Essay On Discrimination In Australia

Discrimination has affected the lives of various communities for thousands of years, and for a significant portion of this time, the many groups discriminated against, whether it be for race, behaviour or gender, simply accepted the inequity and continued their daily lives. However, eventually, most of these minorities decided there was no real reason why they were inferior, other than the other, larger group thought they were, and so, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, there were many movements for “civil rights”, in an effort to achieve equity, and cease the discrimination. While there are many countries around the globe that have been involved with such discrimination, two fascinating examples to compare and contrast are Australia and the Aboriginal Australians, and New …show more content…
In 1962, a major step was taken when Australia allowed Aboriginal people to vote. Charles Perkins and his 1965 Freedom Ride continued this progression in Aboriginal rights. The Freedom Ride raised public awareness of the conditions that Australian Aborigines were living in, and why actions needed to be taken in order to assist the Aborigines in their fight for freedom. Both countries had issues with land rights: Aborigines had their land rights recognised in 1976 with the Aboriginal Land Rights Act in the Northern Territory. (Whitmore, 2015) New Zealand had a similar situation in their 1975 land rights march, which raised much awareness for the situation in New Zealand. (Whitmore, 2015) Australia’s 1967 referendum was perhaps the most significant event in Australia’s civil rights history, when Aborigines were finally counted as humans in the Census; something that New Zealand was way ahead with. (Whitmore, 2015) This busy period of time shows both similarities and differences between Australia and New