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Values for Australian Schooling
Building Values
Across the Whole School:
A Resource Package
Teaching and Learning Units – Secondary
Later adolescence
Changing values,
changing nation

Values for Australian Schooling – Building Values Across the Whole School: A Resource Package was funded under the Australian
Government’s Values Education programme administered by the Department of Education, Science and Training.
ISBN: 978-1-74200-037-4
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Acknowledgements
Project Director: David Brown
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Contributing writers: Cherry Andrews, Gary Bass, Helen Brown, Dorothy Carey, Cynthia Dodd, Toni Glasson, Terry Hastings,
Patricia Hincks, Joanne Jayne, Deana Leahy, Dr David Leigh-Lancaster, James Lloyd, Dr Margaret Lloyd, Felicity Mandile,
Dr Jenny Masters, Julie Mitchell, Shaun Nykvist, Dr Janet Reynolds, Sherryl Saunders, Kathy Symonds, Dr Barbara Tadich,
Adam Usher and Melissa Wolfe
The publishers wish to thank the following people and organisations for their time and valued advice during consultation on the
development of the resource:
• Members of the Values Education Resources Project Advisory Committee which includes nominees of the State and Territory
education systems, Catholic and Independent schools sectors, primary and secondary principals associations, parent
organisations and other stakeholders
• Members of the Values Education Expert Reference Group
• State and Territory Values Education Contact Officers
• Academic advisers: Professor Judith Chapman and Professor Terry Lovat
• Asia Education Foundation
• Teacher reviewers nominated through the Australian Joint Council of Professional Teacher Associations
• Focus group teachers and students

Changing values, changing nation
Unit description
This unit examines Australia’s history during the 1960s
and 1970s. It encourages students to apply their
historical skills in an exploration of the changes and
the dominant values experienced by Australian society
during those decades. It also provides a model that can
be adapted to examine values and historical change in
other places and at other periods of time.
The unit aims to develop student historical knowledge
and understanding through a values focus by:
• considering the values that guide historical research
and writing by looking at historians’ views about the
nature of their own discipline
• exploring Australian history during the 1960s and
1970s, identifying significant change and associated
shifts in values
• describing and assessing the ways lives of individual
influential Australians shaped (and were shaped by)
these changes in the period under study.
Age 16–18 years
Duration 8 x 50-minute lessons
Learning area
• Australian History
Values
Fair Go
•
Honesty and Trustworthiness
• Integrity
• Respect
Understanding, Tolerance and Inclusion
Key understandings
Students will develop an understanding of:
• some of the core values that guide the work and
professional activity of historians
• some of the important events and changes in
Australia’s modern history during the 1960s and
1970s
• some of the dominant values that influenced those
developments in Australia during the 1960s and 1970s
• some of the ways that values are reflected in
individuals’ actions, community attitudes and
government policies
• the contribution notable individuals made to the
development of Australia in the 1960s and 1970s
• the impact individuals and their values can have on
shaping their society.
Getting started
Activity 1: Values in history
Notes for teachers
This activity asks students to analyse a range of
quotations from various historians and to consider
the role that values play in the process of historical
investigation. It is designed as a general exploration
of historiographical issues relevant to all areas of
history.
Introduce the concept of values and develop a working
definition with students. To begin, ask students to use
the word ‘values’ in the context of a sentence to clarify
its meaning. Record three or four of the sentences on the
board. Point out that there are different types of values
(for example, moral values, aesthetic values) with different
meanings. Note associated concepts and their relationship to
values (for example, principles, standards and ethics).
Explain that most skilled activities and professions have
established values which guide their work and are the basis
of the standards by which that work is often recognised
and judged. Provide a few examples of professions (for
example, doctors, lawyers and journalists) and ask students
to suggest some of the guiding values and professional
standards that apply to them. These professions have a
Code of Ethics or a Charter (see Useful references for
website addresses) and sometimes individuals can be
‘struck off’ for ‘unprofessional behaviour’. Define these
terms carefully and ask students to suggest what types of
unprofessional conduct could lead to (say) a doctor or a
lawyer being forbidden to practise.
Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation
155

Explain that the work of the historian is also often
described as a craft or profession. Ask students: What core
values might apply to the work of professional historians?
Is it possible for a historian to indulge in unprofessional
conduct? What might that involve? Record class answers on
the board for later reference.
Distribute Resource sheet 1 and allow students
approximately 15 minutes to study all the extracts.
Suggest that students highlight or underline
statements that they find difficult or for which they would
like more explanation.
Review the extracts and discuss any questions. The ensuing
discussion should develop the idea that the work of
creating history is guided by core values and standards.
What values do the historians suggest are important to
use when considering or writing about the past? Where
do they agree and disagree about the core values of their
discipline?
Ask students to use ideas from the extracts and previous
discussion to draft a ‘Charter for Historians’ which includes
the profession’s core values. It might consist of 5–8
points and be modelled on one of the professional codes
mentioned earlier.
Select several students to read their Charters to the rest
of the class. What similarities and differences do they
note? How can they account for the variety of opinions
among different historians?
Explain how students ought to keep their Charter in mind
as they undertake their work as historians researching
Australia’s history in the 1960s and 1970s.
Activity 2: Australia in the 60s and 70s
Notes for teachers
This activity uses images of the period to acquaint
students with major issues, people and events, and
asks how historical developments are affected by
personal beliefs and societal values. Teachers could
use this model to construct galleries of images or
artefacts as evidence of historical developments and
the impact of values in other times or places.
Begin by engaging students in a discussion about what
they know of Australia’s history of the 1960s and 1970s.
What names and events do they associate with the period?
What words might best describe the period?
Have students read Resource sheet 2. Ask them to
highlight the particular events, people and
movements the author selects as significant. Ask
them to assess if the author presents a particular point of
view of the period.
Students will need access to the Internet and library
resources for the next part of the activity. The aims are:
• to research and select images of Australian people,
events and developments during the 1960s and 1970s
to create captions for these images
• to use images from the album as a basis for developing
a narrative overview of the history of the time, and for
reflection about Australian values at that time.
Begin by browsing the appropriate sections of the time line
at http://www.abc.net.au/archives/timeline/history.htm,
allowing about 15 minutes for this task. Instruct students
to identify four events or developments that they think
brought significant change to Australian life during the
1960s and 1970s. Ask students to justify their choices by
writing a short statement about each one and presenting
the information in a table:
Date Event Significance
Distribute Resource sheet 3 and ask students to
select a ‘gallery’ that they will research. Make sure
that all galleries are covered by an approximately
equal number of students. Have them write a 20–30 word
caption for each photo in the gallery. Then have them use a
think-pair-share strategy to analyse the questions that
accompany the gallery.
Allow 30–40 minutes for students to undertake the initial
research and captioning tasks. Students might undertake
additional out-of-class research online and through library
references. Then have students share results with a partner
who chose a different gallery and with the whole class in
preparation for the next lesson.
156 Values for Australian Schooling – Teaching and Learning Units

Link class discussion to the study of history and the
historical background in Resource sheet 2. Refer to the
activities the students undertook earlier.
• To what extent were the time line and image captioning
activities based on students’ limited and selective use of
evidence? How has the selection and captioning been
guided by students’ own particular interests and values?
• What approaches to evidence do historians use to arrive
at more accurate conclusions?
• How might personal and social/political/religious values
influence historians’ treatment of evidence and the
interpretive views about the past?
If students wish to go further with this activity, they could
locate images and construct other narrative galleries on
particular themes and issues of the 1960s and 1970s.
Some suggestions are: Dealing with dissent: the anticonscription
debate; Off the sheep’s back: building a new
economy; New heroes for a nation: sports stars; The Age
of Aquarius: pop music in revolution; Constitution in crisis:
the Dismissal; and Australia at war: Vietnam.
Activity 3: Views of the 60s and 70s
Have students work in groups of four to use their albums
and their gallery research to develop and create their own
400-word overview history of the period.
Groups could exchange narratives and compare their
inclusions and exclusions and discuss the reasons for
their selections.
Discovering
Following the development of a general overview of
Australia’s history in the 1960s and 1970s, this section
takes students to a deeper inquiry into one of its themes
of change that is evident from the time: Changing
Indigenous Rights.
Notes for teachers
The following inquiry is based on a four-stage
process of historical investigation (defining the
issues; reviewing and researching information;
evaluating and synthesising evidence; drawing
conclusions and reporting findings). This scaffold
may be adopted for other areas of history to explore
values in the context of historical change.
The resources in this section include a key image
to stimulate discussion; focus questions; a scaffold
of historical inquiry; and selected primary and
secondary resources.
Changing Indigenous Rights has been selected as a
significant ‘theme in close-up’ but teachers may wish
to develop additional or alternative themes based on
the same model. Some suggestions are: Changing
white Australia; Changing rights for women;
Australia’s changing relationships in the global
community; Changing the way we saw ourselves
– the rebirth of Australian film; Changing the natural
and built environment; Changing the Australian
economy.
Teachers are advised to provide each student with a
copy of all material in Changing Indigenous Rights.
This will enable them to examine all sources and
conduct independent research.
Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation
157

Activity: Changing Indigenous rights
Distribute copies of Resource sheet 4
– a photograph of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
Have students discuss the questions in small
groups or as a whole class.
Reviewing and researching information
Ask students to use library and Internet resources to
develop an annotated time line outlining the main issues
and events affecting Indigenous Australians in the period
1960–1980.
(For an example of an annotated time line, see
http://www.aec.gov.au>When>Australian Electoral
History> Electoral Milestones for Indigenous Australians)
Evaluating and synthesising evidence
Distribute copies of Resource sheet 5.
Have students carry out the following tasks.
Read Source 1: The impact of the 1965 Freedom Ride.
The Freedom Ride has been criticised for not achieving
anything more than short-term publicity.
Does Ann Curthoys agree with this view?
•
What do you think are ‘the long-term consequences’ to
which she refers?
Study Source 2: The origins of the Aboriginal flag, 1971.
Look back at the photograph of the Aboriginal Tent
Embassy, 1974 at the start of this section.
• What evidence is there that Indigenous Australians
quickly adopted and used the flag?
• Do you think the flag has been successful as a symbol of
Aboriginal identity? Why, or why not?
Read Source 3: The 1967 referendum.
• What values are reflected in the poem published by the
Sydney Morning Herald on 19 May 1967?
• Why do many historians believe that there was a strong
link between the results of the 1967 referendum and
the 1965 Freedom Ride described in Source 1?
Examine Source 4: Land handed to the Gurindji people,
1975.
• What acknowledgement of Indigenous values did Prime
Minister Whitlam make when he poured sand into
Vincent Lingiari’s hand?
• Does this image support or contradict the viewpoint
presented in Source 3?
Drawing conclusions and reporting findings
Tell students to look at Source 5. Ask: Is this cartoon by
John Frith in 1968 a reasonable summary of the attitudes
towards Indigenous Australians during the 1960s and
1970s? Do you agree that the Indigenous Rights won
during the 1960s and 1970s were just ‘crumbs from
the rich man’s table’ or were there significant advances?
Have students use ideas from class discussion and from
their own research to provide detailed reasons for their
answers to these questions.
Students report their findings to the class in the form of an
essay, multimedia presentation or five-minute talk followed
by a question and answer session.
158 Values for Australian Schooling – Teaching and Learning Units

Bringing it together
This research task identifies eminent people as both
exemplars and agents of social and civic change in
Australian society during the 1960s and 1970s. It provides
opportunities for students to investigate the actions of
individuals as agents of history and to explore the role of
values in their actions.
Notes for teachers
In this activity, students are asked to:
• identify the values that were important to
Australians during the 1960s and 1970s
• assess the impact individuals can have on
shaping their society
• explore the ways that values are reflected in
individual actions, community attitudes and
government policies
• develop a narrative understanding of the
contribution notable individuals made to the
development of Australia in the 1960s and 1970s.
The model is designed to promote critical thinking
skills, going beyond a biographical approach
to develop higher order historical analysis and
appreciation of Australian history, and the role that
values can play in shaping social and political change.
Have students select an eminent Australian from the
following list.
Bob Santamaria, political activist
Charles Perkins, public servant, Aboriginal rights activist
• Dame Roma Mitchell, barrister, judge and later Governor
of South Australia
• Donald Horne, writer and academic, author of
The Lucky Country (1964)
Faith Bandler OAM, Indigenous activist
• Jack Mundey, activist and initiator of conservation
‘green bans’
• Lowitja, O’Donohue, Indigenous leader and
senior public servant
Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister 1976–1983
Nancy Bird-Walton, pioneer aviator
Neville Bonner, first Indigenous Member of Parliament
• Nugget Coombs, economist and advocate of
Indigenous rights
Phillip Law, scientist and Antarctic explorer
Ray Whitrod, policeman
Tom Keneally, author
Victor Smorgon, industrialist
•
Zelda D’Aprano, political activist and feminist
Activity 1: Online resources
The video clips and transcripts at http://www.
australianbiography.gov.au are the main reference source
for this activity. Have students browse the site. However,
students should be encouraged to supplement them with
a range of print sources and other reliable websites. Among
the websites, have students browse Australianscreen.
com.au/education where they can access many relevant
film and television clips relating to the era and to many of
the eminent Australians of the period. Have them explore
the ‘education values’ notes. Another useful website is
Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/
While students should give a broad overview of the life of
their chosen eminent Australian, they should concentrate
on the period 1960–1980. Discuss with students the
purpose and framework of the research and build a board
summary from their suggestions. Add to the framework
until it makes a coherent set of task instructions.
Activity 2: Developing a biography
Ask students to carry out the following tasks.
• Develop a short biography (500–700 words) of an
eminent Australian in the 1960s or 1970s: key dates,
events, activities, struggles, conflicts, achievements,
personal qualities, significant quotes of their own words.
• Explain how others have judged them: at the time and
with the passage of time.
• Identify the values and beliefs that motivated their life
and work.
• Evaluate their contributions to society at the time.
Activity 3: Values in making history
Invite students to convene a class forum on the topic
‘The role of values in making history’. Students use their
learning and their reflections in this unit to discuss the role
of values in the work of historians and in the work of the
agents of history.
Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation
159

Assessment
The unit offers many opportunities for summative and formative assessment. The unit suggests students complete six
submission tasks in addition to the general discussion, reading and research. The following rubric offers a simple tool for
evaluating student development in key understandings and skills.
Criteria Very high High Medium Low
Timely and complete submission of tasks:
1. Charter for Historians
2. Picture Album of Australia – 1960s &1970s
3. Gallery research
4. Short historical narrative ‘Australia – 1960s &1970s’
5. Report on ‘Changing Indigenous rights’
6. Short biography of an eminent Australian
Use of a range of resources
Accurate gathering and recording of information and
evidence from resources
Analysis of information and different perspectives in
response to focus questions
Effective use of resources to develop and support
points of view
Development of knowledge and understanding of
Australia’s history in the 1960s and 1970s
Clarity and quality of written and oral expression of
history and historical argument
Effective use of ICT to research information and
construct tasks
Active participation in group discussion
Collaborative teamwork
Evidence of reflection on values and their role in
historical method and in shaping historical periods
160 Values for Australian Schooling – Teaching and Learning Units

Useful references
Recommended books
General
Davison, Graeme, Hirst, John & Macintyre, Stuart (eds)
2001, The Oxford Companion to Australian History
(Revised Edition), Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
Hirst, John 2002, Australia’s Democracy: A Short History,
Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW.
Horne, Donald 1980, chapters 2 and 3 in Time of Hope:
Australia 1966–72, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
Vietnam War
Edwards, Peter 1997, A Nation at War: Australian Politics,
Society and Diplomacy during the Vietnam War 1965–
1975, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW.
Rintoul, Stuart (ed) 1987, Ashes of Vietnam: Australian
Voices, Melbourne.
Women’s movement
Lake, Marilyn 1999, Getting Equal: The History of
Australian Feminism, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW.
Recommended websites
The Declaration of Geneva from the World Medical
Association
http://www.wma.net>International Code of Medical Ethics
Australian Sports Commission
http://www.ausport.gov.au>Coach, Official,
Clubs>Coaching>How to become a coach>Code of Ethics
Teaching Australia
http://www.teachingaustralia.edu.au/ta/go/home/projects/
standards/pid/481ics
Journalists’ Code of Ethics
http://www.alliance.org.au (type ‘Code of Ethics’ into
search)
National Library of Australia: The sixties through the eyes of
John Mulligan
http://www.nla.gov.au/pict/explore/mulligan.html
Picture Australia
http://www.pictureaustralia.org
National Archives of Australia
http://www.naa.gov.au
Summers, Anne 1995, Damned Whores and God’s Police,
2nd ed, Penguin Books, Ringwood.
Aboriginal activism
Flood, Josephine 2006, The Original Australians, Allen &
Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW.
Miller, James 1985, chapters 10 and 11 in Koori: A Will to
Win, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation
161

Resource sheet 1
The voice of values in history
Voice 1: Facts and interpretation
Life is lived in the present without the benefit of the grand
narrator. It is the historian who enjoys the advantage of
hindsight to select particular events and arrange them into a
coherent pattern. Facts do not exist prior to the interpretation
that establishes their significance. Rather, historical
research involves a continuous dialogue between the two.
Macintyre, Stuart & Clark, Anna 2003, The History Wars, Melbourne
University Press, pp 29–30
Voice 2: Keeping watch
The historian is not God, but a fallible human being,
taught by his training to be on the watch for his, and other
people’s fallibility in giving an account of the past. What
he writes is what he has to say after reflection on both the
sources and on the state of the argument among historians.
Its value will depend not only on the thoroughness of his
study, not only – though largely – on the agility of his mind.
It will also depend on the quality of his imagination.
Crawford, RM 1985, in RM Crawford et al. Making History, McPhee
Gribble/Penguin Books, Melbourne, p 51
Voice 3: The historian’s duties
If it is a fundamental duty of the historian to tell the truth,
then that scarcely exhausts the obligations that arise
when we work with the past. The choice of subject, the
engagement with the sources, respect for the evidence,
fair dealing with the work of others, attention to context,
humility in the exercise of judgement and recognition
of what cannot be known – these are just some of the
responsibilities a researcher incurs. The mediation between
past and present is a profoundly moral activity.
Macintyre, Stuart (ed) 2004, The Historian’s Conscience – Australian
Historians on the Ethics of History, Melbourne University Press, pp 4–5
Voice 4: Understanding ourselves and others
The ethics involved in writing history requires capturing and
understanding this moving feast through analysis without
losing empathy for the motives, intentions, experiences and
the subjectivity of historical actors. This includes an analysis
of emotions in history and how these have been played out
in acts of memory … Without this analysis we are left with
little or no sense of ethics or history and no understanding
of the treacherous acts of war, of our world or of ourselves.
Damousi, Joy 2004, in The Historian’s Conscience – Australian Historians
on the Ethics of History, Stuart Macintyre (ed), Melbourne University Press,
pp 37–38
Voice 5: Teaching things that matter
The historian is like an actor on a revolving stage. He has
a brief time in which to recite his words. He’s got to hold
the audience. He must also hope that he has used the
time on stage to teach and write about things that really
matter. He mustn’t trivialise the human scene, he mustn’t
sneer, he mustn’t mock. He must also hope that what he
has seen and what he talks about will stir up a response in
his audience, that they will say – and this is the only test
– ‘Yes, that’s us’.
Clark, Manning 1985, in Making History, RM Crawford et al., McPhee
Gribble/Penguin Books, Melbourne, pp 66–67
Voice 6: Avoiding the idea of absolute values
The emergence of a particular value or ideal at a given time
or place is explained by historical conditions of place and
time … The serious historian is the one who recognises
the historically conditioned character of all values, not the
one who claims for his values an objectivity beyond history.
The beliefs that we hold and the standards of judgement
which we set up are part of history and are as much subject
to historical investigation as any other aspect of human
behaviour.
Carr, EH, RW Davies (ed), What is History?, 1990. Reproduced with
permission of Palgrave Macmillan.
Voice 7: Values and truth
The argument (by critics of objectivity) is: selection [of
evidence] is determined by importance and importance is
determined by values; hence selection must be determined
by values … While in many cases, this may happen to be
true, it is not necessarily so ... one of the most common
experiences of historians is that the evidence they find
forces them, often reluctantly, to change the position they
originally intended to take … The obligation historians have
is to try to shake off their own values and pursue the truth.
Windschuttle, Keith 1994, The Killing of History, Macleay Press,
Sydney, p 231
162
Values for Australian Schooling – Teaching and Learning Units ©Commonwealth of Australia
Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation

Resource sheet 2
A view of Australia
in the 1960s and 1970s
Historical background
The 1960s and 1970s brought a period of significant
political and social change to Australia. On the domestic
front, Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies retired after
leading the nation for 16 years (1949–1966) and the
1970s witnessed the tumultuous rise and fall of the
first Labour government since the end of World War II.
Internationally, decolonisation and the decline of the British
Empire saw Australia forging a closer partnership with the
United States of America. Although the 1951 ANZUS Treaty
had formalised defence ties between the two countries,
the bonds grew stronger in the Cold War era with common
concern about the continuing spread of Communism,
especially in Asia. This eventually took Australia into the
quagmire of the Vietnam War and the bitter domestic
debate over conscription.
During the same period, Australians re-examined social
issues in the light of international developments such as
the civil rights movement and a new wave of feminism
in the USA. Changed perceptions and an altered sense of
national priorities focused attention on important issues
such as non-European immigration, the role of women and
the status of Australia’s Indigenous people. It was a time of
uncertainty but also of new directions and fresh challenges.
Some values and norms that had been accepted since
Federation now seemed peculiar anachronisms. Many
Australians were no longer convinced that motherhood and
domestic duties were the only proper roles for women;
that Indigenous people could be denied full citizenship
rights; and that non-Europeans were a threat to social
cohesion and national security. They argued that if Australia
valued a ‘fair go’, then the principle should apply to
everyone regardless of gender or race.
While the 1960s and 1970s saw re-assessment of some
values, many changes that occurred were gradual rather
than revolutionary. A steadfast belief in democracy
remained the norm. The ideological battles of the
Cold War, particularly Australia’s strong opposition
to Communism, brought the rights and privileges of
Australian citizenship into sharper focus and affirmed
important civic values such as fairness, inclusiveness and
the rule of law.
While these decades are sometimes characterised as
an ‘age of dissent’, they were also a period in which
the general understanding of freedom and fairness was
broadened and redefined. While Australians may have
questioned the direction of their nation, they did not
discard the fundamental civic values that lay at its heart.
by Terry Hastings for Curriculum Corporation, 2007
Values for Australian Schooling – Teaching and Learning Units ©Commonwealth of Australia
Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation
163

Resource sheet 3
A picture album of Australia during the 1960s and 1970s
Select one of the Galleries. Research more information about the images of people or events it contains. Write a 20–30
word caption for each photo explaining why this person or event was important during the 1960s and 1970s.
Use a think–pair–share strategy to analyse the questions. Write a response to them in about 100 words. Find a partner who
has selected a different gallery to yours and discuss your responses. Share ideas with the whole class.
Gallery 1: Equality for women
• How did the actions of these women help to change
Australian society during the 1960s and 1970s?
• What values motivated their actions?
Anti-conscription
Gallery 2: The Vietnam War
• Why did Australian involvement in the Vietnam War divide
public opinion so much during the 1960s and 1970s?
• What values did supporters and opponents of the War
hold?
AAP Image / AP Newspix / News Ltd© Fairfaxphotos
Germaine Greer, 1972
Roma Mitchell, 1965
Zelda D’Aprano, 1970
Australian soldiers on patrol in Vietnam, 1965
Moratorium March, Canberra, 1970
poster, 1970
Vietnam Moratorium campaign, ‘Collection of Australian
anti-conscription posters in the Vietnam War’, from the
collection of the National Library of Australia, image
number: nla.pic-an7753445
Australian War Memorial
negative number DNE/65/0422/VN
National Archives of Australia: A9626, 112
164
Values for Australian Schooling – Teaching and Learning Units ©Commonwealth of Australia
Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation

Resource sheet 3
A picture album of Australia during the 1960s and 1970s
Gallery 3: Changing immigration
• What changes to Australia’s immigration policies can be
Gallery
seen in these images?
• What shifts in values are evident?
4: Facing disasters
• Did particular values emerge in Australia when it
experienced these catastrophes?
• What was the community response to these events?
Photographer: Michael Jensen National Library of
Australia, image number: nla.pic-vn3209945
Reproduced with the permission of The Keeper of Public
Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia
Vietnamese boat people disembarking from the boats with
their luggage, Darwin, November 1977
Collapse of the Westgate Bridge, Melbourne 1970
David Moore / Wildlight Photographer: Curly Fraser, from the Australian Photographic
Agency Collection, State Library of New South Wales
Migrants arriving in Sydney, 1966
The devastation of Cyclone Tracy in Darwin, 1974
Newspix / News Ltd©
Australian War Memorial, negative number 15880
Students protest the deportation of Nancy Prasad, 1965
Damage to HMAS Melbourne after its collision with
HMAS Voyager, 1964
Values for Australian Schooling – Teaching and Learning Units ©Commonwealth of Australia
Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation
165

Resource sheet 4
Aboriginal Tent Embassy
Changing Indigenous rights: key image
National Archives of Australia A6180, 14/3/74/338
Aboriginal Tent Embassy, 1974
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was set up on Australia
Day 1972 on the lawns outside Old Parliament House,
Canberra. At first, it was simply a beach umbrella and a
few chairs. However, over time the Embassy grew into a
more substantial and more permanent structure. It is still
there today and continues to arouse controversy – and
consciences.
Defining the issues
• What do the signs around the tent reveal about the
issues that Indigenous Australians thought important
during the early 1970s?
• What protests were Indigenous Australians making
about their current and past treatment?
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Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation

Resource sheet 5
Changing Indigenous rights
Source 1: The impact of the 1965 Freedom Ride
In 1965, some students from Sydney University formed a
group called Student Action for Aborigines (SAFA). Inspired
by the civil rights movement in the United States of
America, particularly the ideas of Reverend Martin Luther
King, they hired an old bus and organised a ‘Freedom
Ride’ around NSW country towns. Their aim was to draw
attention to discrimination against Aboriginal people. Here
Ann Curthoys, one of the original Freedom Riders, assesses
the effects of the Ride.
In retrospect, it seems that the Freedom Ride, limited
though the students’ understanding of the issues and ideas
about the future may have been, placed the issue of ‘rights’
more firmly on the public agenda than it had been before.
It created a social tension on Aboriginal issues which had
mixed short-term consequences, but which did indeed
make possible the emergence of something new. It insisted
that Aboriginal conditions and demands raise moral and
economic questions which white Australians had, at last,
to face. And it stimulated a new kind of Aboriginal politics,
with far reaching consequences.
Curthoys, Ann 2002, Freedom Ride: A Freedom Rider Remembers, Allen &
Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, p 239
Source 2: The origins of the Aboriginal flag, 1971
It was a sequence of events which led to me being the
designer of the Aboriginal flag. When I look carefully at
what the Aboriginal flag looks like, it comes from the
simplicity and power of Aboriginal art itself. Simple colour,
choice of colour, and a simple design. It’s powerful, and
the colours are important. And it took some time to think
about it – red ochre, the red soil – the country of Australia
is all red.
Source 3: The 1967 referendum
Most Australian referendums have not been carried
(see http://www.aec.gov.au>When>Referendums>
Referendum Dates and Results 1906 – Present). However
in 1967, 90.77 per cent of Australians registered a ‘Yes’
vote to change sections of the Australian Constitution that
discriminated against Indigenous people. All major political
parties supported the proposed changes and both Houses
of Parliament passed the proposed Act unanimously;
consequently a ‘No’ case was not even submitted.
The campaign for a ‘Yes’ vote in the 1967 referendum
suggested that the Aboriginal cause had gained a high
degree of support, for although the changes were quite
mechanical, being simply the granting of a concurrent
power to the Commonwealth to make laws for Indigenous
people, as well as being able to include Indigenous
Australians in national censuses, most campaigners chose
to talk in terms of morality:
Vote ‘Yes’ for Aborigines, they want to be Australians
too
Vote ‘Yes’ to give them rights and freedoms just like me
and you
Vote ‘Yes’ for Aborigines, all parties say they think you
should
Vote ‘Yes’ and show the world the true Australian
brotherhood.
Sydney Morning Herald, 19 May 1967
Bennett, Scott 1999, White Politics and Black Australians, Allen & Unwin,
Crows Nest, NSW, p 22
Why did I choose the sun? Because it’s another colour
that is used commonly in Aboriginal art – yellow ochre.
But the sun is a great symbol for all people. When we look
carefully at the colour black, which is an interesting one,
it’s more of a political inclusion, rather than a spiritual,
Aboriginal concept. The black represents the pride of
being black in Australia. Because, at the time, black pride
came into Australian culture – during the ’60s and ’70s
– influenced by Black American pride of their culture. If
this is going to be an Aboriginal flag, it has to have black,
because it represents the black people of the continent.
Extract from Dimensions in Time, Ep 7, ‘Harold Thomas - Creator of
the Aboriginal flag’, first broadcast 25 March 2002, is reproduced by
permission of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC Online
© 2002 ABC. All rights reserved. A full copy of the article can be found at:
http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_time/Transcripts/s513731.
htm
Values for Australian Schooling – Teaching and Learning Units ©Commonwealth of Australia
Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation
167

Resource sheet 5
Fairfax photos Courtesy State Library of Victoria, Pictures Collection.
Reproduced with the permission of copyright owner Mr J Frith
Source 4: Land handed to the Gurindji people, 1975
In May 1975, the Gurindji people were successful in having an area of their own land excised from the Vestey pastoral
lease at Wattie Creek in the Northern Territory. Here Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Gurindji leader Vincent
Lingiari celebrate the handover of the land at Daguragu. In 1986 a claim for recognition of traditional rights made
under the 1976 Land Rights Act was successful and 3000 sq km of their land was transferred to Gurindji people.
Source 5: A cartoon by John Frith, 3 July 1968
John Frith (1906–2000) worked as a cartoonist with
The Bulletin magazine and later became the first daily
cartoonist for the Sydney Morning Herald. He retired
in 1969 after working for the Melbourne Herald.
In From the rich man’s table, Frith reflects upon
the start of the modern land rights movement,
which saw Gurindji Aboriginal people ‘walk off’
Wave Hill Station in protest over conditions and
their rights to traditional lands. This famous walkoff
was a watershed for the Aboriginal land rights
movement and led to a wholesale and radical
reappraisal of Indigenous rights.
168
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Later adolescence – Changing values, changing nation