Another Nation: Aboriginal Activism in the Late 1960s and Early 1970s

Abstract

The late 1960s and early 1970s witnessed the emergence of Aboriginal nationalism and an associated decline of activist interest in securing Aboriginal inclusion in the Australian nation. This article positions these changes in the context of disillusionment following the 1967 referendum, the advent of black power and land rights, the radicalisation of youth and the rise of identity politics. It argues that the Aboriginal nationalism of this period was a predominantly cultural nationalism that sought to transcend the colonial subordination of Aborigines through a rejuvenation of Aboriginality.

Notes

¹Sue Taffe, Black and White Together: FCAATSI: The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders 1958–1973 (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2005), 219–306.

²Jennifer Clark, Aborigines and Activism: Race and the Coming of the Sixties to Australia (Perth: University of Western Australia Press, 2008).

³Ravi de Costa, A Higher Authority: Indigenous Transnationalism and Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2006), 92–120.

⁴Bain Attwood, Rights for Aborigines (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2003), 307–349.

⁵John Breuilly, Nationalism and the State, 2nd edition (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), 1–3.

⁶See for example Kai Nielsen, ‘Cultural Nationalism, Neither Ethnic nor Civic’, in Theorizing Nationalism, ed. Ronald Beiner (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999), 122–123; Will Kymlicka, ‘Misunderstanding Nationalism’, in John Breuilly, Nationalism and the State, 2nd edition (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), 138.

⁷John Hutchinson, Modern Nationalism (London: Fontana, 1994), 40–41 (italics in original).

⁸John Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism: The Gaelic Revival and the Creation of the Irish Nation State (London: Allen and Unwin, 1987).

⁹Anthony Smith, Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History (Cambridge: Polity, 2001), 33–36, 133–142.

¹⁰Smith, 142.

¹¹Julia Martínez, ‘Problematising Aboriginal Nationalism’, Aboriginal History 21 (1997), 133–147.

¹²Jeff Archer, ‘Ambiguity in Political Ideology: Aboriginality as Nationalism’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology 2, no.2 (1991), 161–170.

¹³J. T. Patten and W. Ferguson, Aborigines Claim Citizen Rights! A statement of the case for the Aborigines Progressive Association (Sydney: Publicist, 1938) 5 (italics in original).

¹⁴Russell McGregor, ‘Develop the North: Aborigines, Environment and Australian Nationalism in the 1930s’, Journal of Australian Studies no. 81 (March 2004), 33–45.

¹⁵Cooper to Minister for the Interior, 16 June 1937, A659, 1940/1/858, National Archives of Australia (NAA); Attwood, 54–78.

¹⁶Taffe, 85–124; Bain Attwood and Andrew Markus, The 1967 Referendum: Race, Power and the Australian Constitution 2nd edn (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2007).

¹⁷Faith Bandler, Turning the Tide: A personal history of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 1989), 4.

¹⁸ One People (Canberra: Government Printer, 1961).

¹⁹ Sydney Morning Herald, (19 May 1967), 6.

²⁰Russell McGregor, ‘27 May 1967: The 1967 Referendum: An Uncertain Consensus’, in Turning Points in Australian History, ed. Martin Crotty and David Roberts (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2009): 171–183; Attwood and Markus, 1967 Referendum, 44–64.

²¹Kevin Gilbert, Because a White Man'll Never Do It (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1973), 102, 104.

²²Kath Walker, ‘Black-White Coalition can Work’, Origin 1, no. 4 (September 1969), 6.

²⁶Kath Walker, ‘The Black Commandments’, Koorier 1, no. 10 (1969), 25.

²³Kath Walker, ‘Voting in Queensland: An Aborigine's Point of View’, Smoke Signals 4, no. 3 (October–November 1965), 22.

²⁴ Koorier 1, no. 8 (19 69): 7; Kath Walker, ‘Political Rights for Aborigines’, Smoke Signals 8, no. 1 (April–June 1969), 11.

²⁵Walker, ‘Black-White Coalition’.

²⁷Transcript of Monday Conference, ABC TV, 20 March 1972, 12, 13, FCAATSI Records, ms.2999, box Y599, Mitchell Library.

²⁸‘Editorial’, Alchuringa 1, no. 2 (March–May 1972), 1.

²⁹Gilbert, Because, 137.

³⁰Gilbert, Because, 61.

³¹See for example Russell McGregor, ‘Protest and Progress: Aboriginal Activism in the 1930s’, Australian Historical Studies 25, no. 3 (1993): 555–568; Heather Goodall, Invasion to Embassy: Land in Aboriginal Politics in New South Wales, 1770–1972 (Sydney: Allen and Unwin/Black Books, 1996); Sue Taffe, ‘The Role of FCAATSI in the 1967 Referendum: Mythmaking about Citizenship or Political Strategy?’, in Contesting Assimilation, ed. Tim Rowse (Perth: API Network, 2005), 285–298.

³²Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism rev. edn (London: Verso, 1991), 118–124.

³³ Australian, 29 August 1969; Telegraph, 29 August 1969; clippings in A.R. Pilling newspaper clippings, vol.1, part 1, ms.3511, AIATSIS.

³⁴Bob Maza, ‘Tuesday 24th August, 1969’, National Koorier 1, no. 9 (1969), 7.

³⁵McGuinness, ‘Black Power, Victoria’, Newsletter on Aboriginal Affairs, 3 (1972), 5.

³⁶See for example ‘Black Power, Western Australia – An interview with Ken Colbung,’ Newsletter on Aboriginal Affairs, 3 (1972), 8–9.

³⁷John Maynard, ‘“In the interests of Our People”: The Influence of Garveyism on the Rise of Australian Aboriginal Political Activism’, Aboriginal History 29 (2005), 1–22.

³⁸Clark, 203–219.

³⁹See for example Bobbi Sykes, ‘Opening Statement’, in Black Power in Australia: Neville Bonner versus Bobbi Sykes, ed. Ann Turner (Melbourne: Heinemann, 1975), 10–12.

⁴⁰‘Definition of black power’, Origin 1, no. 4 (18 September 1969), 5.

⁴¹Gilbert, Because, 104.

⁴²‘Editorial’, Alchuringa 1, no. 2 (March–May 1972), 1; Gilbert, Because, 60–61.

⁴³‘Black Panthers of Australia, Platform and Programme, 1970’, document 139 in The Struggle for Aboriginal Rights: A Documentary History, ed. Bain Attwood and Andrew Markus (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1999), 252–254.

⁴⁴Bob Maza, ‘The Koorie's Disillusionment’, Smoke Signals 8, no.1 (April–June 1969): 4.

⁴⁵See for example Monday Conference, 20 March 1972, 14–18.

⁴⁶[Bruce McGuinness], ‘Stokely Carmichael on Black Power’, The Koorier 1, no. 9 (1969), 23.

⁴⁷Attwood, 249.

⁴⁸Taffe, 219–266.

⁴⁹John Newfong, ‘The Black Australians’, 1972, FCAATSI Records, box Y602.

⁵⁰Taffe, 266.

⁵¹‘National Tribal Council Policy Manifesto’, Smoke Signals 9, no. 1 (September 1970), 24–26.

⁵² Origin 3, no. 1 (25 September 1970), 1, 3.

⁵³Attwood, 215–253.

⁵⁷Gilbert, Because, 146.

⁵⁴ Cook is Bad News for Aborigines: Why Aborigines will not be celebrating the Cook Bicentenary [1970], Papers of Barry Christophers, ms. 7992, box 27, National Library of Australia (NLA).

⁵⁵Maza, ‘Disillusionment’, 3–4.

⁵⁶‘When the thief is the judge’, Alcheringa 1, no. 2 (March–May 1972), 5.

⁵⁸ They're Only Gamin, Black Rights Committee leaflet, c. 1972, Papers of Gordon Bryant, ms.8256, box 174, NLA.

⁵⁹Smith, 140–141.

⁶¹Maza, ‘Disillusionment’, 3–4.

⁶⁰Smith, 140–141.

⁶³‘NTC Manifesto’, 25.

⁶²Smith, 29–31, 140–42.

⁶⁴Cooper to Prime Minister, 31 March 1938, A659, 1940/8/858, NAA; Australian Abo Call no.1 (April 1938), 1–2.

⁶⁵Cooper to Minister for the Interior, A1, 36/7014, NAA.

⁶⁶Resolutions of the 4th National Conference on Aboriginal Advancement, 1961, Christophers Papers, box 27.

⁶⁷David Martin, ‘Talking to Doug Nicholls’, Smoke Signals 2, no. 1 (October 1962), 10.

⁷¹Coe, quoted in Gilbert, Because, 184.

⁷²Workshop on Aboriginal Culture and Identity, January 1973, FCAATSI Records, box Y604.

⁶⁸ Monday Conference, 20 March 1972, 4.

⁶⁹Aboriginal Tribal Council of Victoria, undated leaflet, quoted in Attwood, 318.

⁷⁰ Koorier, 1/8, [1969], p. 4.

⁷³‘NTC Manifesto’, 26.

⁷⁴ Monday Conference, 20 March 1972, 4–5.

⁷⁵Hutchinson, Modern Nationalism, 50.

⁷⁶Anderson, 170–178.

⁷⁷ Monday Conference, 20 March 1972, 6.

⁷⁸ The Age, 28 January 1972, extract in A6122, 2229, NAA.

⁷⁹John Newfong, Captn Cook celebration Protest, April 1970, FCAATSI records, box Y599.

⁸⁰Aboriginal Embassy Land Rights Policy, A6122, 2229, NAA.

⁸¹ Monday Conference, 20 March 1972, 4–5.

⁸² Monday Conference, 20 March 1972, 6.

⁸³ Official Year Book of Australia no. 59 (1973), 971.

⁸⁴Smith, 9.