1967 Referendum
On May 27th 1967, a historical moment in Australia’s history occurred. The Referendum of 1967 approved two Australian constitutions concerning about Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders. The change of sections 51 and 127 in the Australian constitution allowed Aboriginals to be counted in the national census and the Commonwealth’s right to legislate for Aboriginal Peoples. This was an overwhelming vote with over 90% of Australians voting in the ‘yes’ campaign. The Referendum was an important change for Aboriginals because they would be then accepted as people in their own country, they would then have special laws to protect them from being discriminated, there would be funding towards Aboriginal communities and the Australian community as a whole and they needed the scars to heal from the past.
For many decades Aboriginal organisations worked diligently to remove discriminatory references towards Aboriginal peoples. They campaigned all over the country for a constitutional referendum to be held. Finally in 1967 an Australian referendum was held. The referendum did not allow Aboriginal people to vote as this right was already given in 1962. The referendum was not about citizenship nor equal rights. There were several factors that impacted the final outcome of the 1967 Referendum these included: growing families that had accessed to media therefor they were more aware of the arising issue, both political parties approved of the 1967 Referendum, a huge non-Aboriginal community supported the ‘yes’ campaign and lastly because the referendum was held in the sixties this allowed an effective outcome because this was the decade of change.
The historical events that impacted the movement for a referendum included the First World War. A number of Aboriginal people fought alongside the ‘Australians’, this allowed strong bonds and this formed