Sunday 27 May 2007 is the 40^th anniversary of the 1967 referendum which gave the Commonwealth government power to make laws regarding all Australians, including indigenous Australians. Prior to 1967 the Commonwealth had no power to make laws in relation to people ‘of Aboriginal race in any state’.

Contrary to popular belief, the referendum did not give indigenous people the right to vote (which they already had); to citizenship, or the right to be counted in the census. Nevertheless, the referendum has come to be seen as an important marker of a change in attitude of the dominant ‘white’ Australians to the first inhabitants of this country, indigenous Australians.

http://www.reconciliation.org.au/downloads/9/Referendum_Fact_Sheet.pdf

Join Michael Long on the Long Walk to the Dreamtime from Federation Square to the MCG tomorrow, 25 May 2007 at 4.00 pm The Long Walk - Home