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Introductory Essay

Cataloguing notes

Introduction
The landmark Federal referendum held in Australia on 27 May 1967 achieved an overwhelming ‘yes’ vote to remove two discriminatory references regarding Aboriginal people from the Australian Constitution.

Many Australians mistakenly believe that the referendum gave Indigenous peoples the right to vote in government elections. In 1962 the Commonwealth Government passed legislation enabling Indigenous
peoples to vote in Federal elections, with all State governments following suit. The referendum signified Australia’s first step towards recognising Indigenous rights.

The relevant sections of the Constitution were:

51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order,
and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:-

(xxvi) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal people in any State, for whom it is
necessary to make special laws.
127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of
the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted.

According to the National Archives of Australia, ‘The removal of the words “...other than the aboriginal people in any State...” in section 51(xxvi) and the whole of section 127 were considered by many to be
representative of the prevailing movement for political change within Indigenous affairs.’¹

‘Yes’ cases in Australian referenda have a poor record, however this referendum saw the highest ‘Yes’ vote ever recorded in a Federal referendum, with 90.77 per cent voting for change, and the vote carried by a majority in all states. The majority of parliamentarians also supported the proposed amendment, and a ‘no’ case was never formulated for presentation as part of the referendum campaign.

Indigenous opinion – and community opinion more widely – has established the 1967 referendum as a major and positive milestone in the advancement of Indigenous political rights and self-determination. In the 10 years after the referendum, Indigenous people began winning some access to audiovisual technologies. The blending of political messages with creative and artistic activity were enabled by the flexibility and capability of audiovisual technologies. These technologies also provided the capacity to express political aspirations more strongly, and increasingly independently of the filter of non-Indigenous production.

Indigenous cultural audiovisual heritage
Up to the 1960s Indigenous peoples enjoyed only limited access to audiovisual technology, leaving the historic record largely represented by non-Indigenous people. This includes audiovisual records of the immediate period leading up to 27 May and of the referendum itself. While there are quite substantial written records documenting the referendum, there are comparatively few films or sound recordings.

From rich cultural traditions, Indigenous peoples practiced all forms of creative expression including song and dance cycles, artworks and performances. Indigenous peoples from across Australia still maintain many of these cultural practices today. However, the lack of any control over audiovisual production resulted in the complete absence of any Indigenous authority over the information non-Indigenous people produced, recorded and disseminated. From the late 1960s, the Australian Government slowly responded to the assertion of Indigenous peoples’ right to self-representation through audiovisual media, with most breakthroughs hard won by Indigenous peoples and their supporters.

By the 1970s, Indigenous people began adapting audio-visual technologies to support their cultural aspirations. In 1976 Melbourne’s 3CR radio broadcast the first Aboriginal community radio program (see http://www.3cr.org.au). By 1993 there were 30 Aboriginal programs on 100 community radio stations across the country, broadcasting 500 hours per week.

The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA), owned by the Arrente Council in Alice Springs, was established in 1980. In 1985 CAAMA acquired the first community broadcast license attained by an Indigenous group (see http://www.caama.com.au/caama/). With a strong focus on the social, cultural and economic advancement of Aboriginal peoples, CAAMA promotes Aboriginal culture, language, dance and music, as well as generating economic benefits in the form of training, employment and income generation for Aboriginal people. CAAMA productions dignify Aboriginal cultures, informing and educating the wider community about the richness and diversity of Aboriginal peoples and cultures in Australia.

In 1986 the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal awarded Central Australia’s first commercial license to Imparja, an Aboriginal organisation owned by CAAMA. Aboriginal peoples began producing and broadcasting television across one of the largest broadcast footprints in the world, with over 60,000 viewers receiving programs broadcast in Aboriginal languages and English.

Support for this initiative was by no means uniform, with Paul Everingham, a powerful Northern Territory politician and future Chief Minister (1978–1986) describing the decision as “the final chapter in a shoddy story of a Labor Government carrying out social engineering experiments at taxpayers expense.”²

In 1993, the Australian Film Commission initiated support for the development of Indigenous filmmakers through the Indigenous Branch’s ‘Sand to Celluloid’ series. More recent examples of AFC support include the hugely successful Message Sticks Film Festival and The Black Book, a portal publication with listings of Indigenous organisations and arts/media practitioners, as well as a variety of other related information including employment opportunities (http://www.afc.gov.au).

Audiovisual documents and the 1967 Referendum
The NFSA has compiled this short guide of key works in the National Collection that relate to the 1967 Referendum. Some of the works document aspects of the referendum campaign and vote. Works from later years include interviews with key people involved in the referendum, or document subsequent political or social issues, or feature commentaries directly related to the referendum. The relatively small number of items in this guide should be understood in the context of the story of the levels and control of Indigenous audiovisual cultural heritage in Australia, as discussed earlier.

All the works identified in this guide have been preserved by the NFSA’s specialist preservation team. The preservation and restoration work involves the application of high quality standards and requires the skills to work with often obsolete broadcasting technologies. After preservation was completed, access copies of all works were made to ensure easy availability for researchers, program makers, exhibitors and the wider public.

The national audiovisual collection
The National Film and Sound Archive holds approximately 1.3 million items, with around 17,000 items in its Indigenous Collection. The comparatively small volume of Indigenous items in the National Collection reflects the marginalisation of Indigenous people within the film industry and their lack of opportunity to create or control representations of Aboriginal peoples and cultures for much of the past century.

Indigenous peoples brought these issues to national attention in the 1980s, with an encouraging response by government agencies including the NFSA and audiovisual producers. However, some sectors, especially the commercial sectors of radio and television, noticeably lag in their interest and effort to engage with Indigenous programming. In 2005, the NFSA established the Indigenous Branch to encourage and drive greater prioritising of Indigenous activity across all areas of audiovisual archival practice.

The NFSA holds hundreds of thousands of works of historic importance to all Australians. We passionately believe it is the power of research and interpretation that truly unlocks the potential and meaning of these works.

How to search the collection
In March 2007 the NFSA launched its new ‘Search the Collection’ facility, that provides a quick and enhanced search capability, including a google-style interface (http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au).

We hope that this guide to selected works relating to the 1967 referendum stimulates existing and new researchers to explore the National Collection, especially the Indigenous Collection. We welcome advice, knowledge and feedback from researchers, especially corrections or enhancements to our catalogue records.

David Boden, Head, Access and Outreach Branch

Liz McNiven, Head, Indigenous Branch.

NFSA Project Officers: Christine Eccles and Mary Miliano

¹National Archives of Australia: 1967 Referendum Facts Sheet No.150: http://www.naa.gov.au/fsheets/fs150.html

²Richard Croome, Aboriginal Australians – Black responses to White Dominance 1788 – 2001, Allen and Unwin, Third Edition, 2001, Sydney pp. 231-2.

Some useful sources
Attwood, B. and Markus, A. The 1967 Referendum, Race, Power and the Australian Constitution (2nd. Ed), Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies, Canberra, 2007

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies: http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/

The Australian Electoral Commission: referendum results: http://www.aec.gov.au

The Australian Dictionary of Biography: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/

National Archives of Australia: 1967 Referendum Facts Sheet No.150: http://www.naa.gov.au/fsheets/fs150.html

National Museum of Australia: 1967 Referendum exhibition: http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/now_showing/1967_referendum/

Reconciliation Australia (http://www.reconciliationaustralia.org/i-cms.isp), which includes a portal-style resource which contains links to interesting stories, facts, educational material and events about the referendum in 1967 and the anniversary of the referendum in 2007.

Recordings by Australian Indigenous Artists 1899 - 1998: A guide to commercially issued sound recordings by Australian Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islanders:PDF Document (274 kb)

PDF file icon 1967 referendum guide [198 KB]

Warning: Some Indigenous Australians represented in this collection guide are deceased.