Mountain Man's Global Terrestrial Nativity Archive National Aboriginal History and Heritage Council Article [1] - 1938 Day of Mourning Proposal
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia - Southern Spring of 1996

The National Aboriginal History and Heritage Council has proposed the Government initiates a scheme to purchase the site of the "Day of Mourning" to establish an Aboriginal History Centre. The centre would provide a much needed facility to promote Aboriginal history and heritage awareness.

The NSW Minister for Planning, Craig Knowles, has ruled that only the facade of the building, already listed for its European architectural significance, be retained intact. The way is now open for the old Australian Hall, where the 1938 protest was held to be demolished. On 23 September 1996, the Council wrote to the Premier appealing to him to intervene to halt this desecration of Aboriginal heritage. The Premier did not respond.

The Council is urging all supporters of this proposal to come to:

the gates of Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney,
at 12.30 pm on Thursday 14 November 1996
to put a People's Reconciliation resolution
on the day the Premier has announced
that he will put a resolution to the NSW State Parliament
to formally endorse the principles of reconciliation.

Please come if you can or send a message of support
and please publicise the rally as widely as possible.

A dedicated information page on this project has been established at http://www.isis.aust.com/nahhc/nahhc.htm where there exists an online petition form to enable your support to be registered. Please review the history associated with this project, and complete this registration of support.

For further information call

PHONE: (02) 9267 6074
Fax (02) 9264 6092
National Aboriginal History and Heritage Council
PO Box A765 Sydney South NSW 2000

The following is an extract from the Aboriginal History Committee's submission to the Public Inquiry on ICO No. 927, The Cyprus Hellene Club (2 May 1995):

On 26 January 1938, as white Australians celebrated the sesquicentenary, about 100 Aboriginal men, women and children defiantly gathered in a Sydney hall, then known as the Australian Hall, to call for citizen's rights. They called the day a "Day of Mourning and Protest", because, in the words of the organisers of this gathering:
"the 26th of January, 1938 is not a day of rejoicing for Australia's Aborigines; it is a day of mourning. This festival of 150 years of so-called "progress" in Australia commemorates also 150 years of misery and degradation imposed upon the original native inhabitants by the white invaders of this country."

Their intention was to bring awareness of their plight to white Australia, in order to gain support for their argument about the need to dismantle the Protection Boards operating at the time and to extend full citizen rights to Aboriginal people. Participants included Jack Patten, William Ferguson, Pastor Doug Nicholls, Pearl Gibbs, William Cooper, Margaret Tucker.

The gathering made its point. The event was documented by the media, and the Prime Minister agreed to receive a deputation of the delegates a few days later to hear their demands. This eventually led to major reforms of the Protection Boards and later to the 1967 Referendum. It also led to other political action at the national level by Aboriginal people; action that continues today. The 1938 event, its participants and its cause have also been widely documented in recent times.

The 1938 Day of Mourning was a unique event in Aboriginal history. It was the first national Aboriginal civil rights gathering. There are few buildings in Australia - let alone New South Wales or Sydney - that can be identified as being associated with an event of this magnitude in Aboriginal history.

That this national gathering also intended to challenge common ideas about Australia - that it was "settled" and that changes since "settlement" were a cause for celebration - is also unique. Challenges along these lines have been made since 1788 at local levels, but this was unique because it was an organised national-level public definance that was intended to be broadcast throughout Australia, and that was intended to provoke a questioning of the way in which white Australians thought of the history of this country.

In heritage terms there is no surviving tangible evidence of this event. The historic value of the building consequently lies with its associational links with a unique event.

Many of the organisers of the 1938 event have been the subject of biographies, of entries in biographical dictionaries, of academic texts, of documentary films, and popular publications. Pastor Doug Nicholls, for instance, became Governor of South Australia and was knighted as well as receiving other awards. Margaret Tucker has had her autobiography, "If Everyone Cared" published. William Ferguson was the subject of a biography by Jack Horner, originally entitled "Vote Ferguson for Aboriginal Freedom". William Cooper's letters and biography were the subject of a book entitled "Blood from a Stone". The well-known Aboriginal poet and playwright, Kevin Gilbert, wrote a poem about Pearl Gibbs. These demonstrate the prominence these people gained, and the high regard in which they are held in Australia.

All these people were associated with the 1938 event. From an Aboriginal perspective, the names of these people are synonymous with the 1938 event, and the event is synonymous with their names. For Aboriginal people they are modern heroes.

The symbolic significance we attach to this building is therefore nseparable from the admiration we hold for the brave men and women who organised the Day of Mourning and Protest on January 26, 1938.

Historical Significance

Appendix 2 of the Submission contains documentary evidence of historical significance including the following:

A2.1 Background history to the 1938 Day of Mourning and Protest

A2.2 Related documents

A2.2.1 1933 Petition

This petition - which called for Aboriginal representation in Parliament (i.e. citizenship rights) was signed by over 1,800 Aboriginal people across Australia. One of the reasons the 1938 Day of Mourning was held was the refusal of the Commonwealth Government to forward this petition to England

A2.2.2 Aborigines claim citizens rights (Manifesto of the Aborigines Progressive Association - Pamphlet)

A2.2.3 Notice of the 1938 Day of Mourning and Protest

A2.2.4 Photographs of the 1938 Day of Mourning and Protest

A2.2.5 Media coverage of the 1938 Day of Mourning and Protest

A2.2.6 The Australian Abo Call

This was the first Aboriginal written newspaper in Australia. There were a total of six issues, all published in 1938. The first issue, published in April 1938, carried a full report of the Day of mourning, including the ten demands presented to the Prime Minister on 31 January 1938. Each issue covered and received news from Aboriginal activists across Australia.

The following are extracts from Commissioner Simpson's Comments and findings [ i.e. Report to the Honourable Craig Knowles...Cyprus Hellene Club, 150-152 Elizabeth Street, Sydney: Objection to Interim Conservation Order No. 927 by Commissioner William Simpson, Chairman, Commissioners of Inquiry for Environment and Planning. July 1995].

p. 25-26

"The National and/or State significance of such conference is attested to by many submissions to this Inquiry (see section Summary of Submissions made to the Inquiry)...

In essence, the "Day of Mourning" Conference presented an opportunity for Aborigines from NSW and other States to publicise their existing substandard and deteriorating health and living conditions, lack of civil and economic rights and failure to recognise Aboriginal culture and its place in the community and Australia history.

This formal participation of Aboriginal State and regional groups and formulation of a statement of policy was the first step in establishing a coordinated Aboriginal civil rights movement which has endured to the present time. It also led to the subsequent and first formal meeting between Aboriginal leaders and the Prime Minister on 31 January 1938 and aim to have Aboriginal affairs recognised as a responsibility of the Commonwealth rather than the State.

In my view, the "Day of Mourning" conference should now be recognised as a significant event in the post European history of Australia.

It is of historic and social significance for all Australians, being the first formal and recognised step towards the promotion of "equality of rights" between indigenous and other Australians. It must also be acknowledged as the embryonic assertion of land right claims which have been recognised in the historic and contentious 1992 Mabo decision of the High Court and the subsequent Native Title Act 1993.

The Conference is of special historic, cultural and social significance to Aboriginal people as a minority group in that issues raised in the public arena claimed attention and challenged the celebrations by "white Australians" of the sesquicentenary of European settlement in circumstances where such settlement was and is regarded by the Aboriginal community as an "invasion", and "an event occasioning considerable grief, mourning and dispossession.

Thus the "Day of Mourning" conference may properly be regarded as the foundation of contemporary Aboriginal political and civil rights movements and on the evidence is a major Aboriginal event associated with renowned Aboriginal leaders, advancement of civil rights for Aborigines and of great social, structural and cultural significance to the Aboriginal community and to the history of Australia."

The National Aboriginal History and Heritage Council has proposed the Government initiates a scheme to purchase the site of the "Day of Mourning" to establish an Aboriginal History Centre. The centre would provide a much needed facility to promote Aboriginal history and heritage awareness.

The NSW Minister for Planning, Craig Knowles, has ruled that only the facade of the building, already listed for its European architectural significance, be retained intact. The way is now open for the old Australian Hall, where the 1938 protest was held to be demolished. On 23 September 1996, the Council wrote to the Premier appealing to him to intervene to halt this desecration of Aboriginal heritage. The Premier did not respond.

The Council is urging all supporters of this proposal to come to the gates of Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney at 12.30 pm on Thursday 14 November 1996 to put a People's Reconciliation resolution on the day the Premier has announced that he will put a resolution to the NSW State Parliament to formally endorse the principles of reconciliation.

Please come if you can or send a message of support and please publicise the rally as widely as possible.

Well, the sun shone on the rally, and many were there in attendance.

To: prfbrown@magna.com.au
From: "Lynn Pollack"
Subject: Site Victory
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 98 01:36:46 PST


"DAY OF MOURNING AND PROTEST" SITE VICTORY

The Sydney building which hosted the 1938 “Day of Mourning and Protest” Aboriginal civil rights gathering will be protected by a full Permanent Conservation Order (PCO). The building became the subject of a protracted battle by Aboriginal activists for a heritage protection order when the historic site was targeted for redevelopment in 1992.

In November 1996, the NSW Minister for Planning, Craig Knowles, placed a PCO on the building but then granted the owners, the Cyprus-Hellene Club, an exemption order allowing redevelopment. This exemption order stipulated that the building’s facade must be retained but specified that the old Australian Hall (now the Mandolin Cinema)-where the 1938 “Day of Mourning and Protest’ was held- could be demolished.

The National Aboriginal History and Heritage Council (NAHHC) initiated proceedings in the Land and Environment Court to have the exemption order declared void. The NAHHC contended the minister had acted beyond his powers. The case was scheduled to be heard this April. But the Minister has now announced the revocation of the controversial order (NSW Government Gazette 13 Feb 1998 p. 760)

A spokesperson for the NAHHC said “We are jubilant at this news. This is the first PCO ever to be placed on a site of Aboriginal heritage. However, we are extremely disappointed that the Minister has decided to diminish the importance of this momentous occasion. There will be no ceremony whatsoever. He didn’t sign the revocation order himself and his office has indicated there won’t even be a media release.”

June Barker, grand-daughter of William Ferguson, one of the organisers of the 1938 gathering said : “I’m really happy. It’s been such a long fight, but it hasn’t been in vain. Back in 1938, my grand-father and the others who gathered in that hall were saying “We have nothing to celebrate”. Now, this victory is like a light at the end of the tunnel. At last, we have something to celebrate. All the brave peop;le who fought so hard to advance our rights will have a place to be remembered.”

The NAHHC spokesperson confirmed that negotiations have been taking place for the purchase of the building: “Right now, we are simply glad that our five year battle to save the site is over. The real celebrations will come when we can own this place. We plan to establish a museum dedicated to our heroes in there one day - we have to focus our energies on that dream, now.”

Further information: 02 9212 3210 or 02 9955 5660

National Aboriginal History & Heritage Council
PO Box A765 Sydney South, NSW 1235
Ph. (02) 9212 3210 Fax (02) 9212 2468

Mountain Man's Global Terrestrial Nativity Archive National Aboriginal History and Heritage Council Article [1] - 1938 Day of Morning Proposal
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia - Southern Spring of 1996