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  • Referendum and Reform

    This Exhibition highlights resources that relate to the 1967 Referendum and its consequences, including the debate around Constitutional Reform.


    Guided searches for Referendum, Reform and Reconciliation:

    Click on the links to go directly to search results for the terms below:

    1967 Referendum Reconciliation BlackWords + activists
    Uluru Statement Aboriginal Rights BlackWords + Aust. Constitution
  • The 1967 Referendum

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    assertion

    Australians voted in the 1967 Referendum to amend the Constitution to include Aboriginal people in the census, and to allow the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people. 

    The Referendum is often regarded as a turning point in history for Aboriginal rights.

    The sections of the Constitution under scrutiny were:

    • 51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:- (xxvi) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal people in any State, for whom it is necessary to make special laws...
    • 127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted. (NAA)

    There are persistent myths about the Referendum, including that the Referendum gave Aboriginal people citizenship, and the right to vote. Larissa Behrendt discusses the three biggest myths of the 1967 Referendum, or, listen to Professor Peter Buckskin discuss the myths that persist about the 1967 Referendum on World News Radio.

  • Uluru Statement from the Heart

    On the 50th Anniversary of the Referendum at the National Constitutional Convention, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates issued the 'Uluru Statement from the Heart'. The statement begins:

    We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:

    Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.

    and ends...

    In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard

    The statement asks for two reforms:

    1)  A First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution

    2) a Makarrata Commission (a tribunal to 'oversee agreement-making between the First Nations and Federal and State Governments' (MUL).

    Read the full Final Report of the Referendum Council. The Australian Government rejected the reform. Now, Australian States and Territories are taking steps to develop treaties, which are constitutionally recognised without requiring referendum (Hobbs).

  • Web Resources about the Referendum

    Below is a small sample of external websites exhibiting key moments in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander civil rights history.


    The 1967 Referendum

    A National Library of Australia research guide

    Right Wrongs

    Extensive online exhibition by the ABC

    The Referendum Australia Had to Have

    An exhibition by AIATSIS

    Right to be Counted

    A photo essay exhibition 'Voices from the Pilbara'.

    Events that Led to the 1967 Referendum

    A Timeline from National Library of Australia's Digital Classroom

    Tjukurpa: Five Days in Uluru

    A photographic exhibition/meditation on the Convention at Uluru.

    Anita Heiss - 50 Moments in 50 years to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum

  • Further Reading

    Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), ‘The referendum Australia had to have’, AIATSIS website.

    Gardiner-Garden, J. The origin of Commonwealth involvement in Indigenous Affairs and the 1967 Referendum, Background paper, 11, 1996–97, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 1997.

    Gardiner-Garden, J. The 1967 Referendum—history and myths, Research brief, 11, 2006–07, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2007.

    Hobbs, H. 'Why the Government was Wrong to Reject an Indigenous 'Voice to Parliment'. The Conversation, October 30, 2017.

    Melbourne Law School. 'Uluru Statement from the Heart: Information Booklet'. 2018. website.

    National Archives of Australia. 'The 1967 Referendum - Fact Sheet 150', National Archives of Australia website 2019. 

    National Museum Australia, ‘The Referendum, 1957–67’, Collaborating for Indigenous Rights 1957–1973 website.

    Parliamentary Library, Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia, 44th Parliament, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2014. 

    Reconciliation Australia. '27 May - 1967 Referendum', National Reconciliation Week 2018, website.

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