Australian

At the Federal election of 1943, Enid Lyons (united Australia Party) and Dorothy Tangney (Australian Labour Party) became the first women to be elected to the Australian parliament. A video from the National Museum of Australia on this page tells their story. Today much remains to be done to counter ongoing resistance to hearing women's… Read More »1943: Election of the first women members of the Australian Parliament: Enid Lyons (House of Representatives) and Dorothy Tangney (Senate)

Margaret (Lilardia) Tucker (1904 - 1996) was one of Australia's earliest and most notable Aboriginal activists. The Indigenous Australia website explains: "Her Aboriginal name, Lilardia, means flower but she was known affectionately to black and white alike as 'Auntie Marge'. She was born at Warrangasda, an Aboriginal reserve near Darlington Point on the Murrumbidgee River… Read More »1996: Death of Margaret Tucker, Indigenous Australian activist and writer

On this day in 1966 the Gurindji walked off Wave Hill Station. What began as a strike over the refusal of Vestey Brothers to pay Aboriginal workers was to become a pivotal event in the struggle for the legal recognition of Aboriginal land rights. As the National Museum of Australia explains: "The Gurindji strike was… Read More »1966: Gurindji strike or Wave Hill Walk-off, beginning the longest strike in Australian history

Action Does your parish, school or Catholic organisation have a Reconciliation Action Plan? Today might be a good day to check on your progress, or to start the process of developing a Reconciliation Action Plan. What is Reconciliation? ANTaR describe reconciliation as "a process where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, non-Indigenous Australians and Australian… Read More »1991: Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act passed by Parliament

"On this day in 1936, the last known survivor of the thylacine species, better known as Tasmanian tigers, is said to have died in captivity in Hobart, Australia, having only been captured a few years earlier in 1933. It was renowned as the largest carnivorous marsupial to survive into the modern age, and now that… Read More »1936: Death in Hobart Zoo of the last Tasmanian tiger in captivity

"In the early years of European settlement on the Darling Downs relations between the two races were mostly friendly. However, by the 1840s relations had turned sour. The European settlers did not understand the indigenous population's deep spiritual connection to the land and so often treated their sacred sites (natural features of the land) poorly.… Read More »1843: Battle of One Tree Hill near Toowoomba, QLD, between Aboriginal landowners and European settlers