The Aboriginal History Research Unit at the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA) has undertaken a state-wide collaboration with the WA Museum (WAM), State Library of WA (SLWA), ABC and National Archives of Australia to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum, the 25th Anniversary of the 1992 Mabo Decision, and the 20th Anniversary of the Bringing Them Home Report.
To acknowledge these milestones, the Western Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs’ Aboriginal History Research Unit has developed an information toolkit to provide a unique WA perspective of this event and look at the progress of Aboriginal rights in WA to date. The Toolkit aims to educate the broader public and to be incorporated into WA school curricula, to focus on the history of these significant events and open up a contemporary dialogue with the Aboriginal community.
The Toolkit provides a community perspective, with reflections collected from the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community about what the 1967 Referendum and the 1992 Mabo Decision meant or means to them today. Prominent members of the Aboriginal community, such as Senator Patrick Dodson and Hon Ken Wyatt AM, MP have shown support for the Toolkit and have happily provided their views on the issues.
The Toolkit also contains an analysis and summary of over 50,000 pages of primary source documentation of National Archives of Australia records that are most significant to the Referendum, which has never been done in this level of detail in WA before.
The Toolkit can be accessed through the DAA website at: https://www.daa.wa.gov.au/community-development/right-wrongs---67-referendum---wa-50-years-on/
Or through the Western Australian Museum website at: http://museum.wa.gov.au/referendum-1967/educational-toolkit