AustLit

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) is established to facilitate the formal involvement of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders in the processes of government that affected them and their lives.

The University of Queensland Press (UQP) launches its Black Australian Writing series.

Jimmy Chi's musical Bran Nue Dae debuts at the Octagon Theatre as part of the Festival of Perth, before a national tour.

Ilbijerri Aboriginal Theatre is established by local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and community members in Melbourne. Ilbijerri (pronounced il BIDGE er ree) is a Woiwurrung word meaning ‘Coming Together for Ceremony’. Ilbijerri is the longest-running Indigenous theatre company in Australia.

The Yothu Yindi Foundation is established to promote Yolngu cultural development. Its vision is defined as ‘For Yolngu and other Indigenous Australians to have the same level of wellbeing and life opportunities and choices as non-Indigenous Australians’.

NAIDOC releases its poster for NAIDOC Week (3-9 September), with the theme ‘Don’t Destroy, Learn and Enjoy Our Cultural Heritage’.

See the 1990 NAIDOC poster (external link)

NAIDOC theme keyword search: BlackWords works on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture

Doris Pilkington Gari Mara wins the David Unaipon Award for Caprice: A Stockman's Daughter.

Cathy Freeman, Commonwealth Games gold medallist, is named Young Australian of the Year.

The Koori Mail is founded by Walbunja man Owen Carriage.

Final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody is released.

The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR) is formed.

NAIDOC releases its poster for NAIDOC Day (6 September), with the slogan ‘Community Is Unity’.

See 1991 NAIDOC poster (external link)

NAIDOC theme keyword search: BlackWords works on community

Bill Dodd wins the David Unaipon Award for Broken Dreams.

Bill Rosser wins the Kate Challis RAKA Award for Creative Prose for his book Up Rode the Troopers : The Black Police in Queensland.

High Court's Mabo Decision : The High Court of Australia brings down its decision in Mabo v Queensland (No 2), originally brought in 1982, finding that the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985 contravenes section 10 of the Racial Discrimination Act (1975). The finding rewrites Australia's law on the impact of colonisation, recognising that Australia was not terra nullius when invaded by the British in 1788 but occupied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who had their own laws and customs and whose 'native title' to land survived the Crown's annexation of Australia.

Each year Mabo Day is celebrated on 3 June in respect of the Elders Eddie Mabo (a Meriam man from the Murray Islands in the Torres Strait), James Rice, Father Paul Passi, Sam Passi and Celuia Mapo Salee, who were the five plaintiffs in the landmark case.

Keyword search: all BlackWords works about the Mabo Decision

Keyword search: all BlackWords works about native title and land rights

Keyword search: all BlackWords works about terra nullius

Keyword search: all works about the Mabo Decision

The Torres Strait Islander flag, designed by Bernard Namok Senior, is officially presented to the people of the Torres Strait. The Australian Government recognises it as an official flag of Australia in 1995.

Paul Keating is the first Australian Prime Minister to publicly acknowledge that Europeans were responsible for Aboriginal disadvantage. Known as the 'Redfern Park Speech', it is now considered to be one of the great Australian speeches. Speaking to a crowd at Redfern Park, Keating acknowledges the impact of European settlement on Indigenous Australians. He said:

It was we who did the dispossessing; we took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases and the alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practiced discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice, and our failure to imagine that these things could be done to us.

Jindalee Lady is released: although it was not released commercially in Australia, Brian Syron is considered the first Aboriginal director to direct a feature film.

NAIDOC releases its poster for NAIDOC Week, which returns to July for the first time since 1983 (5-12 July), with the slogan ‘Maintain the Dreaming: Our Culture Is Our Heritage’.

See the 1992 NAIDOC poster (external link)

NAIDOC Week keyword search: Aboriginal Dreaming

Philip McLaren wins the David Unaipon Award for Sweet Water-Stolen Land.

Jack Davis wins the Kate Challis RAKA Award for his play, No Sugar.

Mandawuy Yunipingu, Aboriginal educator, musician and ambassador, is named Australian of the Year.

Yirra Yaakin is established in Perth as an offshoot of Barking Gecko Theatre Company.

The first Wardarnji Festival is held in Fremantle and grows to become one of the biggest Aboriginal celebrations on the Perth calendar. The name comes from the Wardandi Nyoongar people of the south-west of WA.

A Week of Prayer for Reconciliation is held, supported by Australia’s major faith communities. It forms the seed of the later National Reconciliation Week.

See Reconciliation Australia’s history of Reconciliation Week (external link)

Awaye! begins broadcasting on ABC Radio National. It aims to tell stories about Aboriginal arts and culture from across Australia and highlight great radio from Indigenous broadcasters worldwide.

At the end of a game in which he has been repeatedly racially vilified, St Kilda player Nicky Winmar lifts his shirt and points to his skin in a gesture of defiance and pride. A statue commemorating the moment is erected outside Perth Stadium in 2019.

NAIDOC releases its poster for NAIDOC Week, with the slogan ‘Aboriginal Nations: Owners of the Land Since Time Began’.

See the 1993 NAIDOC poster (external link)

NAIDOC theme keyword search: Aboriginal relationship with the land

John Muk Muk Burke wins the David Unaipon Award for Bridge of Triangles.

Lin Onus wins the Kate Challis RAKA Award for his sculptural installation, They Took the Children Away.

The Going Home Conference, Darwin, brings together over 600 Aboriginal people removed as children to discuss common goals of access to archives, compensation, rights to land and social justice.

The Deadly Awards (The Deadlys) are established to recognise the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to their community and to Australian society.

NAIDOC releases its poster for NAIDOC Week, with the slogan ‘Families Are the Basis of Our Existence: Maintain the Link’.

See the 1994 NAIDOC poster (external link)

NAIDOC theme keyword search: BlackWords works on families

Valda Gee and Rosalie Medcraft win the David Unaipon Award for The Sausage Tree.

Tracey Moffatt wins the Kate Challis RAKA Award for BeDevil.