Approximately 80,000 BCE First evidence of Aboriginal occupation in Australia.

1788 British establish a colony at Port Jackson Sydney on Gadigal Country.

1797 The settlement of Parramatta is attacked by a large group of Bidjigal warriors led by Pemulwuy.

1834 Western Australian Governor James Stirling, leads an attack on the Binjareb Noonga in the Pinjarra Massacre, leaving an estimated 70 men, women and children dead.

1901 The Commonwealth of Australia is formed without any consultation with Australia’s First Nations.

1914 -1918 1,300 Indigenous soldiers, out of an estimated Indigenous population of 80,000, served in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War. Around 250 to 300 soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice.

1931 Doris Pilkington Garimara and two other girls begin their epic escape back to Jigalong as documented in the book, Rabbit Proof Fence.

1938 Day of Mourning protests by Aboriginal men and women gathered at Australia Hall in Sydney The participants at the first Day of Mourning came from across Australia to continue a struggle that had begun 150 years previously.

1948 The Commonwealth Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 (Cth) creates “Australian citizenship” for the first time. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are technically included as citizens but are still unable to vote—one of the key privileges of citizenship.

1959 Malera/Bundjalung woman, Margaret Williams-Weir, became the first Aboriginal person to graduate from university when she is awarded a Diploma of Physical Education from the University of Melbourne. She went on to complete a PhD at the University of New England.

1962 The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 is amended to enable all Indigenous Australians to enroll to vote in federal elections, with Queensland becoming the last State to grant Indigenous Queenslanders the right to vote in State elections in 1965.

1966 In the Wave Hill walk-off, two hundred Gurindji stockmen, house servants, and their families—employed by Lord Vestey’s Pastoral Company at Wave Hill, NT—went on strike to get their tribal lands returned.

1967 More than 90% of Australians vote “Yes” in a referendum to allow the Australian Government to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

1971 Jagera man, Neville Bonner, becomes the first Aboriginal person to sit in the Australian Parliament as a Queensland Senator for the Liberal Party.

1972 The Aboriginal Embassy is erected in front of Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra to demand land and other rights.

1976 Kuku Yalanji woman, Pat O’Shane, becomes Australia’s first Aboriginal barrister

1984 Arrernte and Kalkadoon man, Charles Perkins, appointed head of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, becoming the first Indigenous person to head up an Australian Government department.

1985 Uluru is handed back to its Anangu owners with the Anangu leasing the land back to the Australian Parks and Wildlife Service for 99 years with joint management arrangements.

1988 The Barunga Statement, demanding rights and recognition for Aboriginal peoples, is presented to Prime Minister Bob Hawke and tens of thousands of Australians protest lack of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander rights during Australia’s Bicentenary.

1990 The Hawke Government establishes the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in an attempt to provide greater First Nations control of affairs.

1991 The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody presents its final report and recommendations to the Australian Parliament, including calling for a process of national reconciliation. The Australian Parliament unanimously passes the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act 1991 (Cth), formally launching a process of national reconciliation.

1992 The High Court recognises the Meriam people’s ownership of Mer (Murray

Island) in the Torres Strait and overturns the fallacious legal concept of terra nullius after a long legal battle by Koiki Mabo and other plaintiffs.

1993 In response to the High Court’s Mabo decision the Keating Government passes the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) providing a mechanism for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to claim back some of their ancestral lands.

1996 The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation expands the Week of Prayer for Reconciliation to launch Australia’s first National Reconciliation Week.

1997 The Bringing Them Home report on Australia’s Stolen Generations is launched at the inaugural Australian Reconciliation Convention in Melbourne attended by nearly 2,000 people.

1998 National Sorry Day is commemorated for the first time.

2000 Hundreds of thousands of Australians walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge and other bridges around Australia to show support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aspirations. Noongar writer, Kim Scott, becomes the first Aboriginal writer to win the Miles Franklin Award—Australia’s most prestigious fiction prize—for his the novel, Benang.

2001 Reconciliation Australia is established.

2004 The Australian Government creates a memorial to the Stolen Generations at Reconciliation Place in Canberra.

2007 The Australian Parliament suspends the Racial Discrimination Act (Cth) in order to implement the so-called Emergency Intervention into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. National Indigenous Television (NITV) is launched.

2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologizes to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Australian Parliament and people.

2010 Noongar man, Ken Wyatt, becomes the first Aboriginal member of the House of Representatives after winning the Perth seat of Hasluck for the Liberal Party.

2013 The Australian Parliament passes with bi-partisan support the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Bill 2012, recognizing the unique and the special place of First Nations peoples as the original owners of the Australian continent and islands.

2016 South Australia, Victoria and the Northern Territory announce their intention to commence Treaty discussions with First Nations peoples.

2017 The National Constitutional Convention at Uluru releases the Uluru Statement from the Heart, a unified statement to the Australian people calling for an Indigenous voice to Parliament, the establishment of a Makarrata Commission to develop agreements or treaties, and a process of truth-telling.

The Turnbull Government rejects the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

2018 Victoria becomes the first Australian State to pass Treaty legislation when it passes the Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018 (VIC).

2019 Queensland and the Northern Territory establish their own processes towards a treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations. The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape of the Gunditjmara Nation, a 6,600year-old Aboriginal aquaculture site in south-west Victoria, is added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

2020 Tens of thousands of Australians attend Black Lives Matter marches in cities across the country to protest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody and high rates of incarceration of First Nations peoples. Mining company Rio Tinto destroys two 46,000-year-old sites in the Juukan Gorge, Pilbara, and is suspended from the Reconciliation Action Plan community; Senate Inquiry held; CEO and two senior executives resign. Vincent Namatjira wins the 2020 Archibald prize for his portrait of Adam Goodes, becoming the first Indigenous artist to win in its 99-year history. Meyne Wyatt was awarded the 2020 Archibald Packing Room Prize for self-portrait, becoming the first Indigenous artist to be awarded the prize in its 99-year history. Hubert Pareroultja wins the Wynne Prize for his painting of Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges, NT), becoming the fifth Indigenous artist in a row to win