2000

1. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation ceases to operate by the end of 2000. It is to be replaced by a new national body, Reconciliation Australia, in 2001.

2. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation identifies a treaty as the unfinished business of the reconciliation process and recommends “that the Commonwealth Parliament enact legislation... to put in place a process which will unite all Australians by way of an agreement, or treaty, through which unresolved issues of reconciliation can be resolved.”

3. Prime Minister John Howard rejects a treaty noting a "nation … does not make a treaty with itself".

4. A poll finds 53% of Australians favoured a treaty, with 34% opposed.

5. Australia appears before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Committee criticises the Commonwealth Government's inadequate response to recommendations of the Bringing Them Home Report: "While noting the efforts by the State party to address the tragedies resulting from the previous policy of removing indigenous children from their families, the Committee remains concerned about the continuing effects of this policy. The Committee recommends that the State party intensify these efforts so that the victims themselves and their families will consider that they have been afforded a proper remedy."

6. Inquiry into the federal government's implementation of the recommendations made by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in Bringing Them Home undertaken by the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee results in the Healing: A Legacy of Generations Report.

7. The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, UK returns 500 remains.

8. Cathy Freeman wins gold in the women’s 400m at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. The opening and closing ceremonies celebrated Indigenous cultural identity and history and provided some deft political comment on contemporary Aboriginal issues.

9. An Aboriginal Tent Embassy is set up in Sydney during the Olympic period to attract world media attention to Australian Indigenous issues.

10. 1 January Arts Stamps

    

    One of the 25 unique photographs of Australians from everyday life in the Faces of Australia issue is Cyril Watson, a young girl from remote Central Australia.

11. March Stolen Generations

    Australia appears before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The committee criticises the government’s inadequate response to recommendations from the Bringing Them Home Report.

12. 4 April Stolen Generations

    The government denies that a 'Stolen Generation' exists in a submission to the Senate inquiry on compensation for children forcibly removed. It stated: "The government is concerned that there is no reliable basis for what appears to be a generally accepted conclusion as to the supposed dimensions of the 'stolen generation'. [...] At most, it might be inferred that up to 10% of children were separated for a variety of reasons, both protective and otherwise, some forcibly and some not. This does not constitute a 'generation' of 'stolen' children. The phrase 'stolen generation' is rhetorical." ^[1]

13. May Stolen wages

    The Queensland Aboriginal & Islander Legal Service Secretariat (QAILSS) collects testimony from more than 2,000 people who want to take action against the government for missing, unpaid and underpaid monies.

14. 27 May Reconciliation

    Corroboree 2000 is held at Sydney Opera House to mark 10 years of work on reconciliation. Here, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation presents to the nation Corroboree 2000 - Towards Reconciliation which includes the documents ‘Australian Declaration towards Reconciliation’ and ‘Roadmap for Reconciliation’. The roadmap outlines four national strategies to advance reconciliation.

15. 28 May Reconciliation

    More than 250,000 people cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the People’s Walk for Reconciliation which lasted almost six hours. It became the largest political demonstration ever held in Australia. A week later, about 60,000 people crossed the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane. Many smaller walks followed in state capitals and regional towns across Australia. Big marches in Melbourne and Perth at the end of the year attracted as many as 300,000 people.

16. 17 September Arts Stamps

    

    Australia Post's Australian Gold Medallists issue shows the first stamp of a living Aboriginal person. Until 1997 no living person (Royal family excluded) was featured on Australia’s stamps. Athlete Cathy Freeman is the only Aboriginal person who has been individually honoured on a stamp in such a way.

17. 10 October Arts Stamps

    

    This stamp issue features Cathy Freeman lighting the Olympic Flame at the opening ceremony of the XXVII (27th) Olympic Games in Sydney. The stamp was voted the most popular in the 2000 Australia Post Stamp Poll.

2001

1. The Northern Territory overturns its mandatory sentencing laws.

2. The Yeperenye Federation Festival outside Alice Springs becomes the largest corroboree ever staged in Australia, involving more than 25,000 people of 40 Indigenous nations. The programme is a celebration revolving around the theme of the Yeperenye (Caterpillar) Dreaming story and federation as seen from an Aboriginal perspective.

3. Aden Ridgeway is the first Aboriginal person to be elected as a parliamentary leader when he holds the position of Deputy Leader of the Australian Democrats from 2001 to 2002.

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References