Office For Justice, Ecology and Peace

1959: Launch of Australian Consumer Association (ACA)
2021-09-23 00:00 - 23:59 (Australia/Sydney)
The Australian Consumer Association is now known as CHOICE. It describes its aim as “to tackle the issues that really matter to consumers, arming them with the information to make confident choices and lobbying for change when consumers are getting a raw deal.”

It played an important role in the drafting of the Trade Practices Act, Australia’s first national consumer protection law. It also campaigned for the introduction of the Australian Consumer Law, which guarantees consumer rights today.

Find out more about the history of CHOICE

1872: Birth of David Unaipon, Aboriginal writer and activist
2021-09-28 00:00 - 23:59
What do you know about David Unaipon, the man on the fifty dollar note? He was a preacher, writer and inventor and was the first Aboriginal published author. David was born in 1872 on the Point McLeay mission in the town of Raukkan, just 80 km southeast of Adelaide. Find out more on the NITV website.

“David Unaipon first of all, forced Australians to accept Aboriginal intelligence then he forced them to consider the scientific knowledge of the world’s oldest culture. His legacy paves the way for younger Aboriginal people to unearth the Indigenous science Australia has buried beneath a ton of denial.” – Bruce Pascoe, Author Quoted in Luke Briscoe, in Remembering David Unaipon: the man on the fifty dollar note, NITV.

National Indigenous Television (NITV)

1983: Death of John Pat in Roebourne Prison WA, prompting the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
2021-09-28 00:00 - 23:59
Noel Olive explains in the Australian Dictionary of Biography:

“On 28 September 1983 several members of the Roebourne police force attended a meeting of the Western Australian Police Union of Workers at Karratha. They adjourned to the local golf club for drinks, and then proceeded to the Top Bar of the Victoria Hotel at Roebourne. A brawl broke out between the off-duty police officers and a group of Aborigines, including Pat, a 16 year old Aboriginal boy who died of head injuries alleged to have been caused in a disturbance between Aboriginal people and Police… The circumstances of Pat’s death were investigated by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, established in 1987… Pat’s death became for Aboriginal people a symbol of injustice and oppression. The Aboriginal poet, Jack Davis, wrote John Pat (1988). The John Pat Memorial Day for Deaths in Custody is observed each year with a ceremony at the old Fremantle Prison.” Noel Olive, “Pat, John Peter (1966-1983)”, in Australian Dictionary of Biography

1975: Ratification by Australia of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
2021-09-30 00:00 - 23:59
“The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 1966 was one of the first human rights treaties to be adopted by the United Nations (UN). The Convention is widely supported, with more than 156 countries (four-fifths of the membership of the UN) having ratified it. Australia ratified the Convention on 30 September 1975.” Australian Human Rights Commission – Guide to the Law

Anti-Poverty Week
2021-10-10 00:00 - 2021-10-17 23:59
Anti-Poverty Week was established in 2002 by the Social Justice Project at the UNSW, led by Professor Julian Disney. It was inspired by the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17) but expanded to include a full week in Australia to allow more participation.

The aim was to strengthen public understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty and hardship around the world and in Australia; and encourage research, discussion and action to address these problems, including action by individuals, communities, organisations and governments.

Access resources for Anti-Poverty Week here. Register your own events here.

1997: First Sea of Hands, Canberra
2021-10-12 00:00 - 23:59
The first Sea of Hands was held on the 12 October 1997, in front of Parliament House, Canberra. Hands in the colors of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags were signed by people to show their support for reconciliation and native title. At the time it was the largest public art installation in Australia.

The Sea of Hands movement has continued for over twenty years. You can book a Sea of Hands installation through ANTaR’s Hands Up! program.

2001: Sinking of refugee boat SIEV X
2021-10-19 00:00 - 23:59
On 19 October 2001, 353 people, mostly women and children, drowned on the high seas trying to reach Australia in a small, dilapidated, grossly overloaded fishing boat that would later come to be known as Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel (SIEV) X. There were 45 who survived the sinking, of whom seven eventually settled in Australia. SIEVX was the first major drowning incident involving asylum seekers travelling to Australia by boat.

Eureka Street

1985: Return of Uluru to the traditional owners, the Anangu people
2021-10-26 00:00 - 23:59
On 26 October 1985 the Governor General of Australia, Sir Ninian Stephen, handed over title for the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park to the Traditional Owners of the area – the Anangu.

The hand over and lease back ceremony was held in the Mutitjulu community near the base of Uluru. It was a night of singing and dancing for the Traditional Owners and other Aboriginal people. The celebrations marked a long struggle for Anangu to be recognised as the rightful custodians of Uluru, Kata Tjuta and the surrounding land.

AIATSIS Handback

2019: Ban on climbing Uluru comes into force
2021-10-26 00:00 - 23:59
On this day the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board of Management decision to close the climb to the top of Uluru came into force. The Board is made up of a majority of traditional owners of the park. This date was chosen as it was the date in 1985 when the park was handed back to the Anangu people.

1834: Battle of Pinjara, WA
2021-10-28 00:00 - 23:59
One hundred years after the Battle of Pinjarra, someone writing under the nome de plume ‘Cygney’ recounted the story in The West Australian newspaper. What do you make of this 1934 account of the battle?

World Teachers Day
2021-10-29 08:00 - 17:00

1907: Harvester minimum wage judgement by Justice Higgins
2021-11-08 00:00 - 23:59
“In 1907 Justice Henry Bourne Higgins, President of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Court, set the first federally arbitrated wages standard in Australia. Higgins’s ruling became the basis for setting Australia’s minimum wage standard for the next 70 years. Using the Sunshine Harvester Factory as a test case, Justice Higgins took the pioneering approach of hearing evidence from not only male workers but also their wives to determine what was a fair and reasonable wage for a working man to support a family of five. The decision was a landmark case because, for the first time, employers were challenged to formulate wages on the basic needs of their employees rather than being solely concerned with the company’s profits.” National Museum Australia

Did you know?

Justice Higgins’ determination of a just wage was influenced by Pope Leo XIII’s definition of a just wage in Rerum Novarum in 1891. Leo XII says that “remuneration must be enough to support the wage earner in reasonable and frugal comfort” (n 34) and goes on to specify that wages must be sufficient to enable a worker to “maintain himself, his wife, and his children in reasonable comfort” and “by economy” be able to save and purchase property (n 35).

For reflection

Neither Justice Higgins nor Pope Leo XIII considered the role of women in the workforce or question of wage justice for women workers. How might the ideal of wages sufficient to support a family be enacted today in a way that recognises the right of women to participate in the paid workforce and the responsibility of men to share in unpaid family and community responsibilities?

1975: Dismissal of the Whitlam Government
2021-11-11 00:00 - 23:59
“On 11 November 1975, after a series of dramatic events including a 1974 double dissolution and a budgetary supply crisis, the Gough Whitlam-led federal Labor government became the first (and only) government in Australian history to be dismissed by the Governor-General. While this constitutional crisis has overshadowed the Whitlam years, the administration left a lasting legacy of social and political reform.” National Museum Australia

For reflection

Which social and political reforms of the Whitlam era are you most grateful for?

What social and Political reforms do you think are needed today?

How might we answer Pope Francis’ call in Fratelli Tutti (On Fraternity and Social Friendship) for a ‘better kind of politics’?

1964: Passage of National Service Act by Australian Parliament
2021-11-24 00:00 - 23:59
An Act to amend the National Service Act 1951-1957. The National Service Act 1964, was an Australian federal law, passed on 24 November 1964, which required 20-year-old males to serve in the Army for a period of twenty-four months of continuous service (reduced to eighteen months in 1971) followed by three years in the Reserve. Date of Assent: 24 November 1964. Date of Repeal: 30 June 1992. Repealed by: Defence Legislation Amendment Act 1992.

Australian Parliament Legislation

For reflection

What do you know about the history of national service, conscription and conscientious objection in Australia?

How does national service relate to Church teaching about war and nonviolence?

1998: Award of the first Sydney Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus
2021-11-27 00:00 - 23:59
The Inaugural Sydney Peace Prize was presented to Professor Muhammad Yunus for his innovative work enabling the world’s poor to become independent through access to microfinance, and for his inspiring advocacy of view that poverty is the denial of all human rights and that peace is freedom from poverty. In 2006, Professor Yunus went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

1986: Meeting of Saint John Paul II with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Alice Springs
2021-11-29 00:00 - 23:59
“Dear Aboriginal people: the hour has come for you to take on new courage and new hope. You are called to remember the past, to be faithful to your worthy traditions, and to adapt your living culture whenever this is required by your own needs and those of your fellowman. Above all you are called to open your hearts ever more to the consoling, purifying and uplifting message of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died so that we might all have life, and have it to the full.“ Pope John Paul II, Address to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in Blatherskite Park, Alice Springs, 29 November 1986.

Action

Visit the website of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council to learn more about St John Paul II’s visit to Alice Springs.

Read St John Paul II’s address and consider its call to you today.

1976: Appointment of Sir Douglas Nicholls as Governor of South Australia, first Aboriginal person to hold vice-regal office
2021-12-01 00:00 - 23:59
“A trailblazer who won hearts around the nation, the achievements of Sir Douglas Nicholls KCVO OBE JP are many and varied, taking in the fields of sport, politics and social justice. He broke new ground — as the first Indigenous Australian to receive a knighthood in 1972, and the first to be appointed to vice-regal office, when he became Governor of South Australia in 1976.” Aboriginal Victoria, Sir Douglas Nicholls KCVO OBE JP: A Trailblazer Who Won Hearts Around the Nation

International Day for Abolition of Slavery
2021-12-02 00:00 - 23:59
Slavery is not something from the past. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) more than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery. ‘Modern slavery’ is an umbrella term referring to practices such as forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking. These practices place people in situations of exploitation that they cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power.

The Australian Government has enacted laws aimed at stamping out modern slavery, including by eliminating it from the supply chains of Australian businesses and organisations.

Action

Is your organisation required to submit a Modern Slavery Statement? Check out the guidance for entities that are required to submit such statements here.

Did you know that the Archdiocese of Sydney has an Anti-Slavery Taskforce? It provides education, guidance and advice to help Church entities to ensure that they are not unwittingly involved in modern slavery and to meet their legal reporting obligations.

Find out more about the United Nations’ celebration of the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

2000: 350,000 people walk for reconciliation in Melbourne and Perth
2021-12-02 00:00 - 23:59
The Melbourne walk, starting at Flinders Street Station and finishing at King’s Domain gardens, drew as many as 300,000 people.

The bridge walk and similar events across Australia were enormously important in showing that public sentiment was moving towards support for more concrete steps in the reconciliation process. Though the event was organised by Aboriginal people those taking part were from all sections of the Australian community.

Importantly, the walks were not a protest but a peaceful demonstration that reflected a shift in the public mood and a growing awareness of the importance of reconciliation and a need for a national apology.

Walk for reconciliation, National Museum Australia

For reflection

Did you, or someone you know, participate in a walk for reconciliation? How did you / they feel that day? And how do you / they feel about action for reconciliation now?

Tewnty years later, how might we take up and support the Uluru Statement from the Heart?

2000: Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Final Report presented
2021-12-04 00:00 - 23:59
At the end of the year 2000, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation handed its final report to the national Parliament at a ceremonial event at Parliament House in Canberra. This letter contained in the full report provides an overview of the decade-long work of the Council and a way forward for the nation to achieve reconciliation.

Read the full report at the Australian Legal Information Institute.

1992: Redfern Speech by Prime Minister Paul Keating
2021-12-10 00:00 - 23:59
“It begins, I think with that act of recognition. Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice.” – Former Prime Minister Paul Keating, Redfern Speech, 1992

On 10 December 1992, Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered a speech to the large crowd gathered in Redfern Park for the launch of the International Year of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. It was a historic moment for Australia. In his speech, Keating explicitly acknowledged the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. It was the first time a prime minister spoke about the dispossession, violence and prejudice perpetrated against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Read Paul Keating’s Speech Transcript via ANTAR’s website.

1894: South Australian Parliament, the first in Australia to give women the right to vote
2021-12-18 00:00 - 23:59
On 18 December 1894 the South Australian Parliament passed the Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act.

The legislation was the result of a decade-long struggle to include women in the electoral process. It not only granted women in the colony the right to vote but allowed them to stand for parliament.

This meant that South Australia was the first electorate in the world to give equal political rights to both men and women.

Read more about Women’s Suffrage here.

1993: Passage of Native Title Bill by the Australian Senate
2021-12-21 00:00 - 23:59
The Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (NTA) is a law passed by the Australian Parliament that recognises the rights and interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in land and waters according to their traditional laws and customs. It established a process for claiming and recognising native title lands and waters in Australia. The NTA aims to balance Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples’ rights to land, and sets out how native title rights and interests fit within Australian law.

1901: Enactment of Immigration Restriction Act (White Australian Policy)
2021-12-23 00:00 - 23:59
At the end of the 19th century, Australian colonies had concerns about who was migrating to Australia. With a rise in the number of migrants from China and the Pacific, many colonies passed tough immigration legislation. The Immigration Restriction Act was one of the first Commonwealth laws passed after Federation. It was based on the existing laws of the colonies. The aim of the law was to limit non-white (particularly Asian) immigration to Australia, to help keep Australia ‘British’. The ‘White Australia Policy’ was not fully removed until 1972.

1996: Wik High Court decision
2021-12-23 00:00 - 23:59
In The Wik Peoples v The State of Queensland & Ors; The Thayorre People v The State of Queensland & Ors [1996] HCA 40 (‘Wik’), the High Court held that native title rights could coexist on land held by pastoral leaseholders. The High Court decided that:

– a pastoral lease does not necessarily confer rights of exclusive possession on the pastoralist– the rights and obligations of the pastoralist depend on the terms of the lease and the law under which it was granted; – the mere grant of a pastoral lease does not necessarily extinguish any remaining native title rights– if there is any inconsistency between the rights of the native title holders and the rights of the pastoralist, the rights of the native title holders must yield.

1901 Foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia
2022-01-01 00:00 - 23:59

1994 Native Title Act
2022-01-05 00:00 - 23:59
1994: Commencement of the Native Title Act

Australia Day / Survival Day
2022-01-26 00:00 - 23:59
2021 Australia Day Reflection from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council

“We find ourselves pondering whether Australia will ever be the same after COVID-19? It might be more useful to ask whether it should be the same after the pandemic. Australia can continue to learn from the challenges of the virus and embrace the gifts of First Nation’s Culture to make it a better place for all.

Whilst we should be talking about these things all year, Australia Day is often the trigger for discussions around moving the date, what our Country stands for or changing the National Anthem. For the record:

– Yes, we should change the date to May 27 (the day that Australia voted to grant citizenship to us Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and to remove us from under the Fauna and Flora Act in 1967),

– Australia should stand for equality, respect, and compassion for all and,

– Yes, the National Anthem should be representative of all.”

Read more of NATSICC’s 2021 Australia Day Reflection here. Drawing on wisdom from the experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities in dialogue with Scripture and Catholic Social Teaching, it offers four recommendations:

1. After suffering together through the pandemic, Australians should forge forwards with humble hearts and a unity of mind and armed with a renewed sense of equality and care for one another.

2. Continue to empower and acknowledge the dignity and worth of individuals, created equally in the image of God, through the extension of assistance schemes and the provision of a living wage.

3. All Australians should acknowledge, in our actions and in legislation, that Elders/Old People are valuable and contributing members of society and that we are responsible to care for and love them – just as they did for us.

4. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander gifts, skills, and knowledge to be utilised for the betterment of First Nations Peoples and Australia as a whole.

“As we enter 2021 with a sense of hope and ‘rebirth’ we ask that, for the first time in post-colonial history, Australians stand together to lift one another up. Stand alongside the Traditional Custodian. Stand alongside the migrant striving for a better life. Stand alongside the grandmother that has lived through so much. We are much stronger, and much better when we are together.” 2021 Australia Day Reflection, NATSICC.

In 2019 the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC) first publicly joined calls for the date of Australia Day to be changed. They explained:

The 26th of January 1788 was not a day of celebration for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people nor was it for the passengers upon the first fleet – a mix of prisoners and military personnel. Perhaps it is time that we rethink the date upon which our nation comes together as one to recognise and acknowledge the gifts that God has provided in our great southern land. For the past year, those that sit upon the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council have asked their community, peers, friends and fellow Catholics if they celebrate Australia Day. The resounding response was no. That answer was not followed by hatred or vitriol, it was simply that they felt it was not meant for them nor was it mindful of the hurt experienced by Australia’s First People. For many, the opportunity to spend the day with family and friends is appreciated and our people understand and respect the pride that some Australians have for the day, however the foundation of unity and inclusiveness is just not there.Celebrating our nation on a day that harbors grief, invokes painful memories and ignores the true history of our society just doesn’t make sense. Given that the day has been celebrated on various dates and under different names in the past 100 years, what will be lost by moving the date? National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council, 2019.

For Reflection

Key points from NATSICC’s statement:

A majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholics feel that Australia Day is not for them.NATSICC endorses the call to change the date of Australia Day and suggests 27 May as a starting point for conversation. A ‘True History’ educational program should accompany Australia Day to educate and promote understanding of the story of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Every Catholic School in Australia should teach this history. The next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are carrying lots of pain and anger because of things like Australia Day. Something must change!

1972 Aboriginal Tent Embassy Established in Canberra
2022-01-26 00:00 - 23:59

1939 Cumeragunja Mission Walk-off
2022-02-04 00:00 - 23:59
In 1939 the Aboriginal people walked off Cumeragunja Mission in New South Wales in protest at living conditions and restrictions.
