2019

1. 10 September Recognition

   Dujuan, a 12-year-old Arrernte/Garrwa boy from central Australia, speaks at the UN Human Rights Council demanding the Australian government to stop sending 10-year-old children to to prison and support Aboriginal-led education models. All Australian states and territories allow 10-year-old children to be arrested, charged and sent to prison. Raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 would bring Australian standards into line with international law. ^[1]

2. 11 September Protest

   12-year-old Arrernte and Garrwa boy Dujuan Hoosan from central Australia, star of the acclaimed documentary, In My Blood It Runs, becomes the youngest person to ever address the UN Human Rights Council. In his short speech he shares his own experiences with the youth justice system and calls for support for Aboriginal-led education models. ^[2]

   I want my school to be run by Aboriginal people. I want adults to stop cruelling 10-year-old kids in jail. I want my future to be out on land with strong culture and language.

   — Dujuan Hoosan in his speech to the UN

3. 16 September Treaty

   Voting opens for representatives to the First Peoples’ Assembly in Victoria, which will help determine the framework for a treaty. More than 30,000 Victorian Aboriginal people are eligible to vote for 73 leaders until 20 October. It is the first time Aboriginal people have ever been able to vote for such an assembly. ^[3]

   We cannot underestimate that power the assembly will give to that [treaty] negotiating. For the first time, we have an elected voice in Victoria.

   — Jill Gallagher, treaty advancement commissioner ^[3]

4. 1 October Prison

   Victoria introduces the Custody Notification Service (CNS) that obliges police to contact the Aboriginal Legal Service after taking an Aboriginal person into custody. Western Australia follows one day later.

5. 17 October Treaty

   The first of 26 statewide public consultation sessions about a treaty with Aboriginal people in Queensland is held in Cairns. The sessions invite Queenslanders to have a say about treaty, share what it means to them, and what a treaty could look like.
   

6. 26 October Land & land rights

   34 years to the day since the Anangu people received the land rights for the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, the board closes the Uluru climb after a unanimous decision made in 2017.

7. 29 October Stolen Generations

   An independent review into Aboriginal out-of-home care in NSW presents its final report. It finds that child protection workers regularly gave "misleading" evidence to the children’s court, often took the most traumatic option by removing Aboriginal children from their families, and operated in a "closed system" that lacked transparency, had no effective regulator and was run with little or no genuine consultation with the Aboriginal community. The review also found "widespread noncompliance" with law and policy by family and community services workers.

8. 4 November Recognition

   

   Ngaragu woman Ash Barty wins the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Finals in Shenzhen, China, becoming the first Australian woman to win the season-ending tournament since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won the crown for a second time in 1976. She is also the first Australian woman since rankings were introduced in 1973 to finish the year as world number one. Her A$6.4 million prize packet is the biggest winner's cheque in tennis history. In celebration, Barty's sponsor Vegemite released a limited edition called "Bartymite" – only the the second time in Vegemite's history that the name had been changed, and the first time with an individual's name. ^[4]

9. 20 November Remains repatriation

   Manchester Museum becomes the first UK institution to return sacred ceremonial items to Aboriginal people. The artefacts include a headdress made from emu feathers, body ornaments, slippers, a churinga (wood or stone item believed to embody the spiritual double of a relative or ancestor) and clapsticks. Representatives from the Gangalidda Garawa received the first items.

10. 28 November Remains repatriation

    Germany's State of Saxony hands over the ancestral remains of 42 Aboriginal people in Leipzig.

11. 10 December Treaty

    The First People's Assembly of Victoria holds its inaugural meeting in the Victorian Parliament. The Assembly sets up six committees: Cultural Governance, Elders’ Voice, Self-Determination Fund, Treaty Authority and Interim Dispute Resolution Process, Treaty Negotiation Framework, and Truth-telling.

12. 25 December Sport

    The Tribal Warrior yacht with the first all-Aboriginal crew, including skipper Wayne Jones, takes part in the Sydney to Hobart race as the as the first official Aboriginal entrant. It completes the journey in 4 days and 23:53 hours. The Tribal Warrior is named after the Tribal Warrior Aboriginal Corporation, a maritime training program mentoring young Indigenous people at risk.

2020

1. January Arts

   Opera Australia revives the musical Bran Nue Dae, 30 years after the original debuted in 1990. The musical achieved popular and critical acclaim for giving Aboriginal voices centre stage, tackling tough issues with humour and challenging mainstream perceptions of Aboriginal people. It tours Sydney in January, Perth (February), Brisbane (July) and Adelaide (August) among other locations. Aboriginal director Rachel Perkins made it into a movie in 2009.

2. 16 January Sport

   The National Basketball League announces an inaugural Indigenous Round (Round 18) set to take place from January 29 to February 2. All games include a Welcome to Country and each team wears uniforms designed by local Aboriginal artists.
   

3. 26 January Recognition

   Ngaragu woman Ash Barty is named Young Australian of the Year 2020. She is recognised for inspiring many Aboriginal peoples not only in her role as a National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia or her sporting career but in her down-to-earth, kind-hearted personality and resilience.

4. 28 January Sport

   Ash Barty (ranked #1) is the first woman since 1984 to qualify for the Australian Open semi-final, but she loses to the American Sofia Kenin (ranked #14) in straight sets.
   

5. 11 February Politics Prison

   The Australian High Court rules that Aboriginal people cannot be deported even though the two men in the court's case were born overseas, only had permanent residency and never applied for Australian citizenship. The government wanted to deport them because both were convicted of crimes.

   The court found that Aboriginal people have a special cultural, historic and spiritual connection to Australia which is inconsistent with them being considered "aliens" in the meaning of the Australian constitution.

6. 22 February Sport

   

   NFL player Josh Addo-Carr, before the Indigenous All-Stars match with the Maori All-Stars, lifts his shirt and points to his skin in a gesture akin to Nick Winmar's in 1993 to show his pride in his Aboriginality and remind fans of the Aboriginal history of Australia.

7. 14 March Health

   In response to the world-wide outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) reaching Australia the Northern Land Council suspends all existing non-essential permits to visit Aboriginal lands in the Northern Territory. The decision means there won't be any tourist activities in the Top End region. The Anangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands put restrictions in place a week earlier, and communities of the Torres Strait on February 20.

   Remote communities lock themselves down early, and uncompromisingly. Most remain locked down well into mid-2020 to shield themselves from the virus and protect their vulnerable Elders and the sick. ^[5]

8. 14 March Arts

   The 22nd Biennale of Sydney (March – September) has ist first Aboriginal artistic director with Wiradjuri man Brook Andrew. The title, Nirin, is a Wiradjuri word for "edge".

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References