Skip to main content

The 1967 Referendum to Give Aboriginals Equal Rights

I was in my twenties in 1967 when the referendum on giving Aboriginals the vote was held. Obviously, I must have voted, but I cannot remember anything at all about it nor the way I voted. Should I be ashamed about this? Well it seems many Australians do not remember a thing in regard to the referendum. It was nearly half a century ago.

Rarely does a yes vote to change the Constitution "get up". This to non-Australians means that few attempts to make a change have been successful. Of the 24 referendums held only four have got a majority yes vote. People from other countries would think it odd that an advanced country such as Australia had not given Aboriginals the vote decades before. However, think about the racial discrimination in the United States in the supposedly enlightened 1960s.

Other discrimination existed then. Young Australian men who were forcibly enlisted into the military to fight in the Vietnam War could not go into a pub and drink alcohol until they reached the age of 21. Most conscripts were in their teens. When they came home on leave they were condemned by society for fighting the wrong war, even though they did not want to fight at all.

Though the referendum was commonly assumed to be about giving Aboriginals the right to vote, they could already do this but seldom did. The referendum was to give Aboriginals all the rights that Caucasion  Australians had. A yes vote gave them the pride and dignity of being accepted as "real" Australians. Before 1967 Aboriginals were a non-people. They had no real identity and were ignored by white society generally.

They got access to welfare and took it dismissively calling it "sit-down money". They began to openly express themselves for good or bad. Discrimination still exists against aboriginals today. The Northern Territory is controlled by the Federal government. Aboriginal men in the Northern Territory are forbidden to drink alcohol. Clearly, many white Australians still feels that Aboriginals are racially inferior and cannot handle alcohol. Go to a night club in the early hours of the morning and see the number of white Australians stunbling about completely out of their minds on alcohol.
 Politics by Ty Buchanan
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
     Australian Blog                         
ALL BLOG ARTICLES· ──► (BLOG HOME PAGE)
Share Article

Popular posts from this blog

Consuming More Tea and Coffee Prevents Diabetes - Doubtful

Claims about consuming certain things to improve health are way off beam. Every now and then supposed new research shows that if you eat this or don't eat that your health will improve. Years late we discover that the "experts' were totally wrong and your health was actually damaged. This happened with margarine, milk, eggs and so on. What is the latest? Well, apparently drinking up to three cups of coffee or tea each day reduces the risk of getting diabetes. Look around. Do you see people who drink these beverages regularly with diabetes? You sure do. There are thousands of them. The University of Sydney says “If such beneficial effects were observed in interventional trials to be real, the implications for the millions of individuals who have diabetes mellitus, or who are at future risk of developing it, would be substantial.” Their trials must be wrong. Surely millions of regular drinkers who have diabetes are thinking, "Why me? Why have I got the disease&qu

Anthropology Has New Theory on Australian Aboriginals

New theory on Australian Aboriginals - Anthropology. Australian Aboriginals split from Eurasians and moved south into the dry continent. Twenty thousand years later the world warmed up and Australia was cut off from its northern neighbors. This is the latest theory.  But when Europeans initially came to Queensland there were two types of native people. Each was a distinct genetic pool. One was like Papua New Guineans. The other was very slight and shorter. It is the latter that predominates today. Papua New Guineans Australian Aboriginals Some scientists still hold that there was only one move out of Africa. This is an unsustainable supposition. The doors for movement were always open. Australian Aboriginals were quite unique. It seems that they were the first to leave Africa. There is also the question of Tasmanian Aboriginals who were wiped out by arriving Europeans. There is no evidence of them now. They could not light fires. The flames had to be stolen f

Happy Cow

"Yes, I am content." ✿ Funny Animal Photos contented cow field Adventure Australia Funny Weird Things Articles News Reviews ● ⌘   Vista Computer Solutions Blog   ⌘ ✤ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   . . . . . . . . . . cow content happy good life free field paddock green grass milk dairy COW NOT LEAVING HOME