While everyone in Mother England was freaking out over Sgt. Pepper’s dropping the day before, Australia was taking steps toward atoning for colonialist sins. Words tend to matter when they’re written into a constitution, and the will of the people can change those words.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: May 27, 1967--
When people are segregated it becomes easier to marginalize and oppress them. Prior to 1967, Aboriginal populations in Australia had a separate census. It was separate because there were separate laws for governing them, as per Section 51 of its Constitution, which said Federal Parliament could make laws for: “The people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws.”
The referendum was to get rid of the “other than the aboriginal race in any State” part so that Federal Parliament had the power to make laws for all races, rather than leaving the issues of laws specifically for Aboriginal peoples in state hands.
The referendum was also to completely delete Section 127, which read: “… reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a state or other part of the Commonwealth, Aboriginal natives shall not be counted.”
These amendments were the culmination of a lengthy struggle for equal rights supported both by the Aboriginal community and its allies. Many think it had to do with voting rights, but that is a separate and complicated history in Australia. It was not until 1983 when total equality was achieved regarding voting, making it mandatory for Aboriginals, as it was for other Australians.
What the 1967 Referendum accomplished was to unify the country as one people, with Aboriginal people included as members of the national community. And that is how the “Yes” campaign was run. Rather than focusing on boring constitutional legalese, campaigners made the event about inclusion, friendship, and atoning for past injustice and inhumanity.
Interestingly, there was almost no opposition campaign to the Yes vote, and on May 27, 1967, the referendum passed with over 90% of the vote. But it was largely a symbolic victory. It showed that Australians considered the Aboriginal people to be part of the same country. While it had little legal power in itself, the move opened the way for more specific legal changes in the granting of equal rights to Australia’s Aboriginal people.
Get the book On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.
Unfortunately the No side are using a lot of racially charged language to try and smash the 2023 Referendum on the Voice to Parliament. 😕