Council for Aboriginal Rights facts for kids
The Council for Aboriginal Rights (CAR) was an important group founded in Melbourne in 1951. Its main goal was to make life better for Indigenous Australians and help them get fair treatment. Even though it started in Victoria, its work helped people all over Australia. Many people saw it as one of the most important groups fighting for Indigenous rights in the 1950s.
The Council supported causes in places like Western Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory. Some of its members later became leaders in other Indigenous rights groups. The Council stopped its work in the 1980s. By then, it had helped show many unfair laws to Australians and people around the world. This public awareness led to changes in laws and more government support for Indigenous people.
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How the Council Started
A workers' strike in Darwin in 1950 helped lead to the creation of CAR. Workers on the Aboriginal reserves of Bagot and Berrimah were unhappy. They were protesting against curfews and asking for better homes, pay, and working conditions. The North Australian Workers' Union (NAWU) supported them.
The NAWU also told people about Fred Waters, a strike leader. He was sent away from his home and family to Haast's Bluff, over 1,500 km away. This happened even though he hadn't been found guilty of any crime. Murray Norris, the NAWU president, traveled around Australia. He helped non-Indigenous people understand the difficult lives of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.
After hearing Norris speak, a group of people decided to form the Council for Aboriginal Rights. They met on 16 March 1951. About 70 people attended, including members from unions, women's groups, and churches. The new group wanted to fight for justice for Aboriginal Australians. Only two Aboriginal people were there: pastor Doug Nicholls and Bill Onus.
The Council's goal was to "plan, conduct and organize the widest possible support for a campaign to obtain justice for all Australian Aborigines". The group based its rules and campaigns on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from the United Nations. This declaration was passed in 1948. The Council wanted to see if Australian laws met these human rights standards.
The first leaders of the Council were:
- President: Farnham Maynard, an Anglican church leader.
- Vice-president: Colin Williams, a Methodist minister.
- Honorary Secretary: Henry Wardlaw.
Other important members included Shirley Andrews, a scientist and activist, and Molly Rayne, an academic. They were all active in peace movements.
A few months later, the Council held its first public meeting. It was on 19 June 1951 at Melbourne Town Hall. About 900 people came, including people from other states and different groups. Speakers at this meeting included Charles Duguid, a doctor, writer Alan Marshall, and Doug Nicholls. The meeting helped tell everyone about the new organisation.
Important Work in the 1950s and 1960s
In early 1952, Shirley Andrews became the honorary secretary. She stayed in this role until 1961. Shirley Andrews used her many contacts to start campaigns. These campaigns aimed to change unfair laws and practices. She and the Council began to change how many white Australians thought about Aboriginal people.
Between 1953 and 1961, Andrews wrote and edited the Bulletin. This was a newsletter that came out twice a year. It shared the latest news about CAR's activities. The Bulletin even reached members in England, Italy, and India.
Shirley Andrews worked closely with some special people. One was Don McLeod, an Aboriginal rights activist from Western Australia. In 1955, the Council helped McLeod go on a speaking tour in eastern Australia. About 3,000 Victorians were inspired by his talks. He spoke about Aboriginal people running their own mining company in WA.
Andrews also regularly wrote to Mary Montgomerie Bennett. Mary worked with the Wongutha people in WA. Inspired by Mary's work, Andrews pushed the government to change laws. These changes would allow Aboriginal people to get old age pensions and unemployment benefits.
The Council wanted to teach non-Indigenous people about how Aboriginal people's rights were often ignored. They helped defend artist Albert Namatjira. He was charged under a special law called the Welfare Ordinance 1953. The Council used press releases and letters to newspapers. They showed that government rules caused many problems for Aboriginal people. They suggested social and political solutions, not just welfare, to fix these problems.
In the 1950s, the Council was the strongest voice for justice for Aboriginal people in Australia. It worked towards creating a national group where state-based organisations could work together. Shirley Andrews wrote to groups in South Australia and Western Australia in 1953. Her ideas for a national body were not immediately acted upon. However, in 1956, Jessie Street, an Australian women's rights activist, wrote to Andrews. She was interested in the Council's plans to tell the United Nations about how Australia treated its Aboriginal people.
Charles Duguid thought very highly of the Council for Aboriginal Rights. He believed they were the most important activist group in the 1950s.
After an event called the Warburton Ranges controversy in 1957, CAR helped start the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA). This happened at a meeting in Adelaide on 16 February 1958. The FCAA was the first group to represent Aboriginal interests across the country. Since the FCAA's main office was in Melbourne, CAR often helped with projects requested by Stan Davey, the FCAA secretary.
In 1957, Barry Christophers became president. Doug Nicholls and Stan Davey wanted to focus more on the needs of Aboriginal Victorians. So, Shirley Andrews encouraged them to start a new group. This became the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL), founded in 1957. Both CAR and VAAL worked with the FCAA.
During the Cold War, the government agency ASIO became interested in CAR. This was because some of its leaders were members of the Communist Party of Australia. By the 1960s, most of the religious groups had left the Council. It was mainly made up of left-wing activists and researchers.
In 1961, Pauline Pickford took over as honorary secretary from Shirley Andrews. Pauline's involvement brought more Aboriginal Victorians into the Council. These included Laurie Moffatt, Margaret Edwards (activist) (Joe McGinness' sister), and Doug Nicholls. Bill Onus was also active in the 1960s.
After working on a case about the Cape Bedford Mission in Hope Vale, Queensland, in 1961, Pauline Pickford stayed in touch with Gladys O'Shane. Gladys was the president of the Cairns Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders Advancement League. Pickford also worked with other activists from far north Queensland, like Joe McGinness and Evelyn Scott. Margaret Tucker was another important member.
In 1962, the Council helped the FCAA with a big campaign. They researched and organised a carefully-worded petition. This petition aimed to pressure the federal government to hold a referendum. A referendum is a public vote on a proposed change to the country's laws. This change would give the national government the power to make laws for Indigenous Australians.
Shirley Andrews, Barry Christopher, Stan Davey (from CAR), and Labor politician Gordon Bryant wrote the petition in Melbourne. They then sent it to other states for more ideas. The petition was called "Towards equal citizenship for Aborigines". It was different from earlier petitions. It showed how laws and policies in different states treated Aboriginal people unfairly. These laws stopped them from getting equal pay and jobs. They also denied them the right to own and develop their traditional lands.
Laws for Indigenous peoples covered things like voting rights, marriage, owning property, and wage rates. These laws were very different across states and territories. The FCAA petition campaign collected 103,000 signatures on 94 different petitions.
Changes in the 1970s and 1980s
In 1973, the FCAA became a group controlled by Indigenous people. In the same year, the Whitlam Labor government set up the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee. The government also helped fund new groups like Aboriginal legal services and Aboriginal health services.
The Council for Aboriginal Rights continued to support Indigenous projects. However, its original purpose became less clear. The Council's records, kept at the State Library of Victoria, don't show an exact date when it stopped working. But it seems its activities ended in the mid-1980s.
Lasting Impact
The Council for Aboriginal Rights had a huge impact. It was a key group in the fight for Indigenous rights in Australia. It helped change what people thought and pushed for changes to the Australian Constitution. The work done on the FCAA's 1962 petition campaign was very important.
This campaign eventually led to the 1967 referendum. This vote gave the Federal Government the power to make laws for Indigenous Australians in all states. It also meant Indigenous Australians would be counted in the Australian census.
