1970s

Gordon Briscoe and Mum Shirl (Shirley Smith) establish free breakfasts for children in Redfern.

Ruby Langford has three boys in jail, one son dead, and one girl. Her first grandchild is born and she moves to a Green Valley four bedroom Housing Commission home. (For more, see Stories) (V49, ‘Homes and Homes away from home’)

The boredom of inner city life for men brought up in the bush causes the decision to use the profits from dances in the Railway Institute in Redfern to support an all-Aboriginal football club. The first coach is Eric Mumbler. Among the first members are Peter and Ervine Duran, Teddy Duncan, Bill Waten, Harry Podham, and Boomanulla (Mervyn Williams).

A woman living in Redfern with her husband and two children wishes to move to a Housing Commission house. A file notes that the family is willing to go to anywhere except Mount Druitt or La Perouse. The inspector writes: ‘The family is a reputable one. They have made honest and successful efforts to establish and maintain a high moral and emotional tone in the home. They had been plagued by relatives encroaching upon them and desire to be free of this type of environment.’ The family is allotted a house in Bradbury, near Campbelltown. (Morgan p.89; for more, see The Redfern Housing Crisis, in Stories)

Doctor Archie Kalokerinos works with Aboriginal communities to identify Vitamin C deficiencies.

The segregated Springboks football team play Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (see also Stories)

A number of Koori men are training at Ernie McQuillan’s boxing gym in the inner city area. Tony Mundine trains here.

Robin Williams is active in the Builders Labourers Federation. He takes part in the Green Ban movement and supports Aboriginal housing and land rights demands.

First meeting of what becomes the Aboriginal Health Service Board of Management.

Murawina is established, an Aboriginal-run kindergarten in Chippendale by Norma Williams and Milly Ingram of the Black Womens Action Committee. The Dictionary of Sydney describes it as beginning as a breakfast program. At the onset of winter the women are allowed the use of an empty factory building. Esther Ingram also runs programs for women in the Murawina Multi Purpose Education Centre. Sylvia Scott (Ingram) and their mother, Auntie Louisa Ingram, are vital in the growth of Murawina. It becomes a model for other Aboriginal run pre schools around NSW.

The Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service community bus is named after Wally Byers from Bourke who works as the first Aboriginal Liaison Officer with Pastor Bill Reid to build relationships between Aboriginal community and health staff. Dr Max Kamien writes an important book on Bourke Aboriginal health called The Dark People of Bourke.

Ruby Langford leaves Redfern for a Housing Commission house in Liverpool, where she finds that she has been ‘pepper-potted’, (housed with non-Aboriginal neighbours on each side). She writes, ‘It meant putting us in among whites to see if we could live together but because there were so few black families there in 1972 we felt very isolated from our friends, our culture. All my neighbours were white, and there weren’t many black kids at the school.’ Ruby returns to the city most weekends. (Langford p. 174.)

The geographer Kay Anderson documents 467 charges of Redfern people, in three months mostly of Aboriginal people on minor charges. v

First all-Aboriginal Land Rights Conference is held in Alice Springs. (V25, ‘I had to speak’)

After Prime Minister McMahon’s Australia Day address, Aboriginal activists including Paul Coe, Gary Foley and Chicka Dixon, agree to form a protest in Canberra. This becomes known as the Aboriginal Embassy. The Aboriginal Medical Service raises funds to pay for buses to take protestors to Canberra. Each week Gordon Briscoe notifies people through community radio and arranges for funds to be dropped at the Medical Service. He takes the hat around at locations like the University of Sydney, especially when Aboriginal speakers have the floor.

Dennis Walker, the son of poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) from Stradbroke Island is a major figure in the civil rights and land rights movements of the 1970s. Having himself been in court only a few days beforehand on the charge of possessing a concealable firearm, he tells reporters 'if you haven't got a gun, you have nothing. We're not going to get what we want by standing here and talking.” He is sent to jail.

The Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) is formed based on the Block. (The Block is bounded by Lawson Street, Vine Street, Louis Street and Eveleigh Street.) Among the founders is Bob Bellear. A group of campaigners lobbies the Whitlam government to transfer ownership of The Block in Redfern to the Aboriginal housing Company. The grant facilitated by Whitlam allows the AHC to purchase and restore a group of six terrace houses. This is claimed to be the first instance of urban land rights in Australia. The AHC’s aim is to purchase all 68 houses on The Block to be renovated and rented by Koori people for Koori people. The plan is opposed by 226 residents of South Sydney who sign a petition, ‘We the undersigned residents of South Sydney vociferously protest, object and condemn the establishment of the ghetto in Louis and Caroline Streets by the Aboriginals who have squatted in these properties … we want the Aboriginal ghetto stopped now – for if allowed to continue it will spread like the plague throughout the entire South Sydney area.’ This group is called the South Sydney Residents Protection Movement. ) (V 37, ‘It’s time to end this vicious cycle of racism’)

Street theatre is organised by the Aboriginal community in Redfern as a form of political action. It supports many rallies and protests in the 1970s. Gary Foley supports the establishment of the Aboriginal Legal Service, and raises awareness about the Tent Embassy in Canberra. Street theatre supports land rights demonstrations organised by the Black Moratorium Committee. “Sketches and street theatre ... in hotels, in lounges of pubs... We performed as black theatre groups, as street groups, in the marches. Black theatre would get involved with all the political demonstrations.” [Gerry Bostock] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black Theatre_(Sydney) (V 40, ‘Chicka Madden’s Redfern: The Aboriginal Legal Service’)

Aboriginal Hostels Limited (AHL) provides temporary accommodation to Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander people. It goes on to run hostels throughout Australia. AHL is a government-owned company within the Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs portfolio. In 2010 Debbie Frail is manager of the Chicka Dixon Hostel and Anne Martin is regional manager. (V 41, ‘Hostels, to me, is a sense of family history’)

The Aboriginal Housing Association is legally Incorporated. Bob Bellear explains, ‘The whole aim of the project is to bring Aboriginal people together so that we can live in the way we want to live and share what we have with one another. Many of us are now living in slums and ‘pig sties’ because we cannot afford the high rents. It is difficult to get jobs because we have no skills and because white people don’t want to employ us. We can’t be proud to live in these conditions. But when we are living together we will be able to help each other to learn skills and to get jobs and, most importantly, we will be proud of our houses and proud of our community. (Pitts 3/7 and ‘Aboriginal Australia the Redfern Example’ in Aboriginal News, No. 9, 1974, p. 18)

Council approves renovations on the Block on the condition that building applications for each property provide only for single family occupation. Pitts p. 3/14.

Murawina has developed a child care and preschool program, and provides assistance for women seeking accommodation and acts as a general meeting place.

The NSW Police 21st Division, originally created in the 1930s to deal with razor gangs, is apparent throughout the Redfern area. Mum Shirl recalls, ‘The police were having a field-day, especially in Redfern, where they would just drive in, load paddy wagons full of Blacks, and charge them with being drunk. Quite a lot of the people arrested like this were not only not drunk, but they didn’t even drink, ever.’ (Pitts p. 3/16), (V 54, ‘Gordon Briscoe’s Redfern: the Police were at war with us’)

The newly elected Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, articulates his government's aspirations, in an address about Aboriginal Arts

Chicka Madden remembers one of the best Redfern All Black football sides ever. Members included Ambrose Morgan (Captain Coach), Bimbo Widders, Andrew Donnelly, Alan Madden, Micky Mundine, Frankie Vincent, Kenny Mundine, Kevin Anderson, Stevie Ridgeway, Danny Slater, and Gordon Williams, Other members of the team were Wes Patten, Cec Patten, and Ronny Merritt. Kenny Brindle is the President. (V 13, ‘The Redfern All Blacks’)

The Aboriginal Education Assistants Training Program begins at the University of Sydney in the Mackie Building. Alan Duncan is the organiser acting on the initiative of several Aboriginal Teaching Assistants from Caroona. Terry Widders and Barry Thorne are among the Aboriginal educators involved in teaching on the program.

Redfern social life includes Redfern oval, the Greek Cafe in Redfern Street and The Palms Cafe in Regent Street. (V32, ‘The Greek café’)

23 Aboriginal Teachers Aides are appointed by the NSW Department of Education for the University of Sydney’s Aboriginal Teaching Assistants Program.

Anthony ‘Tony’ William Mundine boxing legend, fights Carlos Monzon for the world middleweight title, but loses by knockout in the 7th round. He holds the Australian middleweight, light heavyweight, cruiserweight and heavyweight titles and Commonwealth middleweight and light heavy weight titles.

Mum Shirl describes a typical day in her life as a prison visitor. [see Stories]

Mick Mundine is employed as a painter in the Aboriginal Housing Company. Later he becomes the Chief Executive Officer for 33 years. Mick Mundine is also a director of the Redfern Medical Service. (V36, ‘It’s time to end this vicious cycle of racism’)

The Aboriginal Children’s Service is founded.

The National Trachoma Program begins; planners include Gordon Briscoe and Fred Hollows. (Briscoe, pp. 180-181)

An upsurge of Indigenous cultural pride leads to the birth of a unique new dance form led by American dancer Carol Johnson: Contemporary Australian Indigenous Dance. This new dance form springs from collaborations with Indigenous Aboriginal dance creators, Western trained choreographers and traditional cultural owners. Workshops follow for young people keen to learn and perform the new dance fusion. This is the genesis of NAISDA Dance Academy, later College. (V39, ‘The Aboriginal Dance Theatre’).

A small group of students from both town and country begin the first formal year-long Careers in Dance training course.

Larry Corowa from Balmain plays two tests for Australia.

Gordon Syron, Worimi/Biripi artist, paints "Judgment by His Peers" an award winning work that depicts a white man on trial in front of an all Aboriginal jury. The picture is based on his own experience in court. Gordon has been described as 'the father of urban contemporary Aboriginal art'.

Robert Kitchener, escaping the institutional authorities, is hidden in the roof of the Gundy’s Redfern house. (V43 ‘What amazes me is how anyone can take you away on the grounds of your culture’)