The Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association and the Australian Aborigines’ Progressive Association have been fighting for the rights of Aboriginal Australians for nearly 80 years.
The battle lines were drawn on January 26, 1938 when the NSW government planned an extravagant procession through the streets of Sydney to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first fleet in Sydney Cove.
The founding members of the Aborigines’ Progressive Association, and Victoria’s Australian Aborigines’ League gathered for an historic meeting in Sydney’s Australia Hall and declared “Sesquicentenary Day” a “day of mourning”.
The Hereby Make Protest exhibition pays homage to those early days.
One of the founders of the Aborigines’ Progressive Association, Jack Patten, was remembered at the opening of the exhibition when his son, Uncle John, and grandson John Patten Junior spoke passionately of the long struggle for Aboriginal rights.
