2022

1. 20 September Arts Stamps

   

   Australia Post releases two stamps featuring rock art from the north Kimberley's Wanjina Wunggurr community. One shows crocodiles, the other one Gwion Gwion figures.

2. 23 September Land & land rights

   In a landmark decision, the UN Human Rights Committee finds that the Australian government has violated its human rights obligations to Torres Strait Islander people by not acting on climate change. A group of Islanders first filed the complaint in 2019, the first legal action brought by climate-vulnerable inhabitants of low-lying islands against a nation-state. ^[1]

3. 29 September Self-determination

   The Referendum Working Group and the Referendum Engagement Group hold their first meetings in Canberra. The groups will work with the government on the next steps to a referendum to enshrine a First Nations Voice in the Constitution. For members of both groups see the media release by the government.

4. 22 November Arts

   

   Baker Boy (Danzal Baker) becomes the inaugural First Nations artist in the history of the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Music Awards who claims the Awards' top prize in its 35-year history.

   He wins album of the year for his debut full-length album Gela, and best solo artist. His album also wins for best hip-hop/rap release, best cover art (for designer Adnate), and best mixed album (for engineers Pip Norman, Andrei Eremin and Dave Hammer). At the National Indigenous Music Awards in August, Baker Boy won artist of the year and album of the year.
   

5. 7 December Treaty

   The NSW Coalition government gives in-principle support to enshrine a First Nations Voice to parliament in the Constitution.

6. 16 December Politics Recognition

   The Australian government scraps the requirement for citizenship ceremonies to be held on Australia Day (January 26). Councils can now schedule ceremonies to take place between January 23 and 29. A number of councils had already rescheduled their ceremonies to other days.

2023

1. 2 February Arts Recognition

   The Reserve Bank of Australia announces that it will update the $5 banknote to feature a new design that honours the culture and history of the First Australians. The new design will replace the portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The other side of the $5 banknote will continue to feature the Australian Parliament. ^[2]

   I welcome the decision taken by the independent Reserve Bank to ensure that the new $5 note recognises and celebrates the culture and history and heritage of Indigenous Australians.

   — Jim Chalmers, Treasurer ^[3]

2. 7 February Sport Stamps

   In its Sporting Treasures issue, Australia Post publishes one stamp showing the tennis racket of Evonne Goolagong Cawley, the first Aboriginal person to compete in international tennis.

3. 23 March Recognition

   The government announces the constitutional amendment and proposed Voice to Parliament referendum question:

   "A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?"

   The amendment and question were developed in consultation with the First Nations Referendum Working Group.

4. 30 March Recognition

   The Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023 Bill introduces the proposed constitutional amendment into Parliament. A Joint Select Committee on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice Referendum will consider the Bill, accept public submissions and report by mid-May 2023.

5. 3 April

   Yolngu lore man, Gumatj clan leader Dr G Yunupingu dies, aged 74. He was one of the most prominent and influential First Nations leaders, campaigning for Aboriginal rights, particularly land rights, and constitutional recognition of First Nations peoples.

10,000

1. Present day Australian climate establishes.

2. Aboriginal people at Wyrie Swamp near Millicent, 340 kms south-east of Adelaide, South Australia, use returning boomerangs to hunt waterfowl.

120,000

1. Analysis of pollen and charcoal giving a date of 120,000 BP suggests that people were using fire to clear land in the Lake George basin in the Southern Tablelands of NSW, about 30 kms north-east of Canberra. ^[4] Experts also found signs of human disturbance in rainforest pollen patterns in a drill core from the edge of the continental shelf, 80 kilometres east of Cairns.

   Similarly, research presented to the Royal Society of Victoria in 2019 by a group of academics found that blackened stones at Moyjil (Point Ritchie, Victoria), were between 100,000 and 130,000 years old. While cautious, the authors concluded that human habitation was the most likely explanation for "marine shells, stones in unexplained depositional context and fire resemblance to hearth". ^[5]

125

1. Archaeologists in 2020 found ancient banana farms on Mabuyag Island, once managed by Torres Strait Islanders, dating back 2,145 years. They unearthed banana microfossils, stone tools, charcoal and a series of retaining walls. The findings strengthen the theory that the Islanders engaged in complex and diverse cultivation and horticultural practices. ^[6]

13,000

1. Land bridges between mainland Australia and Tasmania are flooded. Tasmanian Aboriginal people become isolated for the next 12,000 - 13,000 years.

2. At Kow Swamp near Cohuna, 230 kms north of Melbourne, Victoria, Aboriginal people weare kangaroo teeth headbands similar to those worn by men and women in the Central Desert in the 19th century.

16,000

1. Hearths, stone and bone tools, Shaws Creek near Yarramundi (60 kms north-west from Sydney), NSW.

2. Sea levels begin to rise as ice caps melt. Inland lakes such as Lake Mungo have dried up.

17,300

1. Scientists confirmed that a painting of a kangaroo in a sandstone rock shelter near the Drysdale River, in Western Australia’s remote Kimberley region, is about 17,300 years old, making it the oldest known rock art in Australia.

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References