Right: Former Prime Minister John Howard was seen by many to be against constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people. Howard also publicly voiced his opinion that Indigenous Australians were never subjected to any kind of genocide.
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Background information
The material below which relates to an Indigenous/Australian timeline has been taken from different sources. Material from 1770 to 1995 has been taken from the Now South Wales Teaching Heritage site.
Later material comes from the National Conciliation Week Conciliation Timeline
the SBS News Timeline for the Indigenous rights movement
and the National Museum Australia's Historical milestones Genocide
An attempt to define, punish and prevent genocide was first made by the United Nations, shortly after the end of World War II, in the wake of the dreadful mass killing and persecution perpetrated by the Nazis against Jewish people in Europe, Poles, gypsies and others.
The attempt to exterminate all Jewish people in Europe is now commonly referred to as the Holocaust. This term was first used in this way in the United States in the early 1940s and popularised in the late 1970s.
Definition of genocide
Under Article 2 of the United Nations Genocide Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 'genocide' is defined as the commission of any act 'with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such'.
The prohibited acts include:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Australia was only the second State to ratify the Convention, which entered into force on 12 January 1951. The treaty was adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly and opened for signature on 9 December 1948. Australia signed it two days later and soon after ratified the Convention on 8 July 1949, enacting the Genocide Convention Act 1949 (Commonwealth) with bipartisan political support. This unanimity and prompt support were largely in response to the recent genocides against Jews and gypsies perpetrated by the Nazis in the Second World War.
Some key dates and events in Indigenous/Australian history
1770
Lieutenant James Cook raised the British flag at Possession Island off the tip of Cape York Peninsula and claimed to take possession of the whole east coast of Australia. The British annexation of Indigenous Australia was based on the doctrine of terra nullius. In effect this doctrine stated that Australia belonged to no one i.e. Indigenous Australians had no concept of law or ownership and have no rights to land. All indigenous rights were extinguished, and no British citizenship rights granted. (However, it is now recognised that in the1830s the British Government accepted that Aboriginal people had some legal claim on the land).
1788
British occupation of Australia began. Estimates put the Indigenous population at between 300,000 and 750 000. Aboriginal resistance was immediate. Clashes were reported over the next 10 years in the Parramatta and Hawkesbury districts. The British Government's act of possession legislated Indigenous Australians as British subjects and marked the acquisition of sovereignty over Indigenous Australia.
For the first fifty years of the colony Indigenous Australians had no formal citizenship status. Indigenous Australians were given the title of Natives and were deemed to be His Majesty's subjects. (This was the same for the colonists who were also deemed subjects. White male suffrage did not occur until 1858).
1804
Tasmania: Two years after the British flag was raised in Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) settlers were authorised to shoot Indigenous Australians.
1814
NSW: Governor Macquarie established the Native Institution at Parramatta. This school for local Indigenous children closed in 1820 when families withdraw children after they realised that the Institution's aimed to distance Indigenous children from families and communities.
1816
NSW: Governor Macquarie's proclamation gave some Indigenous Australians, with 'passes', the 'protection' of white law. This same proclamation declared Martial Law against other Indigenous Australians who could then be shot on sight if armed with spears, or unarmed, if they were within a certain distance of white houses or settlements.
1824
NSW & Tasmania: Martial law was declared in Bathurst NSW after Indigenous Australians became a serious threat to white settlement. In Tasmania, settlers were authorised to shoot Indigenous Australians.
1830
Tasmanian Indigenous Australians were forcibly settled on Flinders Island. Conditions were very poor, and many died. Later the community was moved to Cape Barren Island.
1834
Western Australia: The Pinjarra massacre: Governor Stirling led 25 mounted police against Indigenous Australians. Official records say 14 Pinjarra were killed. Pinjarra accounts suggest a whole tribe was wiped out in the attack.
1837
A British Parliamentary Select Committee examined the treatment of Indigenous people in all British colonies. Australian colonies were particularly criticised. 'It will be very hard, we think, to find compensation...for the murders, the misery, the contamination which we have brought upon them.'
1838
NSW: Myall Creek massacre. Settlers shot and burnt twenty-eight Kamilaroi, mostly women and children. This was the first occasion in Australian history when perpetrators of a massacre of Indigenous Australians were punished under Australian law.
NSW: Prohibition of sale, or gift, of alcohol to Indigenous Australians. Various forms of the prohibition continue to appear until 1963 and then were reintroduced after the Intervention in 2007 in selected communities across central and northern Australia.
1839
NSW: Squatters made liable to lose their license for 'malicious injury or offence committed upon or against any Aboriginal native'.
1869
Victoria: The Board for the Protection of Aborigines was established. The Governor could order the removal of any child to a reformatory or industrial school. The Protection Board could remove children from families be housed in dormitories. From 1886 the Victorian Board was empowered to apprentice Indigenous Australians' children when they reached thirteen. Children required permission to visit their families on the stations.
1883
NSW: Aborigines Protection Board was set up and legislated control over the lives of around 9 000 Aboriginal people.
1890
NSW: As early as 1890 the Aborigines Protection Board developed a combined policy of 'segregation' and 'assimilation'. The Aborigines Protection Board could forcibly take the children off the reserves and 'resocialise' them 'for their own good'.
1901
Commonwealth: Indigenous Australians were denied the rights of the 1901 Commonwealth Constitution. These rights were not granted until the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) Act [1967 Referendum]. The 1901 Commonwealth Constitution mentions Indigenous people twice: once to exclude Indigenous people from the census, and once to exclude Indigenous people from the lawmaking powers of the Commonwealth parliament.
1905
Western Australia: Under the Aborigines Act (WA) the Chief Protector was made the legal guardian of every Indigenous person and "half-caste" child under 16.
1911
South Australia: Aborigines Act (SA) empowered the Chief Protector to be the legal guardian of every Indigenous and "half-caste" child under 21 with control over the child's place of residence. The Chief Protector was replaced by the Aborigines Protection Board in 1939. Guardianship power was repealed in 1962.
Northern Territory: Northern Territory Aboriginals Ordinance (Cwlth). The Chief Protector was made the legal guardian of every Indigenous and 'half-caste' child under 18. Any Indigenous person could be forced into a mission or settlement and children could be removed at will. These powers were repealed in 1957.
1925
NSW: Australian Aborigines Progressive Association was formed in NSW and demanded the abolition of the policy of forced removal of Aboriginal children.
1928
Northern Territory: Coniston massacre - settlers and police admitted to shooting 31 Indigenous Australians after a white dingo trapper was killed.
1936
NSW: The Aborigines Protection Act 1936 (NSW) allowed any Indigenous person to be removed by court order to a reserve and be kept there until the order was cancelled.
1938
NSW: The Australian Aborigines Conference was held on January 26 in Sydney marking a Day of Mourning for the 150th anniversary of the NSW colony. The founders, Jack Patten, Jack Ferguson and William Cooper demanded a 'new deal for Aborigines', for 'justice, decency and fair play'. They had a ten-point plan for equality and access to mainstream citizenship rights.
1940
NSW: Under new legislation, the Aborigines Welfare Board replaced the Aborigines Protection Board. This new legislation made it more difficult to segregate Indigenous children from their families but, in reality, the practice still continued well into the 1960s.
1949
Commonwealth: The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1949 (Cwlth) allows Indigenous Australians the right to vote in federal elections only if they are enrolled in state elections or have been members of the defence force . The Convention on Genocide wa ratified by Australia. It came into force in 1951.
1951
Commonwealth: At the Third Commonwealth-State Native Welfare Conference, Canberra formally adopted a policy of assimilation in regard to Indigenous Australians ... "assimilation means that, in the course of time, it is expected that all persons of 'aboriginal blood' or 'mixed blood' in Australia will live like other white Australians do."
1958
Commonwealth: The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) was formed leading to a ten-year struggle for constitutional reform which resulted in the holding of the 1967 Referendum.
1960
Commonwealth: Social Service benefits are paid directly to Indigenous Australians for the first time.
1965
Commonwealth: July 1965 - March 1967: As a result of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Workers' Case the Commonwealth Arbitration Commission granted equal wages to Indigenous pastoral workers. The cattle industry reacted by phasing out Indigenous labour and driving Indigenous communities progressively off their properties which were their traditional lands.
1967
Commonwealth: The Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) Act (Cwlth) referendum is passed. This Act conferred the power on the Commonwealth to make special laws for Aboriginal people (though it was ten years before this happened in an effective way) and entitled Indigenous Australians to be included on the census and in electoral calculation.
1972
Commonwealth: Aboriginal Tent Embassy was set up outside Parliament House in Canberra to demonstrate for Indigenous rights.
The Labor Government of Gough Whitlam adopted self-determination as official government policy in Indigenous affairs. This was the first time in Australia's colonial history that government policy coincided with Indigenous Australians aspirations
1974
Commonwealth: The Aboriginal Land Fund Act (Cwlth) enabled incorporated Indigenous organisations to acquire interests in land.
Federal Cabinet accepted the 1973 Woodward Commission recommendations that all Northern Territory reserves and missions should be handed over to Indigenous people.
1978
Commonwealth: The Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Ordinance, instituting prosecution for trespass and desecration of Aboriginal sites, was passed. The Kimberley Land Council was formed. The Northern Territory was given self-government by the Fraser Government.
1983
NSW: Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW) recognizes dispossession and displacement.
1984
Commonwealth: The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1984 (Cwlth) gives full entitlement to all Indigenous Australians to vote in all state and territory elections.
1985
Northern Territory: Uluru handed back to traditional owners.
1988
Commonwealth: Australia's representative to the United Nations Human Rights Committee acknowledged: "public policy regarding the care of Aboriginal children, particularly during the post-war period, had been a serious mistake". Thousands of Indigenous people and supporters marched through the streets of Sydney to celebrate survival on the Bicentennial of British colonisation of Australia.
1992
Commonwealth: The High Court of Australia rules in the Mabo case that native title exists over particular kinds of land - unalienated Crown land, national parks and reserves - and overturns the doctrine of terra nullius recognising that Indigenous peoples are the original occupants of this land and possessed a complex system of land tenure that has always existed in this country.
1993
Commonwealth: The Native Title Act (Cwlth)was passed in Federal parliament and established the principles and processes to be used for establishing Native Title.
1995
Commonwealth: National inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families was established in May . Bringing Them Home Report was launched in June of this year.
1996
Commonwealth: Wik people were successful in a High Court case to establish that native title and pastoral leases could co-exist.
1998
Commonwealth: 1998: Native Title Amendment Act 1998 is passed; seen by many to reduce native title rights for Indigenous people.
First National Sorry Day - over 1 million signatures collected in Sorry Books.
2000
Corroboree 2000. Handover of Document for Reconciliation at Sydney Opera House, more than 300 000 joined in the Bridge Walk.
2007 - 21st June
Commonwealth: Howard Government announces its intervention into Northern Territory Indigenous communities titled the Northern Territory Emergency Response.
2008, 13th February
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology within the Australian Parliament to the Stolen Generations
2017
The Uluru Statement from the Heart was released by Indigenous delegates to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Referendum Convention held near Uluru in Central Australia.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart asked for two reforms:
a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution;
a Makarrata Commission, 'to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history'.