Being counted

When you turn 18.. When you turn 18 What can you do?

Learning intention To develop an understanding of struggles for indigenous rights and freedoms in Australia in the 1960s, particularly the 1962 Electoral Act Amendment and the 1967 Referendum

Being counted In the early 1960’s, following challenges to racial segregation overseas, many Australians were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the unfair treatment of Australia’s Indigenous Population. The government was also under international pressure to make their policies more inclusive.

Did you know? That Indigenous Australians were NOT allowed to vote before 1962?

The 1962 electoral act amendment In 1961 a parliamentary panel recommended that Indigenous people be allowed to vote in federal elections. This recommendation was followed a year later with an amendment to the Electoral Act allowing Indigenous people to enrol to vote if they wished. Why was the Electoral Act 1962 so Important?

What is a referendum?

What’s a referendum? A referendum is a vote by the people. Every citizen who is eligible to vote has the right to vote on a given issue. Voters can accept or reject a government proposal put directly to them. The Constitution describes the organisation and powers of Parliament at state and federal levels. A Constitution sets out the rules or laws that state the way a country or state is governed.

What would you hold a referendum on? Why are referendums important? What would you choose to run a referendum about in Australia? What about in your classroom or school?

The 1967 referendum In 1967 there remained one area in which Indigenous Australians were treated very differently from every other member of the Australian population: They were NOT counted in the national census. The census is a tool used by the government to count its citizens and extract important demographic information, such as age, gender, and where you live.

The 1967 referendum The Australian Constitution at the time 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.”

The 1967 referendum To Indigenous activist Chicka Dixon, the message the constitution conveyed was quite clear – “It said the Australian Commonwealth Government would recognise all races of people other than Aboriginal – in other words, we didn’t exist”

How would you feel? Discuss how you think being left out of the Constitution affected Aboriginal people?

How would you feel? Aboriginal people were not counted in the Australian census. This meant that the Government did not have a clear idea of how many Aboriginal people lived in Australia, where they lived and how old they were. .

90% said yes On May 27 1967, 90.77% of Australian voters recorded the largest ever “Yes” vote in a referendum to alter the Australian Constitution. This extraordinary result, where over 90% of the voting population agreed to support the civil liberties of Australia’s indigenous peoples was based on an organized and involved campaign.

What factors? What factors do you think would have contributed to such a strong voting result?

1 millions signatures It would take ten years to gather over 1 million signatures on petitions that gave Parliament a basis to vote for holding the referendum. The petition was first presented to Parliament in 1963 without success.

Day of mourning? The fight by Aboriginal people for political and social recognition began perhaps with the ‘The Day of Mourning’ campaign in 1938, observing 150 years of white colonization.

The freedom ride? Who were they? What did they set out to achieve?

Read the following Read the following extracts from newspaper articles published after the outcome of the Referendum. How do these two views differ in their perception of the referendum outcome? Which one, in your opinion, is more accurate? Why?

Referring to the referendum proposal on Aborigines, Mr Holt said that he was delighted with the vote in every State favouring the elimination of the references in the constitution which smacked of discrimination...” The vote will not only help the Aboriginal, it will contribute to Australia’s international standing by demonstrating to the outside world our overwhelming desire to give full acceptance to the Aboriginal people within our community”... The West Australian, Monday, May 29, 1967, p 8.

The usefulness of the referendum result, in practical terms, depends entirely on whether the Federal Government intends to draw up an enlightened policy of Aboriginal welfare and to implement that policy... If such a national policy does not emerge, will it consist of merely giving lip service to “equal rights” for Aborigines? In fact we know it is nonsense to talk about Australians having “accepted” the Aboriginal into the white man’s community. This belongs to Canberra’s political dream time as long, for instance, as a majority of Australian business houses refuse to employ even those few Aborigines who are professionally qualified. Daily News, Tuesday, May 30, 1967, p10.