Foundation (1958) From 14 February to 16 February 1958, a meeting was held in
Willard Hall, in Wakefield Street, Adelaide, attended by 12 delegates from nine
Aboriginal rights and welfare leagues and 12 observers. The meeting culminated in the foundation of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement, designed to unite existing lobby groups, with a goal to help "the Aboriginal people of Australia to become self-reliant, self-supporting members of the community". Among others, Labor Party MP for the
Division of Wills in Victoria,
Gordon Bryant, who was president of the
Aborigines Advancement League (AAL) from 1957 to 1964, was a founding member. This was the first national body representing Aboriginal interests. Longtime campaigner for Aboriginal rights and one of the oldest delegates and then president of the
Aborigines Advancement League of South Australia,
Charles Duguid, was elected as the first president. Only groups which had "earned themselves the right to be considered seriously as organisations fighting on behalf of Aborigines" and some newer groups which had proven worthy were invited. Different lobby groups focussed on different aspects of Aboriginal welfare or rights and members varied in composition, but they all desired to effect change. It was hard to measure success, but all contributed to changing public opinion to an acceptance that Aboriginal people deserved rights. To this aim, five key principles were established: The
Cairns-based
Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders Advancement League was established in January 1960, and affiliated with the FCAA shortly afterwards. The
Northern Territory Council for Aboriginal Rights (NTCAR) was founded in 1961, with their constitution based on sister organisation
Council for Aboriginal Rights (CAR) in
Victoria, only with an extra requirement that 75 per cent of executive members had to be of Aboriginal descent. The first president was Jacob Roberts, succeeded by Phillip Roberts in 1962. It became an affiliate of FCAA during that year, tipping the voting balance in favour of the left-wing Aboriginal affiliates, the others being CAR (Victoria), the
Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship (
New South Wales) and the
Queensland Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (QCAATSI) based in
Brisbane. The
Methodist Commission on Aboriginal Affairs, under
John Jago, was the only Christian organisation to join the FCAA. Jago was a member of the executive for two years. In July 1963, the FCAA sponsored Gordon Bryant and WA Labor politician
Kim Beazley Sr. on a visit to
Yirrkala, to investigate
Yolngu complaints about a mining company being granted licence to explore for
bauxite on their traditional land. This led to the
Yirrkala bark petitions being presented to the Australian Parliament in August 1963, and a committee being set up to investigate their grievances. The organisation grew in numbers, especially among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. From the original 25 founding members, the organisation's membership grew to 220 in 1965; over the same time frame, the number of Aboriginal members grew from 4 to 65. From 1963, an annual conference was held in
Canberra,
Capital Territory, attracting delegates from 65 affiliated organisations, with one third of attendees at the conference in 1970 being Indigenous. Nurse and activist
Isobelle Mary Ferguson, as honorary secretary of the
Aboriginal Affairs Association, read that organisation's report at the conference. At the conference, FCAA resolved to write to the
Yolngu people of
Yirrkala, through mission superintendent
Edgar Wells, in order to find out their feelings about the proposed mining of
bauxite on their traditional lands on the
Gove Peninsula, in
Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. The conference was given page one coverage by
Tribune, the official organ of the
Communist Party of Australia.
Joe McGinness was the first Aboriginal president of FCAATSI in 1961, remaining in the position until the end of the organisation for all but one year.
Stan Davey (who was also active in the AAL) was general secretary for ten years. From the early 1960s,
Winnie Branson attended the national conference in
Canberra as a member of the Adelaide Delegation, becoming the first
South Australian state secretary of FCAATSI in early 1967 and holding the position until 1971.
1967 Referendum (left),
Harold Holt, and
Bill Wentworth (right) meeting with FCAATSI representatives – from left to right,
Faith Bandler,
Douglas Nicholls,
Burnum Burnum, and
Winnie Branson, February 1967 In 1962, a national campaign was launched, following a petition raised to a national level based on work done by the Council for Aboriginal Rights (CAR) in Melbourne, in order to push for a more active involvement in Aboriginal affairs at a
Commonwealth level. By the end of the year, the petition had over 100,000 signatures, and after continuous lobbying, members of the council were able to meet with
Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1965. This meeting was considered to have been crucial in the change in government attitude. The hugely successful 1967 Referendum gave the
Australian Parliament the power to legislate for Aboriginal peoples.
National Tribal Council This division came to a head in the Annual Conference of 1970, in which motions were tabled proposing a restriction on membership and voting rights to Indigenous members.
Gary Foley,
Naomi Mayers, and
Bruce McGuinness were also involved. The National Tribal Council lasted three years before disbanding. FCAATSI eventually changed its name to the National Aboriginal and Islander Liberation Movement (NAILM) to reflect its change in focus, but when state funding was removed in 1978, the organisation disbanded. ==Notable members==