A Day of Mourning’
Holding a protest march
Holding a meeting with speakers on key issues
Issuing a manifesto describing Indigenous peoples’ expectations
Voting on a resolution to present to the government

Question 24

What is the board report?

Answer 24

The 1911 board report was a document outlining the details after legislations were created for Indigenous people. It had things like the number of them, half-caste and full-blood, number of breaches/offences, education, what they received at Christmas etc

Question 25

What do half-caste and full-blood mean?

Answer 25

Half caste means half Aboriginal half European and full blood means fully Aboriginal

Question 26

What are the Stolen Generations?

Answer 26

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who as children were separated from their families, usually by force, by Australian state and territory governments
They:
lost their links with family and land
lost their understanding of kinship
missed out on being educated in the language, culture and traditions of their people.

Question 27

What is kinship?

Answer 27

involves special bonds that link an individual to the extended family group. It includes an understanding of the value of sharing and being able to rely on the support of family members and those who understand the Dreaming. Kinship also involves respect for elders who pass on the important traditions, values and stories within Indigenous culture and who serve as role models for younger members.

Question 28

What are wards of the state?

Answer 28

Someone whose legal guardian is the state, the court or public welfare agency as they are unable to care for themselves

Question 28

How did they systemise the Stolen Generation?

Answer 28

People began removing Indigenous children from their families not long after the arrival of Europeans in 1788. State governments began to do this more systematically towards the late nineteenth century and continued doing so until the late twentieth century. They:
established laws (‘Protection’ Acts) to empower them to do this
established protection boards to administer this policy
gave power to police and protection officers to implement the policy
took over from parents their roles as their children’s legal guardians

Question 28

How did officials get away with forcing the children in Stolen Generation?

Answer 28

Officials often falsely claimed that parents neglected and/or abused their children. Officials said governments would provide the children with a better life than they could expect to have within their own families and communities. Over time, most state governments made Indigenous children wards of the state so that there was no need to provide reasons for their removal.

Question 29

How did officials plan to rid Indigenous Australians?

Answer 29

They targeted mixed-race children and expected that they would assimilate with the white race as servants and labourers. They expected that these children would have children with white partners and that, over generations, Australia’s Indigenous peoples would ultimately ‘die out’.

Question 29

List some institutions, adoptions and fostering and their issues

Answer 29

The Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Girls, 1912–74
denied the girls any contact with their own families
taught them nothing about their own cultures and traditions
forbad the use of their traditional languages
punished anyone who contravened these rules.

The Kinchela Boys Home, 1924–70
Discipline was strict, treatment harsh and punishment severe. Child Welfare officers rarely inspected this institution or checked on what it was doing to address negative reports about how the superintendent ran the home and treated the boys.

The Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home, 1908 – c.1980
The Aborigines Protection Board established the Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home with the intention of replacing ‘original family ties with a new family unit, created according to a European Christian model’. Young children and babies lived there until they were about seven and the board then sent them on to another ‘home’.
Staff encouraged the students to think of themselves as white. They kept them away from their families and so prevented these children gaining any knowledge of their relatives or their cultural heritage. Many people remember this as a happier and more caring place than other institutions. At the same time, they emphasise that whatever care they received could not make up for what they had lost.

Question 30

What were some physical, psychological and emotional harms faced in the institutions?

Answer 30

Taking children had a devastating effect on its direct and indirect victims. Parents and communities lost their roles in nurturing these children to adulthood.
Denied access to their language, heritage, culture and role models within their own communities, many suffered depression and poor self-esteem. The staff they encountered in institutions varied from those who were kindly and well-meaning to those who were cruel and sadistic. Few had any training suited to their work.
Children of the Stolen Generations were more vulnerable than children generally. Other people ruled their lives, denied them opportunities for complaint and were reluctant to believe them if they did complain.

Question 30

When did attitudes change towards Aboriginal people?

Answer 30

In the late 1960s, most Australians did not know about the systematic removal of Indigenous people from their families. Victims often felt too ashamed to talk about it and/or had no one to listen. Indigenous activism, changing attitudes within governments and among welfare workers and increasing recognition of Indigenous peoples’ rights slowly began to have an impact.

In 1969 the New South Wales government abolished the Aborigines’ Welfare Board. Institutions began to close down. From the mid 1970s the government began to seek the views of Indigenous people when placing Indigenous children in foster care or for adoption. By the mid 1980s, the preferred policy was that children be placed with people of their own race. Indigenous activists pressured governments throughout Australia to adopt the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle and worked to reduce the numbers of Indigenous children whom welfare services removed from their families.

Question 31

What was the dog licence?

Answer 31

Seen as selling out their Indigenous culture and not fully excepted into white society
Individuals w certificate of excemption were living in societal limbo.
They couldn’t interact w family, had to carry certificate 24/7, were restricted to certain pubs and hotels, no free seatings in hotels and cinemas, separate wards in hospitals and occasionally refused accomodation.
Apartide and segrefation

Question 32

What was integration?

Answer 32

1965-1972 connection and flow and effect between policies. Inspired Aboriginal’s to question their conditions. It was a government policy aiming to
Run their own affairs
Keep their customs
Equality

Question 33

What was the referendum of 1969?

Answer 33

Addressed Indigenous ppl allowing them to be counted in the census and laws regarding them were registered and administered federally.
Granted Australian citizenship, seen as Australian
Allowed land ownership and spiritual + sacred site to conduct culture.

Question 34

What was ASIC?

Answer 34

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community allowed Indigenous to be politicians, high position etc, head of organisations like ASIC

Question 35

What were the Freedom Rides? What did they concern over?

Answer 35

12 February 1965 he lead 28 others on a 14 day journey visiting segregated areas. Their aim was to raise awareness of discrimination against Aboriginal people and to try to redress it.

Activists in the Australian Freedom Ride were concerned with:
Aboriginal peoples’ appalling living and health conditions
Aboriginal people being forced to live on reserves outside country towns
local authorities denying Aboriginal people access to facilities such as hotels, clubs and swimming pools; service in shops; and equal treatment in cinemas
the ways in which rural communities discriminated against Aboriginal people

Question 35

Who was Charles Perkins?

Answer 35

Half cast man, background: stolen generation, not one of the children taken away but lived in missions and institutions. He was an all rounder, highly educated (first indigenous to graduate from USYD), a sportsperson.
Eventually became an Aboriginal activist and led the freedom rides.
He had great influence in Aboriginal affairs, he was head of Aboriginal affairs in 1981, first Aboriginal to hold an office position in government. He fought to reduce inequality in education, employment, health and housing
In 1963 he also began studies at the University of Sydney, where he was a founding member of Student Action for Aborigines (SAFA), later becoming its president.

Question 36

Examples of places visited by the Freedom Rides

Answer 36

Walgatt
In Walgett, the local Returned Services League (RSL) club refused entry to Aboriginal people, including Aboriginal ex-servicemen who had participated in World Wars I and II. RSL management occasionally allowed them entry on Anzac Day. Perkins led the freedom riders in forming a picket line outside the club.
A line of cars and trucks followed the bus out of Walgett. One of the trucks forced the bus off the road. They saw four or five cars surrounding them and were relieved to find that these were driven by local Aboriginal people who had come out to offer protection. The other trucks and cars disappeared.
A journalist witnessed the incident and it became headline news. Mirror reporter Gerald Stone and his editor Zell Rabin noticed the similarities between the racist attitudes and behaviour they had observed while working as journalists in the US and the racist attitudes and behaviour in NSW.

Moree
1955 council by-law prohibited Aboriginal people from using the local artesian baths and swimming pool. The town refused to allow Aboriginal patients to share hospital facilities with white patients and insisted that Aboriginal people be buried in a part of the local cemetery that was separate from the section for white people.
SAFA’s protest began with a demonstration outside the council building. It then got families’ permission to take eight children and try to gain entry to the pool. Manager refused them.
Local mayor came up with another answer: Aboriginal children were allowed in as long as they were ‘clean’. The children went swimming and the freedom riders left Moree thinking that their protest had overturned the ban.
The mayor and the pool manager re-imposed the ban. Three days later, about six children from the Moree Reserve joined the freedom riders in another attempt to break the ban. They tried without success for over three hours. A crowd of about 500 angry locals shouted abuse, spat at them and threw tomatoes and rotten eggs at them and the bus.
The confrontation received huge press coverage and also television coverage from a BBC crew and a team from Channel Seven’s investigative program Seven Days. Many journalists made comparisons between the racist attitudes shown in Moree and those evident towards African Americans in the US. Finally, the police escorted the freedom riders out of Moree. The bus continued on to Lismore, Bowraville and Kempsey before returning to Sydney.

Question 37

Impact of the Freedom Rides

Answer 37

1. Raised public awareness
   There was tv + newspaper coverage of the Freedom Ride, to focus national attention on the Freedom Ride and brought images of racist behaviour in country towns, and its injustices, into living rooms around Australia. The Freedom Ride generated discussion and debate throughout Australia about the plight of Indigenous communities, and media coverage stimulated national and international pressure for reform.
2. Perkins’ leadership
   Charles Perkins became national figure for Aboriginal people. His Freedom Ride showed Aboriginal Australians that non-violent action could result in change. His organisation of protests and public debate demonstrated both his leadership skills and his willingness to take action to demand change.
3. Support for the 1967 referendum
   Attracting media attention to issues of injustice affecting Aboriginal people put pressure on Australia’s political parties to address these issues. The Freedom Ride became part of the campaign movement that resulted in the 1967 referendum to remove discrimination against Aboriginal people from the Constitution. Increased public awareness of racial discrimination within Australia helped create a context in which this referendum could succeed.
4. Perkins continued
   Perkins campaigned all his life for the recognition of Aboriginal rights. In 1981 the Fraser government appointed him Secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and thus the first Aboriginal Australian to head a federal government department. He protested against the reluctance of authorities to allow self-determination for Aboriginal Australians and against government failure to effectively address the inequalities in Aboriginal Australians’ access to education, health, housing, employment and the law.

Question 38

What was the referendum of 1967?

Answer 38

27 May 1967
It was important both for its subject matter - the place of Indigenous Australians within Australian society
Such a high ‘yes’ vote was remarkable in a country that other nations often judged to be racist and where voters were traditionally reluctant to change the status quo.
The 1967 referendum was not about citizenship or voting rights. Indigenous Australians, along with other Australians, gained Australian citizenship in 1948 when the concept of Australian (as opposed to British) citizenship came into existence. In 1949, the Commonwealth Government 1902 law that Aboriginal Australians had voting rights.
From 1965, all Aboriginal people of voting age had state voting rights as well.

The 1967 referendum was about the removal of the discriminatory sections of the Constitution. Many state laws affecting Indigenous peoples reinforced the policy of protection and so denied Aboriginal people rights that other Australians enjoyed. If the Commonwealth Government could make laws for Aboriginal Australians, then it could override laws that discriminated against them.

Question 39

What was SAFA?

Answer 39

Student Action For Aborigines

Question 40

List Aboriginal protest history in early Aboriginal activism

Answer 40

1895 - Aboriginal people gained management of 114 reserves
1925 - Fred Maynard organised protests thru AAPA
1932 - est of AAL
1937 - APA

Question 41

Did the 1967 referendum fully solve discrimination?

Answer 41

No. While the referendum result had great symbolic importance, it had little practical benefit for Aboriginal people as:

inequities continued in pay and working conditions
they continued to be victims of racism and discrimination
land rights remained a key issue to be addressed
political parties that had united to achieve the ‘yes’ vote did not share a commitment to improving health, housing, employment and education benefits for Aboriginal people, and it was another five years before the federal government began to implement change in these areas.