2016

1. 23 June Stolen Generations

   Members of the NSW Parliament offer apologies for past government policies after the state government tabled a report which makes 35 recommendations for reparations. Among these is a financial reparation scheme, similar to those in place in Tasmania and South Australia.

   We are sorry, we are very, very sorry for the past.

   — Jan Barham, Greens MLC and committee chair ^[1]

2017

1. 7 June Northern Territory Intervention

   The directors of the Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation (Laynha) based in Yirrkala (North East Arnhem Land, NT) representing many Yolngu clans complain they have received "less services, less funding and less true engagement and consultation" since the intervention and that politicians are not listening to them. They demand self-determination from the government.

2. 9 June Politics

   Australia’s peak union body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, establishes the First Nations Workers’ Alliance (FNWA) to represent participants of the Community Development Programme. (CDP). The CDP employs jobless people in remote Australia at conditions very different to urban areas, and more than 80% of its participants are Aboriginal.

3. 23 June Northern Territory Intervention

   The NT intervention has its 10-year anniversary.

4. 23 June Northern Territory Intervention

   Participants of the Stand Up 2017 conference in Alice Springs (23–26 June) assess the impacts of the decade of racist laws and map a way forward. They demand, among other things, the government repeal the intervention legislation and Aboriginal self-determination.

   Ten years too long. Ten years of hardship, neglect and broken promises. We want Aboriginal control.

   — Voice from the Yarrentye Arltere (Larapinta Valley) Town Camp ^[2]

5. 29 June Northern Territory Intervention

   Five Aboriginal elders respond to the anniversary of the NT intervention and demand an apology to the men of the Northern Territory and their families and communities, the repeal of the Stronger Futures legislation and the return of self-determination and autonomy.

2018

1. 7 June Treaty

   The lower house of the Victorian government passes the Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018 to create the framework for the treaty process. It is the first time legislation committing to treaty negotiations has ever been considered by an Australian parliament. ^[3] The framework will establish an Aboriginal representative body which in turn will help establish the process for the negotiation of a treaty, or treaties, between Aboriginal people and the state of Victoria.

2. 8 June Treaty

   The Northern Territory government and all four of the NT’s Aboriginal land councils sign a historic agreement to begin treaty talks. The Barunga agreement commits the all parties to a 3-year process to consult all Territorians to “develop a process to negotiate a Northern Territory treaty” with the aim “to achieve real change and substantive, long-term benefits for Aboriginal people”. ^[4]

3. 8 June Treaty

   The Northern Territory government signs a memorandum of understanding (a pledge to work towards a treaty) with all four Aboriginal Land Councils in the Northern Territory, pledging to work towards a treaty. Chief Minister Michael Gunner says his government is ready to negotiate a "Northern Territory Treaty" without Commonwealth involvement. ^[5] After the appointment of a treaty commissioner, consultations determine the level of interest in a treaty amongst Aboriginal Territorians. This is the first time the NT government and land councils have agreed to work together in this way, and the first time in decades that the four big land councils – the Northern, Central, Anindilyakwa and Tiwi – have joined together in consensus. ^[6]

   At the pace communities are comfortable, the government is ceding decision-making power back to where it belongs – the communities.

   — Michael Gunner, chief minister of the territory ^[7]

2019

1. June Arts

   Yorta Yorta soprano Deborah Cheetham premières Eumeralla, a War Requiem for Peace, a performance sung entirely in the reclaimed Gunditjmara language, and sold out weeks in advance.

2. 7 June Politics Arts

   Spark Health, an Aboriginal merchandise business, launches a Change.org campaign to open the use of the Aboriginal flag to all Australians after WAM Clothing, the current licensing holder, sent a cease and desist notice to the business. By September 2020 more than 140,000 people had signed the petition.
   

3. 8 June Sport

   Ashley Barty wins the French Open tennis Grand Slam singles title in Paris as only the second Aboriginal woman (after Evonne Goolagong-Cawley) and is ranked World Number 2.

4. 11 June Prison

   The Northern Territory introduces the Custody Notification Service (CNS) that obliges police to contact the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency after taking an Aboriginal person into custody. The NT government had announced the introduction in 2016.

5. 24 June Sport

   After defeating German Julia Görges in the the Birmingham Classic, Ngaragu woman Ash Barty becomes the first Australian woman in 43 years to reach the top of the tennis singles rankings, after Wiradjuri woman Evonne Goolagong's triumph in 1976.

2020

1. 6 June Protest

   Triggered by the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in the United States, tens of thousands of people join Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests across Australia to protest the deaths of Aboriginal people in police custody.

2. 8 June Protest

   Actor and Wongutha-Yamatji man Meyne Wyatt delivers a powerful monologue from his play City of Gold to close ABC's Q+A special on racism in Australia that goes viral on social media.

3. 9 June Arts Stamps

   In its Art of the Desert issue, Australia Post features works by Aboriginal artists from the Western Desert region. Two were associated with the Warlayirti Artists in Balgo, Western Australia (Boxer Milner [Milnga-Milnga, the artist's birth place 1999] and Eubena Nampitjin [Untitled 2000]) and two with the artists’ cooperative at Papunya Tula, Northern Territory (Fred Ward Tjungurrayi [Tingarri Mamultjulkulakutu (Tingarri men travelling to Mamultjulku) 2001] and Walter Tjampitjinpa [Kangaroo Dreaming 1971]).

   

4. 14 June Recognition

   TV channel ABC's Insiders program features its first-ever Aboriginal panellist with Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung woman Bridget Brennan. ^[8] The program debuted in July 2001.

5. 16 June Politics Prison

   The Western Australian parliament passes a bill to end the controversial imprisonment of people for unpaid fines. Previously a person unwilling or unable to pay their fine could be arrested and made to pay it off by serving time in prison. A disproportionate number of Aboriginal people fell victim to this policy.

6. 20 June Politics

   Victorian Greens members elect Gunnai-Kurnai/Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe as the new (and first Aboriginal) Greens senator for Victoria, replacing the outgoing senator and former Greens leader Richard Di Natale. Thorpe is an Aboriginal leader and activist and was previously the first Aboriginal woman elected to the Victorian parliament. She formally joins the Senate on October 6.
   

   Thorpe’s appointment brings the number of Aboriginal politicians in the federal parliament to five: Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, Ken Wyatt (Coalition), Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services and for Preventing Family Violence, Linda Burney (Labor), and Labor senators Pat Dodson and Malarndirri McCarthy.

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References