"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… Read More »1992: Redfern Speech by Prime Minister Paul Keating
Celebrate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by reading a simplified version or the illustrated booklet of the Declaration, or watching the Declaration in sign languages.
International Mountain Day has its roots in the document “Managing Fragile Ecosystems: Sustainable Mountain Development” (called Chapter 13), adopted in 1992 as part of the action plan Agenda 21 of the Conference on Environment and Development. Mountains are home to 15% of the world´s population and a quarter of the world’s land animals and plants.… Read More »International Mountain Day
"The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century. Mary appeared to Juan Diego dressed as an Aztec woman to show her love and compassion to an oppressed group of people. Mary had heard the prayers and pain of these people, and she came to give them hope.Mary’s visit… Read More »Our Lady of Guadalupe
Catherine McAuley was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1778. In 1824 she used her inheritance from an Irish couple she had served for twenty years to build a large House of Mercy where she and other lay women would shelter homeless women, reach out to the sick and dying and educate poor girls. The House… Read More »1831: Founding of Sisters of Mercy by Catherine McAuley
"All migrants are entitled to equal protection of all their human rights. On this International Day, I urge leaders and people everywhere to bring the Global Compact to life, so that migration works for all." - UN Secretary-General António Guterres The observance of International Migrants Day this year focuses on the stories of social cohesion,… Read More »International Migrants Day
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… Read More »1894: South Australian Parliament, the first in Australia to give women the right to vote
International Human Solidarity Day is a day to celebrate our unity in diversity, a day to remind governments to respect their commitments to international agreements, a day to raise public awareness of the importance of solidarity, a day to encourage debate on the ways to promote solidarity for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals… Read More »International Human Solidarity Day
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… Read More »1993: Passage of Native Title Bill by the Australian Senate