History
The League was established in 1957 as a response to an enquiry by retired magistrate, Charles McLean, into the circumstances of Aboriginal Victorians. McLean was critical of conditions in the Lake Tyers and Framlingham Aboriginal Reserves. McLean recommended that persons of mixed Aboriginal and European decent be removed from the reserves. The people of Lake Tyers objected to this, and the League was formed out of their campaign.
The new League drew from two already existing organisations, the Australian Aborigines League, established 1934 and the Save the Aborigines Committee, which had been established in 1955 as a response to the Warburton Ranges crisis. Founding President of the League was Gordon Bryant, with Doris Blackburn as Deputy President, Stan Davey as Secretary and Douglas Nicholls as Field Officer.
Early activities included lobbying for a referendum to change the Australian constitution to allow the Federal government to legislate on Aboriginal affairs, and an establishing a legal defence fund for Albert Namatjira, after he was charged with supplying liquor to an Aboriginal ward. By 1967 it had moved to being fully controlled by Aboriginal people with Bill Onus as the first Aboriginal President.
Read more about this topic: Aborigines Advancement League
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“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.”
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