The Aboriginal Advancement League was founded in 1957 as the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL), is the oldest Aboriginal rights organisation in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

still in operation. Its precursor organisations were the

Australian Aborigines League The Australian Aborigines' League was established in Melbourne, Australia, in 1933 by William Cooper and others, including Margaret Tucker, Eric Onus, Anna and Caleb Morgan, and Shadrach James (son of Thomas Shadrach James and brother-in-law of Co ...

and Save the Aborigines Committee, and it was also formerly known as Aborigines Advancement League (Victoria), and just Aborigines Advancement League. The organisation is primarily concerned with Aboriginal welfare issues and the preservation of Aboriginal culture and heritage, and is based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. Its journal is called ''Smoke Signals''.

History

The Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL) was established in March 1957, partly in response to an enquiry by retired magistrate, Charles McLean, who had been appointed in 1955 to investigate the circumstances of Aboriginal Victorians. McLean was critical of conditions in the Aboriginal reserves at

Lake Tyers Lake Tyers Mission, also known as Bung Yarnda, was an Aboriginal mission station, mission established in 1863 on the shore of Lake Tyers in Victoria‘s Gippsland, region as a centralised location for Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal people fro ...

and

Framlingham Framlingham is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 Census and an estimated 4, ...

. McLean recommended that persons of mixed Aboriginal and European descent be removed from the reserves. The people of Lake Tyers objected to this, and the League was formed out of their campaign. The new League drew from two already existing organisations, the

, established in 1934 and the Save the Aborigines Committee, established as a response to the Warburton Ranges controversy in 1956–7. Founding President of the League was Gordon Bryant, with

Doris Blackburn Doris Amelia Blackburn (; 18 September 1889 – 12 December 1970) was an Australian social reformer and politician. She served in the House of Representatives from 1946 to 1949, the second woman after Enid Lyons to do so. Blackburn was a promin ...

as Deputy President,

Stan Davey Stan or STAN may refer to: People * Stan (given name), a list of people with the given name ** Stan Laurel (1890–1965), English comic actor, part of duo Laurel and Hardy * Stan (surname), a Romanian surname * Stan! (born 1964), American author, ...

as Secretary and

Douglas Nicholls Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls, (9 December 1906 – 4 June 1988) was a prominent Aboriginal Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneering ...

as Field Officer. A national

umbrella organisation An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and ofte ...

, the

Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement 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 whic ...

(later FCAATSI) was founded in February 1958 in

Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

, but the

Aborigines Advancement League of South Australia use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Kent Town, Adelaide , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = , burial_place = ...

(AALSA) finally disaffiliated in 1966, because it thought the federal organisation was too centred on Victoria. (Davey also became secretary of

FCAATSI 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 ...

, before moving to

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. Early activities included lobbying for a referendum to change the

Australian constitution The Constitution of Australia (or Australian Constitution) is a constitutional document that is supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a federation under a constitutional monarchy and outlines the structure and powers of the ...

to allow the

Federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

to legislate on Aboriginal affairs, and an establishing a legal defence fund for Albert Namatjira, after he was charged with supplying liquor to an Aboriginal ward. By 1967 it had moved to being fully controlled by Aboriginal people, with

Bill Onus William Townsend Onus Jnr (15 November 1906 – 10 January 1968) was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, designer, and showman, also known for his boomerang-throwing skills. He was father of artist Lin Onus. Early life and educati ...

as the first Aboriginal president. In 1968, the AAL, led by

Bruce McGuinness Bruce Brian McGuinness (17 June 1939 – 5 September 2003) was an Australian Aboriginal activist. He was active in and led the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League, and is known for founding and running ''The Koorier'', which was the first Ab ...

and Bob Maza, invited Caribbean activist Roosevelt Brown to give a talk on Black Power in Melbourne, causing a media frenzy. The AAL was influenced by the ideas of Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. The Australian Black Power movement had emerged in Redfern in Sydney,

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

, Melbourne, and

South Brisbane South Brisbane is an inner southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , South Brisbane had a population of 7,196 people. Geography The suburb is on the southern bank of the Brisbane River, bounded to the north-west, ...

, following the " Freedom Ride" led by Charles Perkins in 1965, but this visit brought the term to wider attention. Salaried director

Elizabeth Maud Hoffman Elizabeth Maud Hoffman, née Morgan, also known as Aunty Liz or Yarmauk, (10 March 1927 – 6 April 2009) was an Australian Indigenous rights activist and public servant. She co-founded the first Indigenous Woman's Refuge in Australia, named " ...

, who served From 1975 to 1983, was the organisations longest-serving director.

Publications

''Smoke Signals'' was the official magazine of the AAL, Published since 1957,PDF
/ref> Copies were unnumbered until April 1960, when Volume 1, Issue 1. Three issues per year were published until August 1963, after which it was published quarterly. The first editor Stan Davey, with Gordon Bryant following Davey as editor when he left to work for

. The newspaper was especially focused on educating non-Indigenous Australians about the activities of the VAAL, as well as the social and economic conditions in which

Aboriginal Victorians Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement of Australia, European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi ...

lived. While some sources report that ''Smoke Signals'' ceased publication in 1972,PDF
/ref> library catalogues and Museums Victoria show that it went on being published occasionally until at least 2011. and possibly longer. there is no mention of the journal on the website.

Current activities

The League provides a number of services to

Koorie Koori (also spelt koorie, goori or goorie) is a demonym for Aboriginal Australians from a region that approximately corresponds to southern New South Wales and Victoria. The word derives from the Indigenous language Awabakal. For some people a ...

people, including family support, food assistance, home visits, advocacy, counselling and educational programs, drug and alcohol awareness and funeral services. It also has a Cultural Unit that provides information and speakers for schools.

Headquarters and cultural repository

In 1999 the

Victorian government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...

completed a $2,790,000 renovation of the League's headquarters in Watt Street,

Thornbury Thornbury may refer to: Places ;Australia *Thornbury, Victoria * Thornbury railway station, Melbourne ;Canada * Thornbury, Ontario ;England *Thornbury, Devon * Thornbury, Herefordshire *Thornbury, Gloucestershire **Thornbury Castle **Thornbury (UK ...

. As well as providing a community facility, the building houses a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

and "keeping place" for items of historical, cultural and spiritual importance to Aboriginal people.Minister opens refurbished Aborigines Advancement League (2/7/99)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Organisations serving Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australian politics History of Indigenous Australians 1957 establishments in Australia Organisations based in Melbourne