Aboriginal political organizations

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Aboriginal political organizations in Australia first existed in 1925. A political opposition developed that was not able to expand further due to the Second World War. After 1945 the Aborigines campaigned for their individual and common social rights and rights to their land. This was expressed in the demands of political organizations. After 1970 regional and communal interests came to the fore and institutions were created that addressed the legal and legal problems of the Aborigines. These institutions are now state sponsored. A special feature is a supra-regional political activity, the so-called tent message from 1971, which takes up general political demands and exists to this day. From the 1990s onwards, there is a noticeable trend that general political interests are taken up, which may a. was expressed in the establishment of an Aboriginal Provisional Government organization in 1990.

Aboriginal organizations before 1945

Before the First World War , there was no political organization that advocated the interests of the Aborigines, and the first organization to explicitly demand social and political rights for the Aborigines came into being in 1925.

In the 1930s, Aboriginal strikes for better food and treatment in Christian Aboriginal mission stations run by Europeans and later for more wages, and political organizations were formed as a result. These organizations, which only accepted members of an "Aboriginal" lineage, succeeded in enforcing the Aboriginal Protest Day , the Day of Mourning, and replacing an all-white control organization over the life of the Aborigines, the Aboriginal Protection Board, by a also with Aboriginal Representatives occupied the Aboriginal Welfare Board in 1940. The beginning of World War II put an end to the developing opposition.

Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA)

The first organization to formulate political demands in the interests of the Aborigines was the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA) founded by Charles Frederick Maynard in 1925 . She stood up against the kidnapping of Aboriginal children from their families as well as for free access to the school system, for land rights to traditional land and against the determination of living conditions by the white administration. The AAPA disbanded in 1927 because of systematic police persecution.

Australian Aboriginal League (AAL)

The Yorta-Yorta Aborigines founded the Australian Aborigines League in 1934 by William Cooper . From 1934 to 1936 the League developed a 9-point political program, which included the influence of the Aborigines in international and national politics, no discrimination, consideration of traditional Aboriginal rules, equal civil and land rights, equal education and other rights for the Aborigines demanded. When politics did not respond, Cooper tried to influence the 150th anniversary of Australia with a day of protest, the Day of Mourning , on the 150th anniversary of British colonization on January 26, 1938. Since 1940, the Aboriginal holiday has been held parallel to Australia Day . When Cooper died in 1941, the League's commitment waned.

Australian Progressive Association (APA)

In the political dispute over the Day of Mourning, the Australian Aboriginal League, led by Cooper, allied itself with the Aboriginal Progressive Association founded by Jack Patten in 1937 . The APA made three key demands: full citizenship and human rights, representation in parliament and the abolition of the Aboriginal Protection Board of New South Wales. The Association succeeded in changing the Aboriginal Protection Board to the Aboriginal Welfare Board . The APA stopped its work in 1944 and was reactivated in 1963 by Bert Groves and Pearl Gibbs to participate in the land rights movements as a political force.

Aboriginal organizations after 1945

Even before the Second World War, the International Labor Organization (ILO) had drawn up conventions against forced labor in 1930 and labor by natives in 1936, and Australia blatantly violated these conventions. Aboriginal politics in the coming years determined both social and land law issues. After the end of the World War, the cattle drovers began a strike for better wages in May 1946, which did not end until 1949. In 1954 a new political organization came into being, which particularly took action against racism. In 1963, the Yolngu Aborigines protested with their famous tree bark petition against planned bauxite mining in their traditional land. Another strike by 200 "Aboriginal" drovers for equal wages with the whites in 1966 spawned the first political movement for land rights for the indigenous peoples of Australia, as the government only wanted to allow the Aborigines to receive land rights if they "made sense of the land." to farm". As a result, a new form of protest developed, the tent embassy , which united several Aboriginal tribes and was set up at the foot of the Old Parliament in Canberra in 1971.

Aboriginal Australian Fellowship (AAF)

The Aboriginal Australian Fellowship was founded in 1956 on the initiative of Pearl Gibbs and Faith Bandler . Gibbs wanted to reform the Aboriginal Welfare Board of New South Wales, of which she was a member from 1954 to 1957, in the interests of the Aborigines. The AAF included both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members such as artists, writers, communists, Jews, and Christians. At the founding meeting in the Sydney Town Hall on April 29, 1957, this organization turned against racial discrimination in schools, baths and cinemas and carried out high-profile campaigns. She campaigned for better education for Aborigines in Western Australia . The AAF disbanded in 1969 when the Aborigines set up their own organizations.

Aboriginal Advancement League (AAL)

The Aboriginal Advancement League was founded in 1957 by Charles McLean to support the Aborigines in Victoria and criticized the circumstances in the reservations and Aboriginal mission stations on Lake Tyers . Today the League is active in family and food support, home visits, legal aid, development of counseling and training programs, drug and alcohol addiction counseling, and financial help at funerals.

Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI)

From February 14 to 16, 1958, a conference of various Aboriginal organizations took place in Adelaide, which led to the establishment of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders .

Aboriginal organization from the 1970s

In the 1970s, new forms of organization emerged, expressing the fact that young active Aborigines wanted to found new forms of organization with the exclusive participation of Aborigines and want to accelerate the political process. The political Aborigines turned mainly to local trouble spots and founded their first local interest groups and organizations in 1970.

National Tribunal Council (NTC)

At the 1970 Congress of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement, the National Tribunal Council was founded, which was divided into the Brisbane Tribunal Council and Victoria Tribunal Council and local organizations such as the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) and in 1971 the Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) that exist to this day and receive government support. The National Tribal Council worked for about three years. After the Labor Party election in late 1972, the Aborigines turned more to local than national interests.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was established by Australian federal law in 1989 and was intended to represent the interests of the Australian Aborigines to the Australian federal, state and local governments. The organization was supposed to develop programs to promote the social and cultural life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and was abolished after a review because there were irregularities and it was too concerned with itself.

Aboriginal Provisional Government (APG)

On July 16, 1990, the Aboriginal Provisional Government (APG) was founded in Australia and intends to found its own government and state for the Aborigines. In preparation for the establishment of this state, the organizational form of a provisional government was chosen.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heather Goodall: Maynard, Charles Frederick (Fred) (1879-1946) , Australian Dictionary of Biography, p. 339, Volume 15, Melbourne University Press 2000 Online Edition
  2. ↑ Gerhard Leitner: Aboriginal Australians . P. 31
  3. ↑ Information on www.kooriweb.org , accessed on July 25, 2009
  4. ^ The Australian Aboriginal League at www.mabonativetitle.com , accessed July 4, 2009
  5. ↑ a b Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship on indigenousrights.net.au , accessed on January 10, 2017 (English)
  6. ↑ Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements Project , accessed July 13, 2009
  7. ^ Michael Mansell: About the Aboriginal Provisional Government (APG). Towards Aboriginal Sovereignty. August 1990, archived from the original on September 12, 2009 ; accessed on October 9, 2013 .