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46-705: The Aboriginal Advancement League was founded in 1957 as the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League ( VAAL ), is the oldest Aboriginal rights organisation in Australia still in operation. Its precursor organisations were the Australian Aborigines League and Save the Aborigines Committee , and it was also formerly known as Aborigines Advancement League (Victoria) , and just Aborigines Advancement League . The organisation

92-408: A community facility, the building houses a museum and "keeping place" for items of historical, cultural and spiritual importance to Aboriginal people. Aboriginal rights Indigenous rights belong to those who, being indigenous peoples, are defined by being the original people of a land that has been conquered and colonized by outsiders. Exactly who is a part of the indigenous peoples

138-534: A complex network of trading for economic and social exchange among the different Aboriginal nations in Victoria. The quarry had been in use for more than 1,500 years and covered 18 hectares (44 acres), including pits of several metres. In February 2008 the site was placed on the National Heritage List for its cultural importance and archeological value. In some areas semi-permanent huts were constructed and

184-439: A critical state. More than three-quarters of the original Australian languages have already been lost, and the survival of almost all of the remaining languages is extremely threatened. Communities throughout Victoria, supported by VACL, are reviving their languages through language camps, workshops, school programs, educational material for children, networking events, publications, music, digital resources, and dictionaries. VACL

230-458: A good deal of confusion and conflict, with some indigenous people supporting the road and others opposing it, and the government reversing its plans more than once. Human Rights Watch asked Bolivia in 2011 to ensure "a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation" of alleged police abuse of peaceful indigenous protestors near Yucomo on September 25 of that year. A report by the UN Committee for

276-514: 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. In 1968, the AAL, led by Bruce McGuinness and Bob Maza , invited Caribbean activist Roosevelt Brown to give a talk on Black Power in Melbourne, causing a media frenzy. The AAL

322-556: A mere "remedial" right to secession in international law, irrespective of their right of self-determination and self-government, leaving the existence of rights of secession to internal laws of sovereign states , and independence to the capacities of states. Aboriginal Victorians Aboriginal Victorians , the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria , Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement . Aboriginal people have lived

368-577: A number of services to Koorie people, including family support, food assistance, home visits, advocacy, counselling and educational programs, drug and alcohol awareness and funeral services. It also has a Cultural Unit that provides information and speakers for schools. In 1999 the Victorian government completed a $ 2,790,000 renovation of the League's headquarters in Watt Street, Thornbury . As well as providing

414-573: A semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering and associated activities for at least 40,000 years. The Aboriginal people of Victoria had developed a varied and complex set of languages, tribal alliances, beliefs and social customs that involved totemism, superstition, initiation and burial rites, and tribal moieties . There is some evidence to show that people were living in the Maribyrnong River valley, near present-day Keilor , about 40,000 years ago, according to Gary Presland. At

460-458: A semi-permanent lifestyle in which eels were an important economic component for food and bartering, particularly the Short-finned eel . Near Lake Bolac a semi-permanent village extended some 35 kilometres along the river bank during autumn. George Augustus Robinson on 7 July 1841 described some of the infrastructure that had been constructed near Mount William: ...an area of at least 15 acres

506-469: A sophisticated network of water channels were constructed for farming eels. During winter the Djab wurrung encampments were more permanent, sometimes consisting of substantial huts as attested by Major Thomas Mitchell near Mount Napier in 1836: Two very substantial huts showed that even the natives had been attracted by the beauty of the land, and as the day was showery, I wished to return if possible, to pass

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552-555: Is considerable debate over the substance and location of North-eastern Victorian indigenous languages including Mogullumbidj, Dhudhuroa and Yaithmathang. Howitt considered Mogullumbidj the easternmost dialect of the Kulin speaking tribes of central Victoria, but Clark argues the name is a descriptive term of appearance. In November 2019, the First Peoples' Assembly was elected, consisting of 21 members elected from five different regions in

598-439: Is considered as bad as being non-inclusive. In the context of modern indigenous people of European colonial powers, the recognition of indigenous rights can be traced to at least the period of Renaissance . Along with the justification of colonialism with a higher purpose for both the colonists and colonized, some voices expressed concern over the way indigenous peoples were treated and the effect it had on their societies. In

644-406: Is differentiated, rich of religious believe systems, way of life, sustenance and arts, and that the root of problem would be the interference with their way of living by state's disrespect to their rights, as well as the invasion of traditional lands by multinational corporations and small businesses for exploitation of natural resources . Indigenous peoples and their interests are represented in

690-406: Is disputed, but can broadly be understood in relation to colonialism. When we speak of indigenous peoples we speak of those pre-colonial societies that face a specific threat from this phenomenon of occupation, and the relation that these societies have with the colonial powers. The exact definition of who are the indigenous people, and the consequent state of rightsholders, varies. Being too inclusive

736-524: Is expanding into the use of interactive digital tools and apps for learning language. They have a number of digital applications to revive Victorian Aboriginal languages through traditional and contemporary stories. VACL supports education and learning activities in schools and communities around Victoria. Marginal language groups in Victorian border areas with South Australia and New South Wales include Bindjali, Buandig, Jabulajabula, Ngargad, and Thawa. There

782-720: Is focused on retrieving, recording and researching Aboriginal languages and providing a central resource on Victorian Aboriginal languages with programs and educational tools to teach the indigenous and wider community about language. In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in the Aboriginal languages of the south-eastern corner of Australia. The boundaries between one language area and another are not distinct. Rather, mixtures of vocabulary and grammatical construction exist in such regions, and so linguistic maps may show some variation about where one language ends and another begins. Many Australian indigenous languages have declined to

828-534: Is primarily concerned with Aboriginal welfare issues and the preservation of Aboriginal culture and heritage , and is based in Melbourne . Its journal is called Smoke Signals . The Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL) was established in March 1957, partly in response to an enquiry by retired magistrate, Charles McLean, who had been appointed in 1955 to investigate the circumstances of Aboriginal Victorians. McLean

874-547: Is still widespread. Indigenous persons are insufficiently represented in government and suffer high unemployment. Amnesty International complained in a 2012 report that Bolivian authorities had made decisions about construction of a highway across the Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure, TIPNIS) without consulting the indigenous persons who live there. This lack of consultation resulted in

920-457: Is to protect indigenous rights, including land rights . These organizations, networks and groups underline that the problems that indigenous peoples are facing is the lack of recognition that they are entitled to live the way they choose, and lack of the right to their lands and territories. Their mission is to protect the rights of indigenous peoples without states imposing their ideas of "development". These groups say that each indigenous culture

966-605: The Aborigines Advancement League of South Australia (AALSA) finally disaffiliated in 1966, because it thought the federal organisation was too centred on Victoria . (Davey also became secretary of FCAATSI , before moving to Western Australia . 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

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1012-730: The Keilor archaeological site a human hearth excavated in 1971 was radiocarbon-dated to about 31,000 years BP , making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia. A cranium found at the site has been dated at between 12,000 and 14,700 years BP. Similar archaeological sites in Tasmania and on the Bass Strait Islands have been dated to between 20,000 and 35,000 years ago, when sea levels were 130 metres (430 ft) below present level, allowing Aboriginal people to move across

1058-821: The Rainforest Foundation , the struggle for indigenous peoples is essential for solving the problem of reducing carbon emission, and approaching the threat on both cultural and biological diversity in general. The rights , claims and even identity of indigenous peoples are apprehended, acknowledged and observed quite differently from government to government. Various organizations exist with charters to in one way or another promote (or at least acknowledge) indigenous aspirations, and indigenous societies have often banded together to form bodies which jointly seek to further their communal interests. There are several non-governmental civil society movements, networks, indigenous and non-indigenous organizations whose founding mission

1104-543: The Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People . The main goal of the new decade will be to strengthen international cooperation around resolving the problems faced by indigenous peoples in areas such as culture, education, health, human rights, the environment, and social and economic development. In September 2007, after a process of preparations, discussions and negotiations stretching back to 1982,

1150-872: The Spanish Empire , the crown established the General Indian Court in Mexico and in Peru , with jurisdiction over cases involving the indigenous and aimed at protecting Indians from ill-treatment. Indians' access to the court was enabled by a small tax which paid for legal aides. The issue of indigenous rights is also associated with other levels of human struggle. Due to the close relationship between indigenous peoples' cultural and economic situations and their environmental settings, indigenous rights issues are linked with concerns over environmental change and sustainable development . According to scientists and organizations like

1196-501: The Bass Strait islands became separated from mainland Australia around 12,000 BP, when the sea level was about 50 metres (160 ft) below present levels. Port Phillip was flooded by post-glacial rising sea levels between 8000 and 6000 years ago. Oral history and creation stories from the Wada wurrung , Woiwurrung and Bun wurrung languages describe the flooding of the bay. Hobsons Bay

1242-883: The General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples . The non-binding declaration outlines the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to identity, culture, language, employment, health, education and other issues. Four nations with significant indigenous populations voted against the declaration: the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. All four have since then changed their vote in favour. Eleven nations abstained: Azerbaijan , Bangladesh , Bhutan , Burundi , Colombia , Georgia , Kenya , Nigeria , Russia, Samoa and Ukraine . Thirty-four nations did not vote, while

1288-615: The Prevention of Racial Discrimination, issued in the same year, called on Bolivia to adopt urgent means to ensure that the Guaraní people are able to exercise their rights, including their rights to recover their ancestral lands. In Canada "Aboriginal rights" ( French : droits ancestraux ) are those rights that the Indigenous peoples in Canada enjoy as a result of their ancestors' long occupancy of

1334-703: The Save the Aborigines Committee, established as a response to the Warburton Ranges controversy in 1956–7. Founding President of the League was Gordon Bryant , with Doris Blackburn as Deputy President, Stan Davey as Secretary and Douglas Nicholls as Field Officer. A national umbrella organisation , the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (later FCAATSI) was founded in February 1958 in Adelaide, South Australia , but

1380-827: The United Nations primarily through the mechanisms of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations . In April 2000 the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution to establish the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PFII) as an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council with a mandate to review indigenous issues. In late December 2004, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2005–2014 to be

1426-453: The activities of the VAAL, as well as the social and economic conditions in which Aboriginal Victorians lived. While some sources report that Smoke Signals ceased publication in 1972, library catalogues and Museums Victoria show that it went on being published occasionally until at least 2011. and possibly longer. As of 2022 there is no mention of the journal on the website. The League provides

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1472-502: The area now the bay of Port Phillip would have been dry land, and the Yarra and Werribee rivers would have joined to flow through the heads then south and south west through the Bassian plain before meeting the ocean to the west. Between 16,000 and 14,000 years BP the rate of sea level rise was most rapid, rising about 15 metres (50 ft) in 300 years according to Peter D. Ward. Tasmania and

1518-553: The colder climate, they made, wore, and used as blankets, rugs of possum and kangaroo . They also built huts from wood and local basalt (known as bluestone ), with roofs made of turf and branches. The Budj Bim heritage areas , which show extensive evidence of fish-farming and traps for short-finned eels , around the Lake Condah area, are in Western Victoria. Thirty nine Aboriginal languages were spoken in Victoria at

1564-603: The deal with indigenous rights exclusively. Since 1997, the nations of the Organization of American States have been discussing draft versions of a proposed American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. "The draft declaration is currently one of the most important processes underway with regard to indigenous rights in the Americas" as mentioned by the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. In 2016,

1610-520: The declaration was adopted by 35 member states by consensus while USA and Canada expressed general reservations. Indigenous persons , who form a majority of the Bolivian population, have been denied land rights owing to their traditional collective ownership of land under the so-called "ayllu" system. Although Bolivian law technically requires that wrongs against individuals and groups who once owned land under this system be redressed, injustice on this front

1656-498: The land, for example the right to hunt and fish a particular territory. These are distinct from " treaty rights " which are enumerated in specific agreements between Indigenous groups and the state. Both treaty rights and Aboriginal rights are protected by Section 35 of the Canadian constitution of 1982 . The indigenous people of Greenland gained home rule in 1979 and extended to self-government in 2009. Indigenous peoples have

1702-671: The night there, for I began to learn that such huts, with a good fire between them, made comfortable quarters in bad weather. During early autumn there were often large gatherings of up to 1000 people for one to two months hosted at the Mount William swamp or at Lake Bolac for the annual eel migration. Several tribes attended these gatherings including the Girai wurrung , Djargurd wurrung , Dhauwurd wurrung and Wada wurrung . Near Mount William, an elaborate network of channels, weirs and eel traps and stone shelters had been constructed, indicative of

1748-730: The region of southern Victoria and on to the land bridge of the Bassian plain to Tasmania by at least 35,000 years ago. There is evidence of occupation in Gariwerd (the Grampians ) – the territory of the Jardwadjali people – many thousands of years before the last Ice Age. One site in the Victoria Range (Billawin Range) has been dated from 22,000 years ago. During the Ice Age about 20,000 years BP ,

1794-497: The remaining 143 nations voted for it. ILO 169 is a convention of the International Labour Organization . Once ratified by a state, it is meant to work as a law protecting tribal people's rights. There are twenty-two physical survival and integrity, but also the preservation of their land , language and religion rights. The ILO represents indigenous rights as they are the organisation that enforced instruments

1840-659: The state, and 10 members to represent each of the state's formally recognised traditional owner corporations , excluding the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation , who declined to participate in the election process . The main aim of the Assembly is to work out the rules by which individual treaties will be negotiated between the Victorian Government and individual Aboriginal peoples. It will also establish an independent "umpire" body to oversee

1886-442: The time of European contact, according to Ian D. Clark , although five of these languages are primarily located around the border areas with New South Wales and South Australia. Clark also identified 19 sub-dialects in seven languages. The Victorian Aboriginal Corporation For Languages (VACL) is the peak body for Aboriginal languages in Victoria and coordinates all of the community language programs throughout Victoria. The corporation

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1932-460: Was critical of conditions in the Aboriginal reserves at Lake Tyers and Framlingham . McLean recommended that persons of mixed Aboriginal and European descent 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 in 1934 and

1978-543: Was influenced by the ideas of Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael . The Australian Black Power movement had emerged in Redfern in Sydney, Fitzroy , Melbourne, and South Brisbane , following the " Freedom Ride " led by Charles Perkins in 1965, but this visit brought the term to wider attention. Salaried director Elizabeth Maud Hoffman , who served From 1975 to 1983, was the organisations longest-serving director. Smoke Signals

2024-475: Was once a kangaroo-hunting ground. Creation stories describe how Bunjil was responsible for the formation of the bay, or the bay was flooded when the Yarra River was created (Yarra Creation Story. ) The Wurundjeri mined diorite at Mount William Quarry , a source of the highly valued greenstone hatchet heads, which were and traded across a wide area as far as New South Wales and Adelaide. The mine provided

2070-416: Was the official magazine of the AAL, Published since 1957, Copies were unnumbered until April 1960, when Volume 1, Issue 1. Three issues per year were published until August 1963, after which it was published quarterly. The first editor Stan Davey, with Gordon Bryant following Davey as editor when he left to work for FCAATSI . The newspaper was especially focused on educating non-Indigenous Australians about

2116-502: Was thus traced out ... These works must have been executed at great cost of labour ... There must have been some thousands of yards of this trenching and banking. The whole of the water from the mountain rivulets is made to pass through this trenching ere it reaches the marsh ... The way of life of the Aboriginal people of Western Victoria , who included the Gunditjmara, differed from other groups in Victoria in several respects. Because of

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