Aboriginal Rights
Apparently inspired by the British Anti-Slavery Society when visiting England in the 1950s, Jessie Street was the initiator of the 1967 "Aboriginal" amendment of the Australian Constitution with fellow activist Faith Bandler. She "masterminded the formation of the Aboriginal Rights Organisation, which led to the successful" Australian referendum, 1967 (Aboriginals) and even drafted petitions calling for the Referendum.
Jessie Street published a number of papers relating to Aboriginal people based on her observations during her numerous visits to Aboriginal Settlements. These include a Report on Aborigines in Australia, May 1957, Report of visit to Pindar Camps,'Report of visit to West Australia in connection with Aborigines'; 'Suggestions for Northern Territory' (Between Camooweal and Darwin); Comments on the 'Report from the Select Committee of Voting Rights of Aborigines'; and 'The question of discriminations against Aborigines and the United Nations.
Read more about this topic: Jessie Street
Famous quotes containing the words aboriginal and/or rights:
“John Eliot came to preach to the Podunks in 1657, translated the Bible into their language, but made little progress in aboriginal soul-saving. The Indians answered his pleas with: ‘No, you have taken away our lands, and now you wish to make us a race of slaves.’”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program. Connecticut: A Guide to Its Roads, Lore, and People (The WPA Guide to Connecticut)
“Human beings have rights, because they are moral beings: the rights of all men grow out of their moral nature; and as all men have the same moral nature, they have essentially the same rights. These rights may be wrested from the slave, but they cannot be alienated: his title to himself is as perfect now, as is that of Lyman Beecher: it is stamped on his moral being, and is, like it, imperishable.”
—Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)