Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders

The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI), founded in Adelaide, South Australia as the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA) on 16 February 1958, was a civil rights organisation which campaigned for the welfare of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, and the first national body representing Aboriginal interests. It was influential in lobbying in favour of the 1967 Referendum on Aboriginal Australians, before being renamed and split in two in 1970.

Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders
Logo of the FCAATSI[1]
AbbreviationFCAATSI
FormationFebruary 13, 1958 (1958-02-13)
Founded atAdelaide, South Australia, Australia
Dissolved1978 (1978)
FocusIndigenous Rights Activism
HeadquartersAdelaide, South Australia (1958–?)
Melbourne, Victoria (pre-1967)
Sydney, New South Wales (post-1967)
Formerly called
Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA)

Background

The idea of uniting Aboriginal rights groups in order to form a united lobbying forces had existed for some time, fuelled by periodic concern for the plight of Indigenous Australians; however two occurrences in the mid-1950s encouraged renewed discussion of the issue. The London Anti-Slavery Society began planning to approach the United Nations on behalf of Australian Aboriginals, accompanied by an information gathering visit of Australia by Lady Jessie Street.[1] At the same time, public concern was raised over living conditions among nomadic Aborigines living on the Warburton Ranges following the publication of a report and a subsequent film shot by Bill Grayden and Douglas Nicholls.[2][3] These events motivated activist Shirley Andrews to begin planning a meeting of concerned parties in 1957.[1]

History

Foundation (1958)

On February 13, 1958, a meeting was held in Willard Hall, in Wakefield Street, Adelaide, attended by 12 delegates from nine Aboriginal rights and welfare leagues and 12 observers. The meeting culminated in the foundation of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement, designed to unite existing lobby groups, with a goal to help "the Aboriginal people of Australia to become self-reliant, self-supporting members of the community".[4] This was the first national body representing Aboriginal interests. Longtime campaigner for Aboriginal rights and one of the oldest delegates and then president of the Aborigines Advancement League of South Australia, Charles Duguid, was elected as the first president. Only groups which had "earned themselves the right to be considered seriously as organisations fighting on behalf of Aborigines" and some newer groups which had proven worthy were invited. Different lobby groups focussed on different aspects of Aboriginal welfare or rights and members varied in composition, but they all desired to effect change. It was hard to measure success, but all contributed to changing public opinion to an acceptance that Aboriginal people deserved rights.[5]

To this aim, five key principles were established:[4]

  • Equal citizenship rights with other Australian citizens
  • An adequate standard of living equivalent to that expected by other Australians
  • Equal pay for equal work and the same industrial protection as for other Australians
  • Free and compulsory education for detribalised Aborigines
  • The absolute retention of all remaining native reserves, with native communal or individual ownership

It was a significant milestone to bring together the disparate groups under an umbrella organisation. The Aborigines Advancement League sought to disaffiliate from about 1959, achieving this in 1966, because it thought the federal organisation too focussed on the state of Victoria.[5]

Expansion (1958-1966)

The organisation grew in numbers, especially among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. From the original 25 founding members, the organisation's membership grew to 220 in 1965; over the same timeframe, the number of aboriginal members grew from 4 to 65. From 1963, an annual conference was held in Canberra, Capital Territory, attracting delegates from 65 affiliated organisation, with one third of attendees at the conference in 1970 being indigenous.[4]

In 1964, the organisation's remit was expanded to include Torres Strait Islanders, and the name was therefore changed to the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.[6]

1967 Referendum
Gordon Bryant (left), Harold Holt, and Bill Wentworth (right) meeting with FCAATSI representatives – from left to right, Faith Bandler, Douglas Nicholls, Burnum Burnum, and Winnie Branson.

In 1962, a national campaign was launched, following a partition by the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship, in order to push for a more active involvement in Aboriginal affairs at a Commonwealth level. By the end of the year, the petition had over 100,000 signatures, and after continuous lobbying, members of the council were able to meet with Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1965. This meeting was considered to have been crucial in the change in government attitude, which led to the hugely successful 1967 Referendum, giving the Australian Parliament the power to legislate for Aboriginal peoples.[6]

Aboriginal Membership Controversy (1967-1970)

The 1967 Referendum was seen as a major success for Aboriginal rights, however it signaled an end of unity in the FCAATSI. Allegations were made that the organisation was not representative of indigenous peoples, as the Executive Council had a white majority.[1] This eventually led to the resignation of the General Secretary, Stan Davey, as well as two other high-ranking Aboriginal executives, Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Charles Perkins. Faith Bandler took over as acting General Secretary, moving the headquarters to Sydney in the process.[4]

Discontent with the lack of involvement of indigenous members in the leadership of the organisation was accompanied with questioning of the focus on a common struggle between different races. The emerging alternative opinion was that the time had come for indigenous peoples to take full control of lobbying efforts and base their agenda solely on indigenous matters. The "Report on Aboriginal and European Leadership in FCAATSI", written by Barrie Pittock and published in the council's Annual Report of 1968, expresses this desire for more indigenous leadership, and echoes discontent that this has not been sufficiently met:[7]

[T]here is a basic need to have Aborigines as spokesmen for their own people; and I believe that while this organization, and this Executive, have sought to encourage Aboriginal leadership, we have not done it.

— A.B. Pittock, "Report on Aboriginal and European Leadership in FCAATSI"

This division came to a head in the Annual Conference of 1970, in which motions were tabled proposing a restriction on membership and voting rights to indigenous members.[6] The failure of these motions led to their proponents leaving the organisation, resulting in the formation of the National Tribal Council by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Douglas Nicholls, which lasted three years before disbanding.[1]

Decline and Demise (1970-1978)

The dream of an indigenous-controlled council was finally realised in 1973, however with an increase in the number of non-affiliated organisations campaigning for indigenous rights, and the formation of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee, the importance of the FCAATSI diminished. The council eventually changed its name to the National Aboriginal and Islander Liberation Movement (NAILM) to reflect its change in focus,[8][9][10] but when state funding was removed in 1978, the organisation disbanded.[1]

See also

References
  1. National Museum of Australia. "Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) - Collaborating for Indigenous Rights". indigenousrights.net.au. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  2. "'The eyes of the world are upon us'". Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  3. "Report of the Select Committee Appointed to Inquire into Native Welfare Conditions in the Laverton-Warburton Range Area". nla.gov.au. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  4. Taffe, Sue (1 January 2001). "Witnesses from the conference floor: Oral history and the federal council for the advancement of aborigines and Torres Strait islanders". Journal of Australian Studies. 25 (67): 9–21. doi:10.1080/14443050109387634. ISSN 1444-3058.
  5. Kerin, Rani (2017). "6. Adelaide-based activism in the mid-twentieth century: Radical respectability". In Brock, Peggy; Gara, Tom (eds.). Colonialism and its Aftermath: A history of Aboriginal South Australia. Wakefield Press. pp. 113–130. ISBN 9781743054994.
  6. "Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders". dictionaryofsydney.org. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  7. 1958-, Clark, Jennifer (1 January 2008). Aborigines & activism : race, aborigines & the coming of the sixties to Australia. UWA Press. p. 217–218. ISBN 9780980296570. OCLC 676935065.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. Layton, Robert; Stone, Peter G.; Shennan, Stephen (1 January 2016). A future for archaeology : the past in the present. Routledge. pp. 18–19. ISBN 9781315435794. OCLC 959428670.
  9. "Constitution of the National Aboriginal and Islander Liberation Movement". Australasian Legal Information Institute.
  10. McGinness, Joe. "National Aboriginal & Islanders Liberation Movement". Australasian Legal Information Institute.
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