1. Lesson 9 - Fighting for equity and the continuing struggle

2. From last lesson
Explain one significant event on the road to reconciliation
Any of following events:
• 1990 Australia signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
• 1992 Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered the Redfern Speech calling for reconciliation
• 1995 Keating announced the establishment of the Bringing Them Home inquiry about the
Stolen Generations.
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• August 1996 Governor-General Sir William Deane called for the Australian people to embrace
reconciliation.
• 30 October 1996 Prime Minister John Howard presented his reactions to ‘the black armband of
history’.
• 1997 Bringing Them Home report presented to Parliament. State and territory governments and
church organisations say ‘sorry’.
• 26 May 1998 first National Sorry Day
• 2005 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child congratulated the authors of the Bringing Them
Home report while highlighting areas that required further improvement including the over use
of home care and juvenile detention centres.
• 13 February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made his apology to the Indigenous Peoples of
Australia for past injustices and maltreatment.

3. Outcomes (What you need to know and be able to do)
• Outline aboriginal inequities in Health, Education, and Housing
• Evaluate government initiatives to address inequities
• Explain how the indigenous population is changing
• Evaluate the significance of the UN recognising the rights of
Indigenous peoples.

4. Defining Equity
the quality of being fair and impartial:

5. Health and Life span
The average life expectancy for a non-Indigenous Australian
man is 80, while for an Indigenous man it is just 67.
Health risks include: coronary heart disease, diabetes, high
blood pressure, respiratory infections, trachoma, substance
abuse.

6. Education

7. Housing

8. Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted
by the United Nations General Assembly during its 61st session at UN Headquarters
in New York City on 13 September 2007.